There were were discussions in the various border states about abolishing slavery. What if Kentucky does so in 1824?
Kentucky abolishes slavery 1824
- Thread starter Johnrankins
- Start date
usertron2020
Donor
Lots a Luck. IIRC, one of the problems with slavery in Kentucky was that it was so unregulated, as opposed to the Deep South states. Meaning people of more remote African ancestry (1/4, 1/8, 1/16) could be seized and "sold down the river." Too much $$$ in grabbing runaways from the other slave states trying to reach the North and Canada.
John Fredrick Parker
Donor
I talk about it in one of my threads, but if you can get Kentucky and Tennessee to become free states -- and DuQuense may be right about Tenn following Kentucky's lead -- you'd only need to make sure slavery stayed out of the Yazoo Lands (which became Alabama and Mississippi OTL) to isolate slavery along the southeast coast. Florida could also be up in the air.
usertron2020
Donor
Slavery is just too economical an enterprise, I'm afraid. For that region. They tried to keep it out of Georgia, but it just didn't work.
Ah! But Kentucky is very much boarder region, and its much less well suited for king cotton than the deep south. This was shown even in OTL. If slavery could be nipped in the bud, then Kentucky would develop much like the other states in the old northwest. This would probably give the state an overall Midwestern culture, but the change in focus should allow for it to industrialize at about the same time as Ohio.
Good points! But wasn't the state mostly settled by southerners???
Same with Indiana, but land grant schools, universities, and immigration can work wonders.
Indeed, in the 1820s the pressure was very much the other way. Iirc, Illinois came very close to legalising slavery in the decade after gaining statehood.
Is there any way you could get the State boundaries done differently, so that you've got a "Kentucky" which excludes the western half of the OTL state, but includes the eastern half of OTL Tennessee? Such a state would contain few slaves and might abolish slavery early.
Fearless Leader
Donor
Good points! But wasn't the state mostly settled by southerners???
Ah, but even southerners are known to bow to economic necessity. Remember that Virginia toyed with abolishing slavery in OTL, despite it's economy being quite suitable to the slave labour plantation economy, for economy reasons!
Given the right POD (s?) I could see Kentucky and maybe even Tennessee go Free state.
My main thought though is this: How will this affect the balance of free/slave states? Will Texas be further subdivided to give the slave states parity in the Senate? Will the south go after more territory more aggressively to compensate for Kentucky not being in it's bloc?
Alex Richards
Donor
I think Kentucky could go free. I imagine that the idea of a balance between Free and Slave states never occurs in this USA. With Slavery even less of an economic factor, we could see Maryland and Delaware move away eariler.
The most likely, yes. However, slavery looked as if it was on its way out at the time. The South didn't really harden its pro-slavery stance until the mid 1830s or so.