Black and British: A Forgotten History, from the acclaimed historian and star of 'Celebrity Traitors'

by David Olusoga

Although additional supplies of raw cotton were arriving from India and elsewhere, Britain’s imports of cotton in 1862 were half what they had been in the last year of peace. Imports from the United States stood at 4 per cent of their pre-war levels. By October 1862, around 58 per cent of all Lancashire looms stood idle for want of cotton.