Cotton Famine Poetry: Unheard Voices on a Global Crisis

This book represents the first substantial text examining the nature of Cotton Famine poetry, which responded to the severe economic downturn in the cotton trade in Lancashire and elsewhere precipitated by the Union blockade of Confederate exports during the American Civil War (1861-65). The poetry, largely collected from Lancashire newspapers and American periodicals, is featured on the Poetry of the Lancashire Cotton Famine database. The poems offer a unique opportunity to engage with the opinions and feelings of ordinary Victorians reacting to extraordinary circumstances, and a chance to re-assess Anglo-American relations during the Civil War through the lens of transatlantic poetic discourse.

After a general introduction the book is split into two sections. The first section contains chapters examining the literary and historical context of the poetry, while the second offers interpretation through a blend of close analysis and critical approaches relating to the function of emotion in political discourse.

Simon Rennie is Associate Professor in Victorian Poetry at the University of Exeter. Previous and current research interests include Chartist poetry, Lancashire dialect poetry, and provincial newspaper poetry and the Crimean War. Simon Rennie was born in Lancashire, working in factories and warehouses for twenty years before studying at university.