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Ian, Just a bit about the american civil war. The north west of England was very dependant on the south for the supply of raw cotton to feed our mills. I was born in Oldham and now work in Preston, both mill towns that had hundreds of mills. When the north blockaded the southern ports the supply of cotton dried up and the majority of the mills where shut down by the owners. There was no government payout in those days so thousands of people here starved, many to death. The English support of the south was purely an economic one, it was all about King Cotton. The cotton famine continued well after the war finished, it took time to salvage an industry that had run on free labour. There would have been a knock on effect out of this war that went all the way to Australia, as a penal colony I suspect that many a starving cotton worker resorted to crime and if he was caught he would have ended up on the other side of the world, probably with his family. Off topic I know, but I couldn't resist. Cheers, Kim [tup]
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