A Christmas Carol is usually read as a Victorian morality tale about capitalism and compassion. Yet an autographed script written by Charles Dickens during the American Civil War raises the possibility he may also have understood the story as speaking to the cause of ending slavery in the US.

First published in the UK on December 19 1843, the novella is famous for its advocacy of a reformed relationship between the Victorian capitalist Scrooge and the workers whose labour he profits from, epitomised by his downtrodden clerk, Bob Cratchit. The story has inspired countless adaptations in theatre, television and film.

However, a slip of blue paper held in Harvard’s Houghton Library shows how Dickens may have also seen the story through the lens of American slavery. As my current research in the library’s collections shows, on March 7 1864, Dickens wrote out and autographed A Christmas Carol’s most famous line so that it could be sold in aid of the anti-slavery side in the ongoing American civil war (1861–65).

The closing sentence – “And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!” – is usually associated with Victorian families united in the Christmas snow. However, Dickens’ contribution to a set of celebrity autographs being collected for sale at the 1864 New York Metropolitan Fair enlisted his novella in the cause of supporting the Union army’s goal of ending slavery in the US.

The New York fair was one of several events held across the Union states to raise funds for the US Sanitary Commission, a........

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