Chapter 88
March, 1868
Former Confederate States
Six years after the defeat of the Confederacy and four since the peace with Britain and France, the South remained in economic and political turmoil.
There had been SOME improvements. The infrastructure of ports, railroads, bridges, etc. had been repaired and, in some cases, improved. Towns and cities had been rebuilt.
Agricultural production had grown from the stagnant war years.
However, the loss of so much of the former enslaved workforce had caused great grief in the region. There simply was no easy way as yet (nor would there be for decades) of removing the cotton fiber from the plants except by arduous manual labor. The next census would not be until 1870 but it was already estimated that 1.25 million of the Confederate-era 3.5 million slaves had departed the region. That didn't even count the number of Freedmen who moved to new territories (future states) carved FROM the old Confederacy like Kanawha, Nickajack, Calusa, Mescalero, Aranama and Wichita.
Oddly, the labor price for picking cotton by free sharecroppers, once fully calculated, would not be much higher than the slave-era plantation labor cost. One didn't have to spend hundreds of dollars to purchase a slave only to have them die or run away. The plantation owners also didn't have to pay for housing, food and care for slaves during the relatively quiet "down months" when the seed wasn't being sown or the crop harvested.
Slavery had been profitable.....but so could free labor for the landowners. However, the quantity of laborers on hand continued to drop year after year.
Reconstruction (or Yankee "Occupation") varied somewhat by state. Some of the Northern Confederate States like Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina were quietly taking advantage of the Reconstruction. The economies of Tennessee and Virginia in particular as much resembled ante-bellum northern states as southern.
But certain holdouts remained. The Southern whites in Georgia, what was left of Florida (the southern half split off into Calusa), South Carolina and Alabama were particularly resistant to any Reconstruction efforts beyond fixing their infrastructure (even that often drew resentment).
Attempts to settle Freedmen on small plots of land often drew Raiders throughout the night. Thousands of black homes, schools and churches had been burned to the ground. Union military governors would be ordered to hunt down these "Night-raiders" without mercy. The predominantly black 150,000 man occupation army would not hesitate to do so. Ringleaders were arrested and imprisoned (if they survived "arrest" by outraged black soldiers). That all of this was counter-productive was beside the point. The southern whites didn't want Freedmen around....but also could not survive without their labor.
By 1868, several Confederate States had not even been allowed to reform their State Legislatures so they may vote formally approve the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments (no longer necessary as adequate numbers of states had approved them but Lincoln insisted that the individual states approve as a matter of course). President Lincoln had high hopes that Tennessee and Texas might serve as examples for the other states but black vote suppression had forced the government to annul the Tennessee ballots (naturally, the opposition would cry foul).
In other cases, internal political rivalries within the southern states not related to white and black relations would spring up. The creation of the future states of Kanawha and Nickajack was but a continuation of structural differences within states which often had been ongoing for centuries. The plantation-dominated lowlands and predominantly white highlands had long been at one another's throats politically. Even if the "mountain peoples" of the Appalachians didn't care a bit about slavery, they DID care about being politically dominated by coastal elites.
Almost as notable as the split between east and west in Virginia-Kanawha and Tennessee-NIckajack was the political division between north and south in Alabama. Most of the northern Alabaman counties had rejected secession in 1860 but that did not stop their southern kin from abandoning the Union. Had Union troops been available in 1860 in Northern Alabama as they had been in Western Virginia and Eastern Tennessee, there may have been another new state carved from the rebel stronghold.
While north and south Alabama was economically and structurally not QUITE as different East and West Virginia, the political divide was every bit as deep. Northern Alabama preferred the Bell's Unionist platform in 1860, not the radical South's secession plan. This would result in years of finger-pointing and, in some cases, outright glee on the part of the Northern Alabamans in seeing the troubles of their Southern Alabamans in losing their workforce. Indeed, only lightly populated Florida and Louisiana (proximate to new territories giving away land and supplies to Freedmen) would lose a higher proportion of their Ante-bellum black populations.
By 1868, the political divide between north and south Alabama over resources, the "Night-raiders" and willingness to abide by Union rules towards readmission to the Union had become as much a factor of personal political vendettas after years of abuse than any realistic structural reason.
In 1867, the northern counties would issue a referendum on seceding from Alabama which would pass with a surprising 67% majority. This referendum was non-binding and only allowed with the permission of the military governor who found the Nightraiders, led by southern Alabaman elites, detestable.
The result was forwarded to Washington where President Lincoln was unsure what to do about the matter. He had already agreed to split off Kanawha and Nickajack, but that was during the war years. Texas had been divided AFTER the war but that was also a huge state with wide swathes of open land in the north and west. It made sense there.
But would THIS lead to endless redrawing of state maps every time an internal political dispute arose within a state? Is this the legacy Lincoln wanted to leave to his successors?
In the end, Lincoln referred the issue to Congress, essentially passing the buck in his Lame Duck year. In truth, the President doubted that the measure would pass and, if so, probably not be implemented for the 1868 election.
He would prove to be wrong on the last part.
However, he was right that this would lead to an unnecessary (in Lincoln's eyes) politicization of what he considered to be a legal issue. Some Democrats would wail of more "Gerrymandering" by the Republicans while Republicans wondered why they should create ANOTHER southern state which would probably vote Democrat anyway. Did America WANT two more Democrat Senators in Congress. That was the likely result.
This would prove to be one of those rare extremely contentious bits of legislation which somehow got out of committee and voted on in a relatively short period of time. With 60% of the vote in both Houses, the measure passed in March.
Naturally, many southern Alabamans condemned this measure as an attack on them.....while just as many would publicly rejoice at the severing of their buffoonish northern kin. The northern Alabamans, perhaps not expecting their referendum to be taken seriously, much less approved, found themselves organizing the election of a state legislature for a new "Territory" which had yet to have a name.
A hasty election was called for the sweltering June to embody a State Legislature which would review the new Constitutional Amendments. It would also bear a referendum as to what to call this new State. After a short debate, the committee nearly settled on "North Alabama" but, in the end, wanted a clean slate from "Alabama". Cahaba and Coosa, these being the main rivers of northern Alabama which fed into the Alabama River to the south, were chosen to bring to the voters directly. Cahaba, which ran nearer to the new State Capital of Birmingham, would chosen with 56% of the vote.
The Maritimes - British North America
Since the defeat of Great Britain in the "American War", the fate of the three remaining British colonies on North America's mainland had been hotly debated. Given the overwhelming regional population superiority of the aggrandized United States, the Disraeli Government would seek any advantage he could get in keeping the remainder of British North America under the Queen's dainty hand. In 1867, the Disraeli government would encourage the three remaining colonies - New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland - to unite into a single nation.
However, the colonial governments would reject this out of hand. Even the idea of a Confederation leaving each colony to handle much of their own affairs was too much for Newfoundland.
Thus, the initiative went nowhere.
Due to the commerce raiding already common by early 1868, the three British North American colonies were trading more with America than Britain.
Hispaniola
Throughout 1867, the violence in Haiti only escalated as Queen Isabella approved a method to increase the number of troops in Hispaniola without having to pay for them. Still considered the "Pearl of the West Indies", the once most lucrative land on earth was hardly wealthy these days but the reputation lived on. Men cam in great numbers with the promise of 100 acre plots in prime Haitian Coffee and Sugar plantations. They came from Spain, the Dominican, Cuba, Portugal, Italy, Puerto Rico and the South and Central American mainland.
In early 1868, the Queen formally withdrew any recognition or promises of respecting land ownership in Haiti. All land was to be redistributed to her servants who fought in her name. The "Dominican Republic" had been formally abolished in favor of the united "Colony of Hispaniola".
This indeed brought tens of thousands more men into the Queen's service, men willing to do anything for their reward. The influx was necessary as the French, in 1867, withdrew their remaining 2000 French Foreign Legionnaires (and the 3000 still in the Rio Plata Region) back to Africa to assist in the subjugation of Morocco.
The carnage by 1868 was inconceivable. Virtually any male Haitian over the age of 10 would be killed outright by the marauding bands of mercenaries. Even the Conquistadores of old were never so ruthless. Women of breeding age and children were taken back east into the former Dominican as "servants". Other women would be claimed as "war brides" by the various soldiers and forced into servitude in the army.
Disease and starvation ran rampant. The elderly and young, left to their own devices, were usually the first to succumb.
Faustin II remained in his inland fortress while over half the population of pre-war Haiti had been exterminated directly or indirectly by the invaders still marching inexorably inland with their Chassepots, Dreyse Needle guns and Winchesters. Lacking any real weaponry, the Haitians resort to fighting with bows, spears and axes.
The result was nothing short of predictable. The Haitian men were utterly slaughtered. Killed wherever found, adult males were often outnumbers in various districts by Haitian women by a factor of up to 10 to 1.
Former Confederate States
Six years after the defeat of the Confederacy and four since the peace with Britain and France, the South remained in economic and political turmoil.
There had been SOME improvements. The infrastructure of ports, railroads, bridges, etc. had been repaired and, in some cases, improved. Towns and cities had been rebuilt.
Agricultural production had grown from the stagnant war years.
However, the loss of so much of the former enslaved workforce had caused great grief in the region. There simply was no easy way as yet (nor would there be for decades) of removing the cotton fiber from the plants except by arduous manual labor. The next census would not be until 1870 but it was already estimated that 1.25 million of the Confederate-era 3.5 million slaves had departed the region. That didn't even count the number of Freedmen who moved to new territories (future states) carved FROM the old Confederacy like Kanawha, Nickajack, Calusa, Mescalero, Aranama and Wichita.
Oddly, the labor price for picking cotton by free sharecroppers, once fully calculated, would not be much higher than the slave-era plantation labor cost. One didn't have to spend hundreds of dollars to purchase a slave only to have them die or run away. The plantation owners also didn't have to pay for housing, food and care for slaves during the relatively quiet "down months" when the seed wasn't being sown or the crop harvested.
Slavery had been profitable.....but so could free labor for the landowners. However, the quantity of laborers on hand continued to drop year after year.
Reconstruction (or Yankee "Occupation") varied somewhat by state. Some of the Northern Confederate States like Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina were quietly taking advantage of the Reconstruction. The economies of Tennessee and Virginia in particular as much resembled ante-bellum northern states as southern.
But certain holdouts remained. The Southern whites in Georgia, what was left of Florida (the southern half split off into Calusa), South Carolina and Alabama were particularly resistant to any Reconstruction efforts beyond fixing their infrastructure (even that often drew resentment).
Attempts to settle Freedmen on small plots of land often drew Raiders throughout the night. Thousands of black homes, schools and churches had been burned to the ground. Union military governors would be ordered to hunt down these "Night-raiders" without mercy. The predominantly black 150,000 man occupation army would not hesitate to do so. Ringleaders were arrested and imprisoned (if they survived "arrest" by outraged black soldiers). That all of this was counter-productive was beside the point. The southern whites didn't want Freedmen around....but also could not survive without their labor.
By 1868, several Confederate States had not even been allowed to reform their State Legislatures so they may vote formally approve the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments (no longer necessary as adequate numbers of states had approved them but Lincoln insisted that the individual states approve as a matter of course). President Lincoln had high hopes that Tennessee and Texas might serve as examples for the other states but black vote suppression had forced the government to annul the Tennessee ballots (naturally, the opposition would cry foul).
In other cases, internal political rivalries within the southern states not related to white and black relations would spring up. The creation of the future states of Kanawha and Nickajack was but a continuation of structural differences within states which often had been ongoing for centuries. The plantation-dominated lowlands and predominantly white highlands had long been at one another's throats politically. Even if the "mountain peoples" of the Appalachians didn't care a bit about slavery, they DID care about being politically dominated by coastal elites.
Almost as notable as the split between east and west in Virginia-Kanawha and Tennessee-NIckajack was the political division between north and south in Alabama. Most of the northern Alabaman counties had rejected secession in 1860 but that did not stop their southern kin from abandoning the Union. Had Union troops been available in 1860 in Northern Alabama as they had been in Western Virginia and Eastern Tennessee, there may have been another new state carved from the rebel stronghold.
While north and south Alabama was economically and structurally not QUITE as different East and West Virginia, the political divide was every bit as deep. Northern Alabama preferred the Bell's Unionist platform in 1860, not the radical South's secession plan. This would result in years of finger-pointing and, in some cases, outright glee on the part of the Northern Alabamans in seeing the troubles of their Southern Alabamans in losing their workforce. Indeed, only lightly populated Florida and Louisiana (proximate to new territories giving away land and supplies to Freedmen) would lose a higher proportion of their Ante-bellum black populations.
By 1868, the political divide between north and south Alabama over resources, the "Night-raiders" and willingness to abide by Union rules towards readmission to the Union had become as much a factor of personal political vendettas after years of abuse than any realistic structural reason.
In 1867, the northern counties would issue a referendum on seceding from Alabama which would pass with a surprising 67% majority. This referendum was non-binding and only allowed with the permission of the military governor who found the Nightraiders, led by southern Alabaman elites, detestable.
The result was forwarded to Washington where President Lincoln was unsure what to do about the matter. He had already agreed to split off Kanawha and Nickajack, but that was during the war years. Texas had been divided AFTER the war but that was also a huge state with wide swathes of open land in the north and west. It made sense there.
But would THIS lead to endless redrawing of state maps every time an internal political dispute arose within a state? Is this the legacy Lincoln wanted to leave to his successors?
In the end, Lincoln referred the issue to Congress, essentially passing the buck in his Lame Duck year. In truth, the President doubted that the measure would pass and, if so, probably not be implemented for the 1868 election.
He would prove to be wrong on the last part.
However, he was right that this would lead to an unnecessary (in Lincoln's eyes) politicization of what he considered to be a legal issue. Some Democrats would wail of more "Gerrymandering" by the Republicans while Republicans wondered why they should create ANOTHER southern state which would probably vote Democrat anyway. Did America WANT two more Democrat Senators in Congress. That was the likely result.
This would prove to be one of those rare extremely contentious bits of legislation which somehow got out of committee and voted on in a relatively short period of time. With 60% of the vote in both Houses, the measure passed in March.
Naturally, many southern Alabamans condemned this measure as an attack on them.....while just as many would publicly rejoice at the severing of their buffoonish northern kin. The northern Alabamans, perhaps not expecting their referendum to be taken seriously, much less approved, found themselves organizing the election of a state legislature for a new "Territory" which had yet to have a name.
A hasty election was called for the sweltering June to embody a State Legislature which would review the new Constitutional Amendments. It would also bear a referendum as to what to call this new State. After a short debate, the committee nearly settled on "North Alabama" but, in the end, wanted a clean slate from "Alabama". Cahaba and Coosa, these being the main rivers of northern Alabama which fed into the Alabama River to the south, were chosen to bring to the voters directly. Cahaba, which ran nearer to the new State Capital of Birmingham, would chosen with 56% of the vote.
The Maritimes - British North America
Since the defeat of Great Britain in the "American War", the fate of the three remaining British colonies on North America's mainland had been hotly debated. Given the overwhelming regional population superiority of the aggrandized United States, the Disraeli Government would seek any advantage he could get in keeping the remainder of British North America under the Queen's dainty hand. In 1867, the Disraeli government would encourage the three remaining colonies - New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland - to unite into a single nation.
However, the colonial governments would reject this out of hand. Even the idea of a Confederation leaving each colony to handle much of their own affairs was too much for Newfoundland.
Thus, the initiative went nowhere.
Due to the commerce raiding already common by early 1868, the three British North American colonies were trading more with America than Britain.
Hispaniola
Throughout 1867, the violence in Haiti only escalated as Queen Isabella approved a method to increase the number of troops in Hispaniola without having to pay for them. Still considered the "Pearl of the West Indies", the once most lucrative land on earth was hardly wealthy these days but the reputation lived on. Men cam in great numbers with the promise of 100 acre plots in prime Haitian Coffee and Sugar plantations. They came from Spain, the Dominican, Cuba, Portugal, Italy, Puerto Rico and the South and Central American mainland.
In early 1868, the Queen formally withdrew any recognition or promises of respecting land ownership in Haiti. All land was to be redistributed to her servants who fought in her name. The "Dominican Republic" had been formally abolished in favor of the united "Colony of Hispaniola".
This indeed brought tens of thousands more men into the Queen's service, men willing to do anything for their reward. The influx was necessary as the French, in 1867, withdrew their remaining 2000 French Foreign Legionnaires (and the 3000 still in the Rio Plata Region) back to Africa to assist in the subjugation of Morocco.
The carnage by 1868 was inconceivable. Virtually any male Haitian over the age of 10 would be killed outright by the marauding bands of mercenaries. Even the Conquistadores of old were never so ruthless. Women of breeding age and children were taken back east into the former Dominican as "servants". Other women would be claimed as "war brides" by the various soldiers and forced into servitude in the army.
Disease and starvation ran rampant. The elderly and young, left to their own devices, were usually the first to succumb.
Faustin II remained in his inland fortress while over half the population of pre-war Haiti had been exterminated directly or indirectly by the invaders still marching inexorably inland with their Chassepots, Dreyse Needle guns and Winchesters. Lacking any real weaponry, the Haitians resort to fighting with bows, spears and axes.
The result was nothing short of predictable. The Haitian men were utterly slaughtered. Killed wherever found, adult males were often outnumbers in various districts by Haitian women by a factor of up to 10 to 1.