Charles Kingsley: The 20th Century Critical Heritage

 
Home Brief Biography Works by Kingsley Secondary Works by Author Secondary Works by Subject Secondary Works by Date
American Civil War
Bellows, Donald.  “A Study of British Conservative Reaction to the American Civil War,” The Journal of Southern History Vol. 51, No. 4. (Nov., 1985): 505-526.
Bellows declares that the racially prejudiced Kingsley believed that if the Southern states seceded in the American Civil War the slaves would be better off.  Then the South would be forced by English public opinion to treat the blacks better.  In Two Years Ago Kingsley argued that the free soil idea was preferable to slavery's abolition.  Once slavery was no longer allowed to expand, it would die.
America; American Civil War; Slavery; Racial Prejudices.
 

Waller, John O. “Charles Kingsley and the American Civil War,” Studies in Philology Vol. 60, No. 3 (July 1963): 554-568.
This is a study of Kingsley's views on the American Civil War and his generally pro-Southern stance. Waller contends that numerous factors pre-disposed him towards this stance, for example the ties of birth and family that united him to a English social class that supported the South; his racism; the influence of the staunchly anti-Union views of his brother Henry;  the gallantry of the South that must have been attractive to his romantic susceptibilities; his dislike for such liberal Manchester School politicians as Bright, Cobden, and Forster who accounted for much of Parliament's pro-Northern leadership.
America; American Civil War; Slavery; Racial Prejudices.

 

Return to Top