Browse Items (16 total)

The captain of the San Jacinto was hailed as a hero across the Northern public, receiving praise from Congress and the Lincoln administration for his role in the capture of James Mason and John Slidell. However, with the onset of the Trent Affair in…

Written after the resolution of the Trent Affair controversy, this letter summarizes the American minister to Britain's perspective of the event. Noting the legal arguments surronding the case, particularly regarding the right of search. It reflects…

This print combines caricature with photography to express the artist's view of the events surrounding the Trent Affair. Here, the figures of Confederate diplomats James Murray Mason and John Slidell stand aboard a ship travelling to England. There,…

The Trent, a British packet ship transporting to England two Confederate diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell, had left Havana, Cuba on November 7th, 1861. Captain Charles Wilkes of the USS San Jacinto became aware of the diplomats' movements and…

The impact of the Trent Affair shook public attitudes in Northern society, with some clamoring for war with Britain and others cautioning against the risks of such a confrontation. The Prince de Joinville, a son of French nobility residing in the…

The news of the Trent's stopping and the arrest of its Southern diplomatic passengers, James Mason and John Slidell, by the Union provoked confusion and anger among the British. The popular views of the incident considered the actions of Union…

This letter from the Wisconsin Senator was written at the height of the controversy over the Trent. Though the exact parameters of the diplomatic dialogue was still unknown to the majority of the American public, its tense nature was not lost. At the…

Accompanying the formal British response to the Trent Affair, which was edited and toned down by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, Foreign Minister Earl Russell included additional instructions for Lord Lyons. Desiring an explanation from…

Former President Fillmore's letter to the current executive reflects the growing view among prominent American politicians that war with Britain, increasingly probable as the Trent Affair continued, was undesriable and disadvantageuous to the…

Captured by the Union alongside his fellow Confederate diplomat, James Mason, in the 1861 Trent Affair, John Slidell's intended post was making appeals on the South's behalf to the French government under Napoleon III. After being released, Slidell…