The Following is a negotiation exercise for the students (who will act as envoys) between the English and the Union which takes place on December 18, 1861. The students will act as the representatives and have specific instructions.
Questions to think about during the exercise:
1. What are your nation's interests?
2. How do you improve the relationship between both countries?
3. What are some creative options to settle the dispute?
4. What fair criteria would you use to make your case?
1. What are your nation's interests?
2. How do you improve the relationship between both countries?
3. What are some creative options to settle the dispute?
4. What fair criteria would you use to make your case?
General Instructions for "The Trent Affair" for all parties
On November 8th, 1861, Captain Charles Wilkes, commander of the USS San Jacinto, forcibly halted the unarmed British mail ship, the Trent, by shooting over its bow twice. After the first shot, the second shot was "within a hundred yards of her." The Trent, stopped and Captain Wilkes boarded the vessel and attempted to conduct a search. To Wilke's surprise and relief, James Mason and John Slidell, two confederate envoys on their way to England to ask for recognition of the Confederacy, presented themselves on deck. Mason and Slidell were two of the most hated Confederates in the North. Mason was a leading proponent of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which allowed the capture of runaway slaves in Northern territory. Slidell was a politician known for gambling and unsavory dealings. Without any instructions or authority, Captain Wilkes seized the two men as contraband because he considered them to be the "embodiment of dispatches." Wilkes took the two men and their private secretaries aboard the USS San Jacinto. He did not search the ship. The Trent was then sent on its way, and Mason and Slidell were imprisoned in Fort Warren, a Confederate prison on an island just outside Boston.