America had a thriving slave trade since early colonial days, and in OTL, the US was one of the last western nations to abolish slavery. As a POD for this scenario, let us suppose that the European abolishment of slavery happened earlier, in America's colonial days, so that by the time of the ARW, slavery is long gone. I'm not looking at just why this POD comes about; let's look at the affect on the southern states.
Without slavery, there is still a need for mass labor on the plantations of the south (it's hard to imagine that tobacco and cotton wouldn't still be major crops). With no slavers working in Africa to bring shiploads of slaves to the US, how would this demand for labor be met? Would indentured servants be used, or would the demand be too high for this rather cumbersome system? Would the plantation owners scour England for people looking to emigrate, guaranteeing them work overseas? Could England even provide enough laborers for the plantations, or might the available work attract more Germans, Scandinavians, and Irish a lot earlier than in OTL? Would there still have been an ACW?
Without slavery, the ethnic makeup of the US would be radically different. While the black population wouldn't be absolutely zero, it's hard to see them as a significant minority; perhaps they would be comparable to the small numbers of those of Polynesian ancestry today. Without blacks, would Asians be targeted with the racist violence that struck blacks in OTL (granted, they had it pretty rough as it was, but would it have been worse)?
Without slavery, there is still a need for mass labor on the plantations of the south (it's hard to imagine that tobacco and cotton wouldn't still be major crops). With no slavers working in Africa to bring shiploads of slaves to the US, how would this demand for labor be met? Would indentured servants be used, or would the demand be too high for this rather cumbersome system? Would the plantation owners scour England for people looking to emigrate, guaranteeing them work overseas? Could England even provide enough laborers for the plantations, or might the available work attract more Germans, Scandinavians, and Irish a lot earlier than in OTL? Would there still have been an ACW?
Without slavery, the ethnic makeup of the US would be radically different. While the black population wouldn't be absolutely zero, it's hard to see them as a significant minority; perhaps they would be comparable to the small numbers of those of Polynesian ancestry today. Without blacks, would Asians be targeted with the racist violence that struck blacks in OTL (granted, they had it pretty rough as it was, but would it have been worse)?