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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learning@revealinghistories.org
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The American Civil War and Lancashire cotton workers
Captain's sword, CSS Alabama, 1864, Touchstones Rochdale
See this object at Touchstones Rochdale
This item may not always be on display, please check with the venue before visiting
One side of this sword says ‘Captn Raphael Semmes' and the other ‘Steamer Alabama CSN, 1864'.
The southern Confederate states in the USA needed ships to attack northern Union merchant ships but they had no ship building industry. There was a secret mission to Liverpool to buy arms and build ships. It was illegal for the British to provide weapons and support foreign wars. The steamer ship the Alabama was built disguised as a merchant ship and left Birkenhead with a British captain and crew. She was then fitted out as a warship away from the eyes of the British government and North American spies.
Captain Raphael Semmes took command of the Alabama. She sailed all over the world, putting out of action a total of 69 anti-slavery Union ships, at a cost to the northern states of $6m. A young man named Bell from Rochdale was on board the Alabama, when she sank some northern Union ships. He wrote in a letter to his cousin:
‘We have taken about 35 vessels. We fired a shot from the gun that I was at and it nearly knocked her foremast down... A man of war steamer which we had to take by force we sunk in 17 minutes... we escaped with one man wounded in the mouth. He is now alright. I must conclude as there is a full rigged brig in sight... we can’t say exactly what she is but if she be a Yankee she will be on fire directly.’
The CSS Alabama was finally sunk in June 1864, outside the French port of Cherbourg. The sword may have been presented to Captain Semmes during his stay in Europe following the loss of the Alabama.