Title: Autograph Letter Signed about replacing Confederate Cotton during the American Civil War Author: [Ashley-Cooper, Anthony, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury] Place: [London] Publisher: Date: June 14, 18961 Description: Autograph Letter Signed (in the third person). [London], June 14, 1861. 1 page with docketing note on verso. To Thomas Clegg, Manchester, England: “Lord Shaftesbury is much obliged to Mr. Clegg for his interesting letter on the growth of Cotton in Africa. Lord Shaftesbury would be happy to give any aid in his power.” The New York Times of June 27, 1861 told the story behind this letter: Soon after the start of the Civil War, “alarmed” British manufacturers realized the need to find “new and reliable sources of cotton supply” to replace exports from the Confederate states which were being choked off by US Naval blockade. Thomas Clegg, a “cotton-spinner of Manchester” had long been importing cotton from the British colony of Lagos (present-day Nigeria), and was now working with the Earl of Shaftesbury, a liberal reformer, and other British philanthropists of an “African Native Agency Committee” which aimed to “promote European civilization” and squelch the slave trade on the African west coast. Clegg and other entrepreneurs were already shipping thousands of bales of cotton from Lagos, which could become a “serious rival to New Orleans as a cotton shipping port” during the Confederacy’s “unnatural rebellion”. New England cotton manufacturers might profitably follow suit by sending American “colored settlers” to Africa to teach the “inferior” African natives how to increase cotton production and thus “keep the mills of the Free States in busy operation” during the War. This would “not only benefit Africa, but America, and shall aid in… the peaceful overthrow of that system of bondage whose chief strength lies in its monopoly of the cotton market; thus will the root of our national difficulties be extirpated.” Lot Amendments Condition: Creased and a bit yellowed; very good. Item number: 244372
Title: Autograph Letter Signed about replacing Confederate Cotton during the American Civil War Author: [Ashley-Cooper, Anthony, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury] Place: [London] Publisher: Date: June 14, 18961 Description: Autograph Letter Signed (in the third person). [London], June 14, 1861. 1 page with docketing note on verso. To Thomas Clegg, Manchester, England: “Lord Shaftesbury is much obliged to Mr. Clegg for his interesting letter on the growth of Cotton in Africa. Lord Shaftesbury would be happy to give any aid in his power.” The New York Times of June 27, 1861 told the story behind this letter: Soon after the start of the Civil War, “alarmed” British manufacturers realized the need to find “new and reliable sources of cotton supply” to replace exports from the Confederate states which were being choked off by US Naval blockade. Thomas Clegg, a “cotton-spinner of Manchester” had long been importing cotton from the British colony of Lagos (present-day Nigeria), and was now working with the Earl of Shaftesbury, a liberal reformer, and other British philanthropists of an “African Native Agency Committee” which aimed to “promote European civilization” and squelch the slave trade on the African west coast. Clegg and other entrepreneurs were already shipping thousands of bales of cotton from Lagos, which could become a “serious rival to New Orleans as a cotton shipping port” during the Confederacy’s “unnatural rebellion”. New England cotton manufacturers might profitably follow suit by sending American “colored settlers” to Africa to teach the “inferior” African natives how to increase cotton production and thus “keep the mills of the Free States in busy operation” during the War. This would “not only benefit Africa, but America, and shall aid in… the peaceful overthrow of that system of bondage whose chief strength lies in its monopoly of the cotton market; thus will the root of our national difficulties be extirpated.” Lot Amendments Condition: Creased and a bit yellowed; very good. Item number: 244372
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
