My POD is when president Jackson is killed by an antitariff southerner and Calhoun becomes president. In OTL Calhoun resigned over Jackson's threat to make war on South Carolina if they interfered with the customs service. In this the government decison goes the other way. Further, there is as yet no precedent on what happens when the president dies in office and many think that Calhoun's assumption of office is illegal.
The north is furious over the defiance of the tariff by the south and the lack of regret expressed by the southerners and the Union splits along the Ohio and the Mason Dixon Line and then west from the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi, excepting Delaware which sides with the North. Since the president is Calhoun there is no war. The North doesn't have much money lent out in the South at this time, and because the CSA is still under the USA constitution there is no default on the Northern debt as in OTL. Abolitionism is also still a minority opinion in the North, though an influential one.
In 1834 the undercapitalized CSA has a financial panic that spreads to the USA, bringing down most financial institutions two years earlier than on OTL. The government of the CSA puts an export tax on cotton to raise revenues without a tariff. They embargo cotton to the USA when the USA protests.
The USA recovers faster and in 1836 the USA government buys Texas from Mexico as a resettlement territory for freed slaves to grow cotton for Northern mills. The USA builds border posts and naval bases along the Texas borders and the gulf.
Since the laws of Mexico have already made slavery illegal there is little resistance. Some people from Texas move back to the south, some move to Mexico, but both movements are much less than the mass emigration of black freedmen from both the USA and the CSA. Later the area is made into five states. They include part of what is now New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Colorado. The total freed slave population at this time is only 250,000. About that number of both freedmen and white people immigrate to Texas.
By 1842 the USA has decided to buy California, the Great Basin, and the Colorado basin from Mexico. Mexico agrees and the USA starts building a railroad. The new territory is off limits to blacks, freed or otherwise. Not that they care with so much territory to settle themselves.
There is some disputation about the CSA and the USA but no war. The irritated CSA slave owners are unhappy about all the runaway slaves moving north or west. The USA is unhappy about smuggled goods from Europe trickling across the Ohio. Neither side intends to fight over the matter because it is not as important as in OTL.
The CSA slave price never reached the levels of OTL because of the competition for cotton markets of Texas, and the lack of output by slaves that know they can run across the state line and be free. It's hard to flog someone into working when it is so easy to run away.
In the USA the lower tariffs forced on them by the threat of smuggling has lowered the wealth ammassed by Northern manufacturers and the independence of the CSA has made them nervous about lending them money. No loans are out to the CSA and no conflict is intended over the matter.
The North has built a fairly sizable navy by then. The UK decides that it will no longer allow it's foreign policy to bring it into conflict with the USA and loosens it's reigns on Canadian policy. Canada becomes more democratic in response, but declines to join the USA, much less the CSA.
The crisis of 1868 over Missouri deciding to join the USA blows over fairly quickly. The USA is now much larger than the CSA and the CSA has no allies. The USA also has a railroad to California both through Iowa and back to Texas from California.
The USA also has a much larger industrial capability than in OTL because of the earlier establishment of publicly supported colleges by land grant money. Steam powered armored warships are replacing all the sailing ships in the USA navy and making the USA a world power, not that the USA intends to do anything about it.
The principle of secession of states is established, though there are no other states interested in leaving the CSA for the USA or vice versa at this time.
By now so many slaves have run away to Texas that the institution of slavery is beginning to tremble. The border with the USA is open and abolitionists control all the local police departments. Slave catchers are regularly sentenced to long terms in prison if they cross into the USA, while runaway slaves are given free transport to Texas by abolitionist groups.
The CSA on the other hand will not allow the post office to transmit abolitionist literature. They forbid the teaching of reading and writing to their slaves, not that the slave owners are much bothered about the matter. So many have promissed freedom to their slaves in return for not running away for a set period that the CSA courts are recognising the practice and the contracts signed.
By 1900 the last slave in the CSA has been freed. Cotton has been dethroned and rayon has appeared.
The north is furious over the defiance of the tariff by the south and the lack of regret expressed by the southerners and the Union splits along the Ohio and the Mason Dixon Line and then west from the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi, excepting Delaware which sides with the North. Since the president is Calhoun there is no war. The North doesn't have much money lent out in the South at this time, and because the CSA is still under the USA constitution there is no default on the Northern debt as in OTL. Abolitionism is also still a minority opinion in the North, though an influential one.
In 1834 the undercapitalized CSA has a financial panic that spreads to the USA, bringing down most financial institutions two years earlier than on OTL. The government of the CSA puts an export tax on cotton to raise revenues without a tariff. They embargo cotton to the USA when the USA protests.
The USA recovers faster and in 1836 the USA government buys Texas from Mexico as a resettlement territory for freed slaves to grow cotton for Northern mills. The USA builds border posts and naval bases along the Texas borders and the gulf.
Since the laws of Mexico have already made slavery illegal there is little resistance. Some people from Texas move back to the south, some move to Mexico, but both movements are much less than the mass emigration of black freedmen from both the USA and the CSA. Later the area is made into five states. They include part of what is now New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Colorado. The total freed slave population at this time is only 250,000. About that number of both freedmen and white people immigrate to Texas.
By 1842 the USA has decided to buy California, the Great Basin, and the Colorado basin from Mexico. Mexico agrees and the USA starts building a railroad. The new territory is off limits to blacks, freed or otherwise. Not that they care with so much territory to settle themselves.
There is some disputation about the CSA and the USA but no war. The irritated CSA slave owners are unhappy about all the runaway slaves moving north or west. The USA is unhappy about smuggled goods from Europe trickling across the Ohio. Neither side intends to fight over the matter because it is not as important as in OTL.
The CSA slave price never reached the levels of OTL because of the competition for cotton markets of Texas, and the lack of output by slaves that know they can run across the state line and be free. It's hard to flog someone into working when it is so easy to run away.
In the USA the lower tariffs forced on them by the threat of smuggling has lowered the wealth ammassed by Northern manufacturers and the independence of the CSA has made them nervous about lending them money. No loans are out to the CSA and no conflict is intended over the matter.
The North has built a fairly sizable navy by then. The UK decides that it will no longer allow it's foreign policy to bring it into conflict with the USA and loosens it's reigns on Canadian policy. Canada becomes more democratic in response, but declines to join the USA, much less the CSA.
The crisis of 1868 over Missouri deciding to join the USA blows over fairly quickly. The USA is now much larger than the CSA and the CSA has no allies. The USA also has a railroad to California both through Iowa and back to Texas from California.
The USA also has a much larger industrial capability than in OTL because of the earlier establishment of publicly supported colleges by land grant money. Steam powered armored warships are replacing all the sailing ships in the USA navy and making the USA a world power, not that the USA intends to do anything about it.
The principle of secession of states is established, though there are no other states interested in leaving the CSA for the USA or vice versa at this time.
By now so many slaves have run away to Texas that the institution of slavery is beginning to tremble. The border with the USA is open and abolitionists control all the local police departments. Slave catchers are regularly sentenced to long terms in prison if they cross into the USA, while runaway slaves are given free transport to Texas by abolitionist groups.
The CSA on the other hand will not allow the post office to transmit abolitionist literature. They forbid the teaching of reading and writing to their slaves, not that the slave owners are much bothered about the matter. So many have promissed freedom to their slaves in return for not running away for a set period that the CSA courts are recognising the practice and the contracts signed.
By 1900 the last slave in the CSA has been freed. Cotton has been dethroned and rayon has appeared.
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