| Abstract: | The American Civil War had dramatic consequences for 500,000 Lancashire factory operatives who relied on supplies of cotton from America for their livelihoods. This study, concentrating on the small town of Clitheroe, investigates the responses of the Poor Law Board of Guardians, the charitable Relief Committee, local employers and the operatives themselves to this crisis and the deprivation that ensued. Using parliamentary papers, local newspaper reports, guardian Minutes Books and diaries kept by a prominent mill owner and one of his employees, the article questions the picture painted at the time and by later historians of a benevolent paternalism. It argues that relief was slow and strictly conditional. The employers' aim throughout was to take advantage of the economic situation and to maintain a submissive workforce. The cotton operatives found themselves at the mercy of the economic situation. Although praised for their quiet endurance, they protested at their treatment and accepted relief only grudgingly. |
