Eleven thousands for a hardback version?! What the heck is within that book? Even if it was autographed by the author, first edition, and in pristine condition, it probably couldn't go for more than 30 or 40 dollars. That's crazy@
I honestly do recommend that you read it if you have the chance. I had to buy it for my Texas History class and it was a really fascinating read going over an aspect of Texan life and one of the few success stories for Blacks in the Reconstruction Era that almost no one seems to know or talk about. While the chapter is obviously divergent from OTL, the Freedom Colonies did exist in the late 19th century and if you make an effort you can drive around central and western Texas and search for the remaining colonies where their descendants still live. The Freedom Colonies are an overall good thing as it had Texas become one of the better states for Blacks in the post-Confederacy with 1/3rd of the Black population owning private land in 1890. The problem is that the rest of the Black population had a far higher birth rate and thus there were fewer Blacks born into the settlements, and by the turn of the century Jim Crow was truly settling in and a combination of bureaucratic tape and the small amount of public land left prevented more colonies from being created. If you were a Black Texan living within a Freedom Colony you practically had the greatest living standard of a Black Texan until the 1960's.
I'll make sure to write an update about the Deseret soon. The Silver Boom is about to begin soon with miners really starting to swarm the Commonwealth after the war and the finishing of the railroads. This will lead to the emergence of Byran types who advocate for free silver, Texas until now relying on the California Gold. Also some interesting politics within Deseret will begin to set Texas on somewhat of a political revolution.
I've been wanting to do the Second Empire for quite a while now so I'll be sure to post something once I get North America settled.
Like you said there will be a cultural divide between the Rural Blacks, Urban Blacks, and Freedom Colonists. Each will have entirely different cultures and there won't be much of an overall Black identity within Texas like how there is within America today. The situation has its ups and downs but its not too terrible of a situation.
Due to near future events most Texans will pay notice to the social situation of the Blacks and help them out legally, but as it's said in the update fiscally there won't be any major efforts to give them high education or a bump in economic development. This isn't really out of any racial bias, but rather unintended neglect. After all if there is legislation to create something like the Freedmen's Bureau for Blacks then the Germans will want their own economic benefits, which will lead to the Tejanos wanting benefits, and the French, Czech, Indians, Chinese, etc. In order to keep racial tensions low Congress can't play favorites and the different minorities have to rely on their Congressmen to pass laws that at the very least will favor them the most alongside helping others. Here Texas' heterogeneity will have some interesting positives and negatives compared to America's homogeneity.
It's been so long I forgot about Johnston being the Governor, I switched it to Travis.
I'll be sure to do all of those ideas sometime in the near future.
