India Gerritsen

• BA Combined Honours
• Abolitionist Sentiment in the North East:

Historians have discussed British responses to the American Civil War 1861-65 and American slavery, yet specific research on the North East’s response is minimal. The current narrative regarding the North East and slavery focuses overwhelmingly on the 1830s, and the visits of Olaudah Equino, Ida B Wells, Frederick Douglass, and later, Martin Luther King. My research proves there is more to this narrative. From 1830-1865, the North East established anti-slavery groups, meetings, literature and American guest-speakers through trans-Atlantic contact. The war featured heavily in newspapers. Opinions were complex, influenced by economic and religious factors. Support for the American North and American South differed over time. My findings disprove the argument that working and upper-class individuals supported opposing sides. Interestingly, many supported the South and claimed to be against slavery simultaneously. Post-war, the North East experienced Civil War-based literature, film and theatre up to 1970. Initially these had a bias towards the North, but later became more South-siding.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Project Supervisor: Professor Susan-Mary Grant