John has totally flunked retirement!

About a decade ago, he found himself with the responsibility to research and edit a large collection of original letters from the American Civil war written by a great uncle whom he never even knew existed. Thomas Jackson was an uneducated rope maker living in central England but with a father who idealized America as a land of milk and honey with the best democracy in the world. As such Thomas’s father was a fierce supporter and public advocate for the Colonies’ independence from England, behavior that was understandably unpopular with King George III and resulted in him being imprisoned to shut him up.

Thomas moved from England to Pennsylvania as a young man and became a passionate abolitionist. His strategy was to send reports about the civil war and the inhumanity of slavery for publication in the English newspapers. That way, he reasoned, the citizens of England would be less likely to allow their politicians to support the Confederate states even though England was suffering from the loss of its cotton supplies.

This valuable treasure trove of history and humanity has never been published before and has recently been accepted by the Library of Congress.