Unpacking a Liverpool Enigma from the American Civil War
When we think of the American Civil War, the fog of battle usually settles over Gettysburg or Antietam—not Liverpool’s genteel Georgian squares. But at 19 Abercromby Square, behind a crisp white portico, a very different kind of warfare was being waged.
Here, Charles Kuhn Prioleau, a Charleston-born cotton merchant, turned Liverpool into the financial heart of the Confederacy’s international operations.
As depicted in The Americans of Abercromby Square, Prioleau was no simple trader. He was a kingpin. Through his firm, Fraser, Trenholm & Co, he funnelled arms, supplies, ships, and intelligence to the South, all while hosting lavish parties for both local elites and exiled Confederates. His Liverpool home was draped in Southern flags. His wife, Mary Wright, a native of the Wirral, reportedly wore Confederate colours in her jewellery.
Was this loyalty or opportunism?
Prioleau’s motivations were complex. A devoted Episcopalian and family man, he also moved in circles where slavery was rationalised as economic necessity. Liverpool’s cotton trade—then the backbone of its economy—depended on enslaved labour in the American South. Prioleau knew this, and in financing blockade runners, he extended the life of that system.
At the same time, he was no mere Confederate patriot in exile. He moved money through secret channels, including covert transfers to Montreal—some of which may have ended up funding John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of Lincoln. This link, explored in Water Street, sits at the edge of historical fact and shadowy possibility, but it is one reason Prioleau’s legacy remains so contentious.
Today, number 19 Abercromby Square is part of the University of Liverpool. There’s no plaque, no sign. But the building’s past is embedded in transatlantic history—a reminder that empire, war, and commerce are rarely confined to battlefields.
📚 Want to Read More?
Dive deeper into Liverpool’s hidden role in the American Civil War in the historical fiction novels:
👉 Water Street
WATER Street: amzn.to/43yZ3Tr
👉 The Americans of Abercromby Square
Both available via WriteSeen.com and all major retailers.
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