Product Description

The Blockade of the US's Southern ports during the American Civil War is well known and thoroughly documented, the conflict defined as a massive game of chess between two steely opponents - the aggressive Navy of the Federation and the determined Confederate States. However, this black-and-white interpretation of events neglects the role of Scotland in this historical siege, sidelining the Scots to mere shipbuilders and suppliers. In reality, their role in the Blockade was much more pronounced. The Blockade Runners illuminates the events of the Blockade as viewed and experienced from Scotland. The shipbuilding industry was overwhelmed at the scale of profit available, and these financial rewards stimulated much ship building activity in the Clyde. Aside from being the principal provider of steamers and armed cruisers to both sides of the American Civil War, the Scots saw further opportunity in promoting private ventures, both on the water and off, as they sent privately owned Blockade runners into the stand-off, and also provided a location for secret agency activity from both sides. The ideological conflict unfolding between American anti-slavery supporters and anti-abolitionists also spread to the other side of the Atlantic and forced the Scots to examine their own values, polarising opinions and forcing the individual to reassess their position on the most basic human rights.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #599609 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

About the Author
Eric J. Graham was born in Ayrshire, Scotland and studied Scottish and Maritime History at Strathclyde and Exeter Universities respectively. His thesis provided the core of his book A Maritime History of Scotland (1650-1790). He is widely published in journals and is a regular reviewer for the International Journal of Maritime History Review as well as the Historical Associate for Lloyd's Register of Shipping, an adviser to Historical Scotland on the Edinburgh Castle Vaults Exhibition and a researcher for the Du Bois Institute (Harvard) Slavery Database. He is currently an honorary Post-Doctoral Fellow of Edinburgh University.

Customer Reviews

Scotland's Secret Role in the American Civil War
This book paints a fascinating picture of Scotland's little known involvement in the cataclysmic American Civil War. During the four years of the war, ruthless Scottish businessmen built and operated ships which secretly challenged the Union's crippling blockade of Confederate ports. Incredible fortunes were made, and as Graham cogently argues, the profits from this morally questionable trade contributed substantially to the growth and eventual dominance of the Clyde's shipbuilding industry. Although rigorously researched, the book occasionally reads like an adventure story as it relates the daring, albeit unscrupulous, activities of its protagonists. The author does not ignore the striking irony of this - that huge profits were being made by providing a lifeline to the Confederacy, and arguably prolonging the war, in a country which was vociferous in its condemnation of slavery. At a time when many in this country have strong feelings about our involvement in an 'American War' in the Middle East, the book also has thought-provoking contemporary resonance concerning the hypocrisy of war. Readers can make up their own mind about that, but I would thoroughly recommend this book and believe that it represents an important contribution to the history of nineteenth-century Scotland.

The "Emperor of China"
Anyone who has read Amdrew McQueen's book of 1924 "Echoes of Old Clyde Paddle-Wheels" will be intrigued (and fascinated) by the later history of the purchases of "The Emperor of China". I was particularly interested by the sketch of the "Fingal" and her later history as a Union warship. To anyone interested in the Clyde Steamers of the mid-19th. century, when these boats were the fastest in the world, this book is a well researched and, I think, accurate asset.