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29 July 1862
The Alabama affair
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During the US Civil War, the Alabama is one of several British-built
ships in the navy of the breakaway Confederacy that raided commercial
ships from the northern states. Despite being accused by the US government
of Abraham Lincoln with a breach of neutrality, the British prime minister Viscount Palmerston and foreign secretary
Lord John Russell do nothing. As a result, between 1862 and 1864, the
British-supplied vessels sink or capture nearly 60 Yankee ships.
However, even after the South's defeat in 1865, Britain refuses to
compensate the US for damage done to its shipping until 1872, when they
pay $3,160,000. This reluctance reflects the divided support within Britain
over the US Civil War. Many in the property-owning classes have sympathy
for the southern states, and some British politicians fear the north's
democracy. Relations between Britain and the US remain strained for a
long time.
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