Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers slavery and the Civil War and how they were perceived from international perspectives. It focuses on informal diplomacy in Britain, exploring the ways in which women pro-Confederate supporters in Britain advocated for the Confederacy as a plea for what today would be termed humanitarian aid. Women Confederate surrogates in Britain employed a gendered imperial rhetoric to portray the inhumane conditions of Southerners on the home front: Mother Britain was morally bound to assist her former, infantilized and feminized, Southern colonies in this context of civil war. The book explains the contested territory of divorce. Catherine Armstrong examines the fluidity of the constructed category “race,” opening with an examination of the photographs of enslaved “white” children taken in New Orleans in the 1860s.