Topics 2008

1. H.M.Stanley and Shiloh
The story of the early life of Sir Henry Morton Stanley, from illegitimate pauper in Victorian North Wales, to New Orleans and on into one of the American Civil War's bloodiest battles. Work is ongoing to present sessions on the later part of Stanley 's life story.

2. Cotton Famine 1861-65
The story of the lives of the Victorian cotton workers aged 8 upwards, of Lancashire , Cheshire and Yorkshire , 1861-65 and the effects upon them of the American Civil War.

3. Runners and Raiders. The Denbigh and The Alabama
The story of two ships and their British crews. Built at Birkenhead by Lairds in 1860-62 they had far-reaching effects on relations between Great Britain , the United States and the international community as a whole. The story leads from a sixpenny ticket, all the way to the United Nations

4. The Crimean War.1854-56
The story of the lives of ordinary British soldiers in the Crimean War and of four women, Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, Dasha Sevastopolskaya and Ekaterina Bakunina, who changed the attitudes towards the roles of women in Victorian Britain and Russia .

5. Pirates
The story of the real 'Pirates of the Caribbean ' (and others of 'the seven seas') looking at the people involved, the causes and effects of piracy in the 17 th and 18 th century.

6. Valley Forge , "The turn of the tide"
The story of George Washington's Continental Army at Valley Forge , in the winter of 1777, at its' lowest point and how it was turned into an effective force in the struggle for independence from the British in the American Revolutionary War.

7. The History of Slavery; Kingdom Coming
The story of western slavery and the slave trade from the times of Queen Elizabeth 1up to the end of the American Civil War. The focus of this session will be the triangular trade between Great Britain , Africa and the United States and the Caribbean . The lives of the people enslaved will be discussed together with the efforts of abolitionists within the United States

The group will be able to tailor sessions on other subjects if given enough notice.