Back to top

Manchester’s Opposition To Slavery: the Free Trade Hall Meetings

“I cannot but regard your decisive utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian Heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country”, Abraham Lincoln, Letter to the Working Class of Lancashire.1
To most Mancunians, the Free Trade Hall was where they went to listen to all types of music, from the Halle Orchestra to Bob Dylan. But it has also been used for more serious occasions. Two important and well attended meetings which took place there during the American Civil War were instrumental in displaying the support of northern workers for Lincoln’s policy of ending slavery.

Search the NorthWest Labour History Society website