19 Abercromby Square
Panel 9
Charles Prioleau married an English woman Mary Elizabeth Wright in 1860 at Walton Church, Liverpool. They initially moved into a mansion outside Liverpool called Allerton Hall. In 1862, Charles hired an architect and built a large town house at 19 AS, incorporating many South Carolina features and decorations. Mary became socially active in the ‘Southern Club’. She was instrumental in organising several bazaars including the ‘Great Southern Bazaar’ in the iconic St George’s Hall, Liverpool, for the benefit of wounded confederate soldiers. The Bazaar was a social event with Mary choosing outfits that would impress as she requested in a letter to her husband,
‘A plain velvet dress for the Bazaar or should you like silk better, whatever it is must be made to suit the times and will cost about the same I fancy’.
The Bazaar was well patronised and raised approx. £20,000 which was a massive amount at the time. Reactions to the Bazaar were mixed though as alongside support for the confederacy, there was also a growing movement of support for the abolition of slavery in America. This was burgeoned in 1845 when Frederick Douglass, an escaped enslaved person and a powerful speaker among abolitionists, visited Britain. Following the American Civil War, Charles Prioleau set up business in London. This was due to the defeat of the confederacy and the imminent bankruptcy of his firm in Liverpool by impending compensation claims from the US government.
After Jefferson Davis was captured in 1865, he was accused of treason and imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. He was never tried in a court of law and was released after two years after which he visited Liverpool in search for employment. Davis and his wife Varina returned to Liverpool in 1870 and 1874, staying for at least part of the time at Number 19. Returning to America, Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans in 1889, his body lying in state for five days at City Hall.
Fig 9.1 Freed enslaved people on a cotton plantation in South Carolina 1862 (Getty Museum Collection)
Fig 9.2 The grand entrance hall and staircase at 19 AS
Link: Lowcountry Digital History Initiative: Abercromby Square After the US Civil War
https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/liverpools-abercromby-square/after-civil-war
References
Abercromby Square after the U.S. Civil War. Lowcountry Digital History Initiative. https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/liverpools-abercromby-square/after-civil-war
Allan, A.R. (1986) The Building of Abercromby Square, University of Liverpool, 19. Jefferson Davis Funeral in New Orleans, La. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2005680086/
Charles Kuhn Prioleau: The Man who Bankrolled the Confederacy. American Civil War Society UK. https://acws.co.uk/archives-biography-prioleau
Library of Congress: John Bull and Uncle Sam: Four Centuries of British-American Relations-From Abolition to Equal Rights. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/british/brit-4.html
Watchman and Wesleyan Advertiser. Nov 4 1863 pp.355