Southern Italian prisoners on the stage of international politics

Abstract

In 1851, William Gladstone turned the suffering of Neapolitan political prisoners into a cause célèbre. His Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen on the State Prosecutions of the Neapolitan Government galvanized European and American public opinion, and set in motion a process of diplomatic negotiation that culminated in the removal of sixty-six men from prison in January 1859. Subject to deportation, the men took control of the ship taking them to the U.S.A. and directed it to Great Britain, where they enjoyed a hero’s welcome. During the eight years that separated the publication of Gladstone’s protest from the prisoners’ escape, leading British politicians, diplomats, and journalists worked to keep the plight of the Neapolitan prisoners in the public eye; however, the prisoners themselves, with the help of close friends and family, made an essential contribution to this effort.

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