alternatehistory.com

The smell of chalk dust filled Kenneth Bowman’s nostrils as he wrote. His students shifted in their chairs, restless for the end of the school day, but not as restless as they could be. As he finished writing “War of 1812,” Kenneth turned and faced his fourteen and fifteen-year-old audience.

“Alright everyone, you should have your journal entry done for today. Let’s discuss last night’s reading assignment, that I’m sure you all finished.” By the groans in the room, that assumption was anything but accurate, as he had figured.

“Peter,” the teacher said as his blue-eyed gaze fell upon a boy in the middle of the class who’d been trying to avoid eye contact. “What is at least one reason the War of 1812, now more than a hundred and fifty years ago, matters to us here in 1960?” Peter Martin shifted in his seat, making a face to show he was trying to come up with an answer. Kenneth waited patiently. He could see Lilly Lamar and Benjamin Snow both start to look eager. He knew they’d read the chapter thoroughly, and he would call on them in a moment, but wanted to give others a chance to give an opinion first.

“Well…” Peter began, “well I think it matters for us because if the war hadn’t happened none of us would be here right now.” Kenneth smiled. He thought he knew where his student was coming from, which meant the rather vague answer was actually not a bad start. He pressed.

“I think one could say that about almost any event in history. Care to elaborate?”

“I mean, the war is what destroyed Washington, right? And if Washington hadn’t been destroyed, Franklin would never have existed.”

“Not a bad answer Peter. Good job. It’s true, if we hadn’t fought the war of 1812, the city of Franklin never would have existed, which means this school wouldn’t be here for us to be in. Of course, there was a little village here before President Madison and Congress decided to move the capital here after the British burned Washington City to the ground in 1814. It might have grown into a big city, what with the Ohio River and all. But it might not, and we will never know now anyway.”

Kenneth pulled down a map at the front of the room, covering the world as it was today and replacing it with a map that showed the aftermath of the war. “Now, why else does this war matter?”

Lilly’s answer had to do with territory. “We lost Michigan and Wisconson and parts of Maine and New York.” Benjamin followed in a similar vein. “It was the first war we basically lost, even though no one actually came out and said we lost, and it meant we had to try and come to terms with that.”

“Both right on the money. After the war was over, New England nearly seceded, because New Englanders had been against the war in the first place.”

“Mr. Bowman,” Owen McKnight raised his hand near the back of the room. Once acknowledged, he went on with his question. “Is that why New England seceded in the War Between the States?”

“Good question Owen!” Kenneth said, a smile across his face, happy that Owen, who wasn’t always the brightest child, had asked a decent question. “New England’s secession in 1859 was not directly related to anything that happened after the War of 1812. However, this was the first time we really saw a strong regional identity in New England, so in a way, it may have made things easier after Hawthorne got elected for New Englanders to decide to organize against him.” From there, Kenneth directed the discussion back to the topic at hand. Having established to his student why the war mattered to the American story, he started diving into the details, some of which they’d read the night before, some of which they hadn’t.

Finally, the 50 minutes of class was coming to an end. “Before you put your things away and get ready to leave, I want you to write down this question, and answer it as your homework: Did we lose the War of 1812, why or why not? And make sure you back up your answer with evidence from the textbook.” With that, the students began to get their things ready for the long-awaited final bell of the day. It was only a Monday, but with school closed the following day for Election Day, they were getting a nice mid-week-day off.

“Mr. Bowman, who are you going to vote for tomorrow?” It was Benjamin Snow who asked.

“You know I can’t tell you that Benjamin,” Kenneth said with a smile. “But I will tell you that I am not voting for, and that’s Senator McCorker. You couldn’t pay me enough.” Benjamin and several of the other students chuckled. McCorker, the Democratic-Nationalist from Georgia who’d broken with his party and ran an independent campaign when he lost the official nomination to Representative Sean Orton of Ohio, was very unpopular in most of the country, and would likely gain few electoral votes. More importantly, Kenneth quietly hoped, McCorker’s independent bid would likely cost the Nationalists the election, ending their twelve-year hold on the presidency.

Lilly piped up. “I think you should vote for Senator Lincoln! I want us to finally have a female president!” Several other girls, and one of the boys, surprisingly, nodded and made noises of agreement. Just then, the bell rang.

“Goodbye everyone, and I will see you on Wednesday and we will discuss that question you have to work on!” Then Kenneth turned to Lilly and her friends as they started to head out. “She might win. She’s got a good chance. And if she does, she gets into the history books all sorts of ways. The first woman, first Communalist, and the first person from Indiana.” Lilly smiled as she headed out the door.

After the last student left the room, Kenneth let out a sigh, taking in the momentary calm. It had been a good day, but long. Weeks where there were days off in the middle like this one were rare, and they always ended up being weird in one way or another. Trying to cram five days worth of work into four to keep on schedule, and having the kids being rowdier than normal because their routine had been interrupted.

Going back to his desk at the front of the room, he pulled his messenger bag out from the bottom drawer, placed his teacher’s editions, lesson book, and a stack of essays from his Geography class into it, and headed out of the classroom himself. Normally he’d stay and grade or prepare for the next day, but this was not a normal day. It was the last night of the campaign, and he’d promised Joshua he’d help out with the phones at the party’s local headquarters. That meant instead of catching the Number 4 streetcar that headed out to his neighborhood, Kenneth needed the Number 2 that would go downtown along Riverside Avenue. It was going to be a long evening.

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I haven't started work on the next regular update yet. But I've been mulling over this particular scene for a few days now and wanted to share it. I'm considering either 1)writing a full story out from this start, and having that be done in lieu of the format I've used for a good chunk of this TL, or 2)still writing this story out, but in addition to the "traditional" style update.

Thoughts?

Also, either way, I'd love suggestions for events that could take place (or topics that could be covered) in Lincoln's presidency. I know that there will be a very serious showdown with Imperial China in about 1961 or 1962. But beyond that...it's really a blank slate and I am not sure just what to do with it.