The Land of Freedom

Asami

Banned
I'm just opening the topic on this. I'm still thinking of how to write it. If anybody wants to help, they're MORE THAN WELCOME TO DO SO! I'm really excited, and I want everybody who's interested in this TL to help me make it the best I can. You guys know how bad I am at well... everything. :D

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Georgia: The Land of Freedom

"We have found a new land of liberty here on this shore, away from the British Empire's malefluent grasp, let it be ours forever."
- Thomas Jefferson, 1795, upon Georgia's independence.
 
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Holy crap, you're actually gonna do it. Well, needless to say I'll be watching this quite closely (in a good way, natch :cool:). Also, I'm no good at writing but I'd be glad to help bounce ideas or throw proposals in there as needed!
 

Asami

Banned
Holy crap, you're actually gonna do it. Well, needless to say I'll be watching this quite closely (in a good way, natch :cool:). Also, I'm no good at writing but I'd be glad to help bounce ideas or throw proposals in there as needed!

I am absolutely going to do it. I'm going to need advice consistently to ensure realism, and to keep it going. I'm very eager to start this, absolutely. :)
 
Well, whatever you do don't get discouraged, especially since it's less than a week before Christmas and all (seems as good a reason as any for why this place seems a bit slower than usual). Also, as I noted in the Infobox thread, are you gonna stick with those languages you've lain out? The Russian one seems to be a bit out of place, as opposed to (for example) Swahili or Sotho, or Portuguese for that matter. Just a nitpick of course :p.
 

Asami

Banned
Well, whatever you do don't get discouraged, especially since it's less than a week before Christmas and all (seems as good a reason as any for why this place seems a bit slower than usual). Also, as I noted in the Infobox thread, are you gonna stick with those languages you've lain out? The Russian one seems to be a bit out of place, as opposed to (for example) Swahili or Sotho, or Portuguese for that matter. Just a nitpick of course :p.

The infobox had Russian on it because I envisioned the failure of a Russian Revolution and the mass exodus of Bolsheviks to this land of freedom, interesting concept, innit?

It is an intriguing premise, but one thing bothers me right off. Will these Anti-Draka be bringing their slaves with them?

I've been thinking about that, and I believe the answer will lean toward no. These people are being driven out by their colonial conqueror, and can bring barely anything with them but their families and personal belongings -- slaves would be too much to carry. That, and 99.9% of the exodus will be people from the urban/semi-urban Northern/Middle colonies; there won't be much of anyone south of Virginia going with the exodus.
 
The infobox had Russian on it because I envisioned the failure of a Russian Revolution and the mass exodus of Bolsheviks to this land of freedom, interesting concept, innit?



I've been thinking about that, and I believe the answer will lean toward no. These people are being driven out by their colonial conqueror, and can bring barely anything with them but their families and personal belongings -- slaves would be too much to carry. That, and 99.9% of the exodus will be people from the urban/semi-urban Northern/Middle colonies; there won't be much of anyone south of Virginia going with the exodus.

-Fair enough on having big numbers of Bolsheviks coming along, I'm just trying to envision what will become of Angola and Mozambique (which were starting to be Portugal's clay at the time of the POD I believe). So far the impression I'm getting is that African languages (barring a couple or so) won't survive beyond the most local of levels. Having a single common tongue IMO needs to happen in order to foster a sense of common identity vice tribal or local kingdom ones (and not to get morose, but it's gonna get bloody if the push northwards happens, even if for nobler-than-OTL reasons). EDIT: Naturally, a multi-language route is still doable, I'm not debating that point, just pushing for a "streamlining" effect.

-Well, I'd expect there to be mostly New England and Upper South (i.e. Virginia/Kentucky) transplants to South Africa on the whole of course. However, it's worth noting that the trans-Appalachian settlers in the South and western Pennsylvania tended to be pro-Independence as opposed to their coastal and Piedmont neighbors, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see large numbers of them deciding to move, if in still lesser numbers than that "Patriot" demographic and/or later on after the initial Trek. And given Britain's attitudes towards the Indian Reserves out west vis-a-vis those backwoods populaces of "hillbilly agitators", I can't see London being too heartbroken if they were to do so. Making matters more simple is that those populations were, by and large, used to being uprooted and moving large distances on word of mouth (it's how the Ulster Scots got out there in so many numbers, after already being moved to Ireland).
 
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Asami

Banned
Chapter One: The Revolution

Excerpt taken from The First Patriotic War: 1775 to 1795
Author: Dr. Hendrik van Buren, Georgian History Professor at Washington University
Published: 1995

The First Patriotic War[1], and the Great Exodus that followed, is something that all Georgians are taught in their history classes, from a young age all the way to the end of their time in the public school system. Not because of propaganda, no, but more so, because of the importance of it to the fate of liberty in the continent we call home.

However, to really understand how we went from there, waging a war of freedom on a continent so foreign to us now; to here, on the southern shores of a mighty continent, serving the purpose God intended, as Rudyard Kipling so aptly put.

"Georgia serves a mighty purpose for the world -- to shine a light of civilization in a continent of darkness."
- Rudyard Kipling, 1899

While the racial connotations of his words are less than ideal, we must understand that that maxim -- to shine civilization in darkness is still a fundamental part of our country's establishment. Where the ideal has changed less about race, and more to provide stability and freedom to a continent ravaged by European imperialism.

However, to understand Georgia's mission and crusade, we must understand the origin.

The story begins in the mid-18th century. The United Kingdom and the Kingdom of France had a long-standing rivalry over the Ohio River Valley and trading rights with American aborigines[2]. This escalated into war in the 1750s while Europe was busy waging the Seven Years War.

SevenYearsWar.png

Combatants of the Seven Years War; British-Portugese-Prussian bloc in blue, Franco-Russian bloc in green

It was in this war that the Great Martyr of Freedom, George Washington, saw combat in the British Armed Forces. Under the order of the Governor of Virginia, whose investments were made to exploit the region against French wishes, Washington marched west to deal with the French issue. After a skirmish, Washington retreated and constructed a Fort called Fort Necessity.

However, a combined Franco-Aborigine expedition forced Washington's surrender on June 3, 1754. The Martyr organized a withdrawal and returned to Virginia. The course of the war went well for Britain otherwise, leading to the end of French North America in 1763, with the Treaty of Paris.

This war soon turned our Forefathers against the old mother country, as Britain levied unfair taxation policies against the colonies in an attempt to extort money to pay for the war debt, despite annexing a vast amount of land. Things soured quickly from here. Between 1763 and 1775, levying a series of taxes, refusing representation in British parliament for Amerikaner[3] representation, as well as in the later years, enforcing Stirling-esque[4] policies, and generally being extremely oppressive to the Amerikaners.

A major key aspect of the lead up to the revolution was the cold-blooded murder of Crispus Attucks and four other Amerikaner men in 1770 by British soldiers, of which there was no major repercussion. The outrage in the colonies escalated as restrictions were tightened down even more so than before.

In 1773, a group of disgruntled Patriots, known as the Sons of Liberty (not to be confused with the contemporary reactionary political party), lead the Boston Tea Party, in which they dumped copious amounts of British East India Company tea into Boston Harbor. London's response was quite brutal, they shut down the Boston Harbor, and enforced dictatorial governing on the city, further stirring up rebellion.

The first shots of the The First Patriotic War took place in 1775, with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which brought to head the differences between the British Empire and the Amerikaner people, one that would grow greater as time went on...

---

[1] "The First Patriotic War" is a term used by Georgians to refer to the American Revolution.

[2] "aborigine" is the term used to refer to native groups; this was the replacement of "Indian", a term deemed inappropriate to describe native tribes early on in Georgia's history. African tribes are referred to as "aborigines", as are Native Americans, Native Polynesians, so on and so forth.

[3] "Amerikaner" is the demonym referring to the group of people who undertook the Great Exodus. Historically speaking, an Amerikaner was a revolutionary against the British Empire during the First Patriotic War.

[4]Stirling-esque refers to a certain man and his penchant for totalitarianism. His series Draka is considered at least, amongst Georgians, as the worst book series ever, as it basically depicts the means their country was established, but twists it into racism.
 
Just stumbled across this thread and I am now following it with interest. Not sure what much I can do to help besides words of encouragement and that moral support stuff, but I'll throw out the same offer as FleetMac about idea bouncing. Anywho, off to a good start.

there won't be much of anyone south of Virginia going with the exodus.

Little immigration from the southern colonies you say. Will we be seeing Andrew Jackson make himself a pain to the British?
 
subbed. As for the map, is it only showing the borders of European states? At first I thought it was only the combatants that were shown, but then the Ottomans and various Italian, Balkan and German states have borders whereas there are none in Asia and Africa.
 

Asami

Banned
subbed. As for the map, is it only showing the borders of European states? At first I thought it was only the combatants that were shown, but then the Ottomans and various Italian, Balkan and German states have borders whereas there are none in Asia and Africa.

Yeah, I think so; it's from Wikipedia, so it's horribly inaccurate, :D
 

Asami

Banned
So I'm seeking everyone's views on what the Great Exodus should entail, and how these colonists can, in the thousands, mass-migrate to the Dutch South African colony without getting taken from behind by the Royal Navy. Maybe the American Revolution blows up into a huge global war and the Netherlands silently leads the colonists away?
 
So I'm seeking everyone's views on what the Great Exodus should entail, and how these colonists can, in the thousands, mass-migrate to the Dutch South African colony without getting taken from behind by the Royal Navy. Maybe the American Revolution blows up into a huge global war and the Netherlands silently leads the colonists away?

Well, if the same group of allies that helped America in OTL (France, Spain...the Netherlands) are still trading with North America ITTL, and if Britain tries to pull the impressment card on their shipping, I can see it blowing up into a separate war entirely (especially since those allies helped America to hurt Britain, more than anything else). Remember, this isn't the era of "Brittania Rules the Waves" yet, the French alone could inflict deep hurting on the RN if they put some effort into it, to say nothing of Spain. The Dutch might not be quite the maritime power they used to be in the 17th. Century, but their fleet was still no joke even in the latter 18th. Century, so who's to say the British will be able to stop them if they operate in conjunction (however unofficially) with those aforementioned powers? Furthermore, as I alluded to in my reference to ardently pro-Patriot Appalachia, why wouldn't the British want to rid themselves of potential troublemakers willingly in a sort of reverse-Canada situation?
 
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