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I think I remember reading somewhere that during the mid-19th century some abolitionist New Englanders wanted to return to the British Crown and join Canada because of its strong(er) anti-slavery stand. This development is "peri-Civil War" i.e. the secession might have happened before, during, or after the war (though I think that the first two years of the war would have been a likely time.) Two questions: is this a plausible ATL, and would a union of New England and the Maritimes presevere today?

OT: 21st century New England is very Canada-esque in its politics, save perhaps libertarian New Hampshire. Large parts of New England are also very "blue" and liberal, socially progressive, and culturally/linguistically similar to eastern-Anglophone Canada. I think that it'd be a good fit today, but that's not the question. just an aside.

I have been thinking up a TL, but I want to throw these questions out to the forum first.

Some questions:

1. I've always been under the impression that New England was a hotbed of abolitionism in the mid 19th century. If that's the case, then I could see New Englanders getting impatient over the US government's slow response to the liberation of slaves. Yet would/could abolitionism trump the New England region's close trade relationship with the rest of the US and especially the Union war effort? My ATL New England places human rights and liberties over profit. Still, I suspect that OTL industrialization and the wartime economy was quite lucrative to New England textile mills, and moral ideals often took a back seat to profit.

2. How would an armistice between the CSA and USA affect abolitionist views on trade? Going to Britain might not be a good idea if Britain enjoys a closer trade relationship with an independent CSA.

3. How would Canadian Confederation (1867) influence a New England breakaway? While Canadian Confederation was nowhere nearly as
revolutionary as the US Federal system in so far as Britain still held control over the Dominion's foreign policy and legislation, the Confederation did offer a good deal of separation from Britain (parlimentary-federalism, constitutional monarchy). Would New Englanders settle for a different, less "independent" political system without the absolute autonomy of the American federal system?
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