KS 3 & 4 themes
- Africa and the transatlantic slave trade
- Cotton and transatlantic slavery
- Local cotton industries in Greater Manchester
- The American Civil War and Lancashire cotton workers
- Freedom and human rights
- Campaigning for the abolition of slavery
- After abolition
- Legacies of transatlantic slavery: racism in Manchester
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Campaigning for the abolition of slavery
Bust of John Bright, 1867, Touchstones Rochdale
See this object at Touchstones Rochdale
This item may not always be on display, please check with the venue before visiting
John Bright was born in Rochdale in 1811. He and his brothers took over the family cotton spinning mill at Cronkeyshaw in 1839. It became one of the biggest mills in Rochdale.
The Bright family were Quakers, a religious movement that believed in pacifism and equality for all. Bright was active in politics all his life, becoming an MP for Durham, Manchester and Birmingham.
Although Bright made his money from cotton, he was, like most Quakers, strongly anti-slavery. He supported Abraham Lincoln in the American Civil War and the fight against slavery. Bright and Rochdale MP Richard Cobden regularly wrote letters of support to President Abraham Lincoln. They became known among politicians in parliament as 'the two members for the United States'.
Bright had enormous influence in the north west of England and found strong support among the working people of Rochdale against slavery. Frederick Douglass, an African American who escaped slavery, described John Bright and Richard Cobden in his 1883 autobiography, as 'friendly to the loyal and progressive spirit which abolished slavery’.
Although Bright strongly opposed slavery he didn’t support the end of child labour in Lancashire mills. He argued that many families relied on child labour for their survival. He also refused to contribute to the poor relief fund for Rochdale during the cotton famine. Instead he offered his workers loans which they could barely afford to repay.