Awakened: An Alternate History

Becoming A Man
  • Alvin grew up in perhaps the most exciting time to "become a man", in the middle of something great happening. His father lost the family business in the War of 1812. But the family compensated. They had always been quite devout, but they began attending tent revivals. Alvin was by his very nature drawn to these revivals. And it is in these revivals in the Burnt-Over District that he found his calling. A calling that appeared to him almost magically, as if it was a sign. He needed to become a Reverend. He dreamed of a world where no one would ever lose his family business again. In 1815, he began working on a farm. But the farm life did not suit him. He did however meet a young man who had lost his mother, and told him of his dream of a world transformed by peace. That young man would tell his father about the young boy and his dream. That young man was Abraham Lincoln.
     
    Early Years of the Church
  • In 1835, Alvin established the first branch of what he called the "American Church." A Church that emphasized peace, freedom, and independence from slavery. The first members of the church included many a man including Abraham Lincoln, who became the first member to hold elected office when he was elected to an Illinois House district.

    Reactions to the new church in the South were those of many negatives. The "Abolitionist Cult" found itself condemned by the Southern states as many of them felt like the Church was a threat to their power. The Church however spread throughout the North, even if ministers in places like Massachusetts felt like this "cult of Kempis" was a threat to America's union.

    However one area in which the Church became popular was introducing immigrants. Especially as a famine began ravaging through Ireland in 1845. Many Irish immigrants had been introduced to this new church on the docks. Within days many of these immigrants had gone from having no future to being members of the American Church with a new outlook on life. Two of these immigrants were Patrick Kennedy and Bridget Murphy.

    Similarly the Revolutions of 1848 provided more opportunities for more immigrants. Michael Johann Heidler and Karl Trump were among the many immigrants who arrived and became members of the American church.

    The American Church found itself relying on immigrants that converted for funds, souls, and to help the camp revivals that were spreading faster and faster. Camp revivals even reached into the Southern United States, despite plantation owners' best efforts. There a young woman named Araminta converted and took on the name Harriet Tubman.

    The rise of the American Church helped contribute to the rise of Sectionalism in the US. This rise of sectionalism would come to a head in Kansas Territory in the 1850s.
     
    Kansas Territory
  • The US had acquired Kansas Territory in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Settlers trickled in at a small pace from 1803 to about 1846. Settlers began arriving in large numbers from 1846 onward. These settlers came from both the North and the South, and as a result Kansas Territory became a microcosm of conflicts about slavery.

    After 1846, several ideas were proposed including Douglas's popular sovereignty. Yet none of these ideas would work in the face of Southern "Slave Power" (that is the power of the plantation owners of the South.) As early as 1850 armed clashes began occurring between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas Territory. As early as 1853, Alvin Kempis and his followers became aware of the armed conflict. In 1856, the first "American Church Relief Station" was set up in Kansas Territory. This "Relief Station" attracted both blacks and Northern & European whites sympathetic to the anti-slavery cause. Michael Johann Hiedler, an Austrian immigrant who joined after the Revolutions of 1848, was sent to manage the "relief station" in 1856.

    After 1857, the violent clashes began to calm down a bit. The diary of Michael Johann Hiedler says that the clashes "had ended, and Southern slave power had won."

    However these clashes were merely a view of things to come. These clashes would be presaging another war, a Civil War.
     
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