American Racial Equality before 1900?

What PODs (Preferably after 1789) would be needed to make the races be equal to each other in the united states of america, by the year 1900.
 

Dirk_Pitt

Banned
While I love my country deeply and am proud of her history this is highly unlikely with a PoD after 1789. The best situation I can give with this is an elimination of the Jim Crow laws, which would definitely be better. On an individual level it would take a while. You'd have to eliminate the Civil War. A lot of the hatred could be curtailed without it. Much of hate was caused by the bitterness caused by the Confederate's loss and they took out their bitterness on the freed slaves. How would I eliminate the Civil War? Make slavery a nonissue. Make freeing slaves voluntary and make slavery really unprofitable. No matter how much a person thinks a black man in inferior, if he's losing money supporting him he won't want to keep him. Remember the Northerners thought the blackman was inferior just as much as the south, they just thought slavery was wrong. How would I make slavery unprofitable? Eliminate the Cotton Gin.


I'm making a novel where a similar situation develops.

PS- Remember that as late as 1831 Virginia was discussing freeing its' slaves(as a way to deal with its free black population).
 
How would I make slavery unprofitable? Eliminate the Cotton Gin.

there were several threads on that issue, and you can forget about that. it was one of those things that was coming from multiple directions, so very hard to butterfly away.

what would be possible is get an early arrival of the boll weevil
 
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What other things could make slavery less profitable?

Well, this is definitely pre-American Independence, but, if the indentured servants never revolted in the South, it might have led to larger European immigration to the area, leading to increased competition with slaves, thereby leading to less favorable attitudes toward slavery?
 

iddt3

Donor
Delay the Cotton Gin by 10-20 years, and Slavery should naturally go into an irrevocable decline; It was on the way out before the Gin was invented, elite opinion had turned against it as a necessary evil at best. Delaying the Cotton Gin also makes the aristocracy in the South less wealthy and politically powerful, which is probably a good thing for the long term development of the US.
 
You can remove the slavery easily, equality (depending on your use of the term) is more difficult, if you mean free, then that is easy, do you consider what we had in the 30s inequality (most people do)? What about the 50s or later? The best I can see happening is heavy to moderate racism and a sense of racial superiority by 1900, much like the 1920s or at best the 19050s.
 
Now if slavery is removed early and with less conflict, I suspect it could still take well over a century to achieve racial equality, but I could be wrong.
 
You can remove the slavery easily, equality (depending on your use of the term) is more difficult, if you mean free, then that is easy, do you consider what we had in the 30s inequality (most people do)? What about the 50s or later? The best I can see happening is heavy to moderate racism and a sense of racial superiority by 1900, much like the 1920s or at best the 19050s.
Equal being roughly their situation in the year 1968

While I love my country deeply and am proud of her history this is highly unlikely with a PoD after 1789.
I'm making a novel where a similar situation develops.

PS- Remember that as late as 1831 Virginia was discussing freeing its' slaves(as a way to deal with its free black population).
what if i moved the POD limit back to the begining of the american revolution
 
I'm afraid that to make this happen you need not only to butterfly slavery, but most of the slaves.

Given the temper of the times, America isn't going to have racial equality pre-1900 unless there aren't very many blacks around.
 
What PODs (Preferably after 1789) would be needed to make the races be equal to each other in the united states of america, by the year 1900.

I think it may depend on various PoDs. TBH, this probably can be done as early as, say, 1860 or so in some places. But nationally? Probably not until the 1940s at the earliest.
 

Japhy

Banned
Racial Equality could come to at least part of the United States if Reconstruction had been allowed to continue in its work to create a Biracial society.
 
Racial equality before 1900 isn't coming anytime soon and is more or less Alien Space Bats. Especially in the eastern part of the nation and with the recent memories of the Civil War. The blacks were a little better off out west, but still ranked about the same as the Coolies. For things to go better for blacks, you'd probably have to go back to the 1700's and do away with the slave rebellions or at least back to the 1600's,
 
Racial Equality could come to at least part of the United States if Reconstruction had been allowed to continue in its work to create a Biracial society.

This. Depending on one's definition of racial equality in 1900. I don't see popular racial attitudes shifting to the extent that they had by the 1960s or the present day, but I could see formal legal equality and a rough economic equality potentially becoming the norm if Reconstruction was a success.

If, through a combination of land redistribution, more support for the Freedman's Bureau, stronger state governments, agricultural credits and aid in infrastructure repair, and active Federal intervention vs. white terrorism, the black-white Republican coalition in the South becomes dominant, I could see a situation developing whereby the Freedmen have formal legal equality, a shrinking economic gap vis-a-vis whites, equal access to public services, and independent political power, but where social prejudices and de-facto segregation especially in housing, employment, and education remain.
 
1968 by 1900? I've got an old thread somewhere and a TL concept that would most certainly would achieve this -- unfortunately the PoDs are two years earlier than OP allows, in 1787...
 
Alternatively INCREASE slave population, earlier cotton gin, screw cotton production elsewhere, keep the slave trade going longer and harder. Then a lot of the lowland south starts to look like the Caribbean and the blacks are too demographically strong to repress after slavery ends. Stick in some conflict between the planters and the Appalachian white so the Appalachian whites won't support attempts to establish apartied and it could work. Have nastier malaria to keep down the Tidewater white population as well maybe...
 
i decided to change the date limit to 1776

Ok -- so the year 1787 sees Northwest Ordinance bans slavery in "territories acquired in the next five years", as well as Hamilton putting off introducing his "British Plan" at the Philadelphia Convention. First part means that when Tennessee is brought in as a territory (as OTL), the Yazoo Lands are as well (earlier than OTL), and Kentucky votes to prohibit slavery in its constitution -- all that means that slavery soon becomes restricted to the southeastern seaboard. Meanwhile, the Convention discusses and rejects the Slave Trade Clause, leaving the issue of the trade untouched. This TL sees President Adams outlawing the Atlantic slave trade in America; a later Cotton Gin (1808); black heroes in the War of 1812; an earlier War with Mexico, and a free Texas; and a Carolina War in the 1840's that ends with the abolition of slavery in the United States. Oh, and TTL is an Ameriwank, with annexations in Nicaragua (and possibly Cuba).

He'll, that could get you racial equality by 1868...
 
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