The Congress and President Lincoln offered resources to help with the transition. indeed, it is inevitable, just like in Nicaragua, that there were those that did not make it, but being closer to DC they were able to get more resources to help them out so they have been able to eek out gains and survive up until the end of Reconstruction. They will struggle during the period between that and when the first oil wells are drilled.I wonder what was the impact on the black areas of the harsh winters in the early 1880s.
OTL this bankrupted many of the cattle farmers in that area.
Record cold and snow decimates cattle herds | January 9, 1887 | HISTORY
On one of the worst days of the “worst winter in the West,” nearly an inch of snow falls every hour for 16 hours, impeding the ability of already starving cattle to find food. The plains ranchers had seen hard winters before, but they had survived because their cattle had been well-fed going...www.history.com
The Great Blizzards of 1886-1887 and 1887-1888
A blazing hot summer in 1886 had parched the Great Plains so that when the snow began falling in early November livestock were already stressed and in notruewestmagazine.com
This is the area hit later by the Dustbowl of the 1930s.
Interesting TL.
Nice to see a TL that looks a the effects of a change during the civil war has on the years after the civil war, instead of the endless refighting of the civil war battles.
Lincoln Lives: How a failed assassination changed the course of a Nation and a newly freed people
- Thread starter Issei Uzumaki
- Start date
Indeed, the former slaves and their children and on to posterity, most definitely have a growing divide between them and the rest of the nation. One of the unintended side effects (that is, not really expected by whites in DC) is that you now have post civil war, a few million blacks all grouped closely together and now have the means to defend themselves both through the legal system as well as with firearms. This will come to a head much sooner than some may anticipate. Let's just say, those in power in DC will face a stark reality and have to come to terms with either status quo and the power they wield or lose some face to protect the peace and maintain white pride. That is the key component, with all the settlement has taken place, so much of the black population is essentially concentrated in just a few places. In fact, outside of Nicaragua, the old Indian Territory (now split between blacks and natives), and Santo Domingo, you now have by 1880 a mostly white nation with the largest minority no longer blacks but a mix of Latin(x), Chinese (railroad laborers, though many leave for BC), and Native Americans who live outside of reservations.
I envision the residents of Oklahoma as basically having a proto-black power movement within the territory by the end of Reconstruction. The interesting twist is, thanks to the melting pot that is Nicaragua in this TL, you don't get the same issues, nor the same push (or feeling a need for) any kind of black power movement. I view Nicaragua as more akin to modern Brazil in this regard. Yes there are problems that can flare up but people are more concerned with surviving the tropics then what color of skin you have.
OTL both the winters of the 1880s and the later dust bowl lead to depopulation of the area and people moving to other states.
They should do well until they are hit by the winters of the 1880s and a lot will leave. This will make them venerable to racist attacks in other states.
There will be a recovery for those who stay and switch to wheat farming and an economic collapse in the 1930s due to the dust bowl and depression and collapse in wheat prices. Many of the farms will be repossessed by the banks.
The dust bowl drove a lot of the population out in the 1930s to head for places like California.
Giving African-American Americans there own area is a nice idea to protect them from racist in America at the time.
Unfortunately, it is an area subject to massive shifts in climate and boom economics followed by economic collapse and depopulation.
By the time the oil boom comes much of the African American population will have left without 2 pennies to their name and be vulnerable to racism in the rest of the US.
That would be true in OTL, but this TL they had a more thriving community thanks to better Federal support. Dont' forget, even though in this TL it's in Sequoyah, Tulsa used to be called the Black Wall Street. The people that were the cause of that in OTL, are now in Oklahoma and their funds are now supporting their own community. Can't completely use OTL stats as a comp here.
The dust bowl might have less effect of there were better farming methods. The way of ploughing left the ground in dry periods very prone to wind erosion.
Not ploughing the driest parts would help too. Dust storms from the driest areas damaged crops in areas with enough water. An early introduction of irrigation would help too.
The effect of climate change in that area was so devastating that the best organised and prosperous of communities could still collapse.
The area was hit also by a plague or grasshoppers and jackrabbits to in the dustbowl.
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Good points all, though don't forget part of the problem with agricultural prices wasn't just the end of the Great War but also Prohibition. I'm not sure how far I'll take this TL but I can give one spoiler, there will not be Prohibition in Oklahoma.The dust bowl might have less effect of there were better farming methods. The way of ploughing left the ground in dry periods very prone to wind erosion.
Not ploughing the driest parts would help too. Dust storms from the driest areas damaged crops in areas with enough water. An early introduction of irrigation would help too.
The high price of wheat that leads to too much land being ploughed was partly the result of ww1 and the collapse of grain exports from the Russian empire. Later Soviets economics were never able to produce enough wheat even to feed themselves. After the fall of communism, the grain-growing areas of the former Soviet Union become major exporters again.
The effect of climate change in that area was so devastating that the best organised and prosperous of communities could still collapse.
The area was hit also by a plague or grasshoppers and jackrabbits to in the dustbowl.
Yes, they would be farmers.
And, no, there will undoubtedly not be a Hammerstein II, born 1895, or a Rogers, born 1902, at least in Our Time Line.
Musicals may be very different, and the musical Oklahoma! probably will not occur, I was only attempting to demonstrate a difference and that casual racism would still be a thing.
Meanwhile, while New Orleans is still there, Storyville is undoubtedly different, so, Jazz will be different, as well as Ragtime, which will mean other music's will be different, too.
Because the changes in the United States are so large that things like people being born the same subsequently to said change is unlikely.
And, as time goes on, the changes grow bigger and the unlikelyhood of people from OTL being born the same way and being the same people becomes greater and greater.
Rogers was born in Queens in 1907, the child of a prominent physician, while Hammerstein II was the child of a theatrical manager and born in New York in 1895.
While where they were born does not lend itself to be affected by what has happened, they are 30+ years from the event, and millions of people have moved to places they had not been in OTL.
Knowing the numbers, it only takes a tiny change for another, different child being engendered.
Even more so since their parents had not been born yet, let alone met, when the disruption occurred.
This is exactly why I wont go to far into the 20th century, as the Presidents will get harder to ensure they are around. TR was already born by the end of the war, he even watched Lincoln's casket go by in NYC during Lincoln's funeral parade, so people like him are easy to continue to use. After a while though it gets more difficult to keep using some figures due to the points you made with so many changes that far back.
Chapter 7: Decade in Review
Chapter 7: Decade in Review
As we prepare to enter the more tumultuous 1890s, let us take a look back at the 1880s, starting with President Garfield's first term. The first major event was not legislation but rather an assassination attempt that the President survived on September 19th, 1881. The President was hit but it was decided rather than try to remove the bullet that it was safer to leave it in, he would live with it the rest of his days. This further unsettled world leaders as Tsar Alexander II had been killed in March of the same year. Early on legislatively, the President expressed a desire for improved agricultural policies, civil rights, and civil service reform, this ended up in a with his first big policy win in the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act provided for selection of some government employees by competitive exams rather than ties to politicians, and made it illegal to fire or demote some government officials for political reasons. This was mainly targeted to prevent issues seen due to the corruption from appointments that were seen under prior administrations, especially during the civil war. During his first term he also managed to pass through a funding bill that would include aide to the Oklahoma, Santo Domingo and Nicaraguan territories for increased education to minorities, as he was very supportive of education as a key to success for the nation. During his re-election year in 1884, the President hosted a conference in Washington, D.C., regarding the determination of the Prime Meridian to help with finalizing maps and timetables for both sea and land navigation, establishing Greenwich Meridian as zero degrees longitude, this helped immensely with navigation moving forward now that a common longitudinal map could be made for worldwide use.
During his first term we also see the contradiction in the man, as while he supported improved civil rights for all minorities, but especially blacks, he supported the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, thus allowing the US government to further restrict Chinese immigration for a period of 10 years (initially, though further legislation would change this). His pushes to better protect the black minority did little overall to sway the growing discontent in Oklahoma, it would eventually come to a head in the 1890s. It was during his second term in 1886, however, that one of the most critical pieces of legislation ever passed was pushed through congress in an effort to stem the abuses of the ultra-wealthy like Carnegie and Rockefeller in the Gilded Age, by passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1886. The Sherman Act broadly prohibits the following; 1) anticompetitive agreements and 2) unilateral conduct that monopolizes or attempts to monopolize the relevant market. The Act authorizes the Department of Justice to bring suits to enjoin (i.e. prohibit) conduct violating the Act, and additionally authorizes private parties injured by conduct violating the Act to bring suits for treble damages (i.e. three times as much money in damages as the violation cost them). Over time, the federal courts have developed a body of law under the Sherman Act making certain types of anticompetitive conduct per se illegal, and subjecting other types of conduct to case-by-case analysis regarding whether the conduct unreasonably restrains trade.
Internationally, the first rumblings of discontent from what was once British Columbia, over the increased focus on Africa leaving less funding and security over the colony. While the Dominion of Canada did try to encourage B.C. to join them, there was a distinct difference in cultures thanks to the growing melting pot of those with English and Chinese heritage mingling due to the Chinese laborers that had fled racist attacks in the US, as well as US pioneers who had gone north to Alaska and the Northwest territory only to come back after finding the environment too harsh for their taste, often referred to as half-backers for only making it halfway back to the US before settling in B.C. The United Kingdom instead focused its efforts on the Anglo-Egyptian war of 1882 and the First Boer war of 1881, not leaving much time or money for a far-flung outpost in a continent dominated by the USA. During this time the volcano Krakatoa exploded in the Dutch East Indies in 1883, killing over 36,000 people. In 1887, over 900,000 Chinese would die due to major flooding along the Yellow river.
It is also during this time that the fate of Africa was decided by imperial powers of Europe during the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, focused on carving up Africa. President Garfield was appalled and turned down an offer to actively participate, sending Secretary Blaine to simply state any agreement must include honoring the borders of Liberia and it’s neutrality, making the clear the US would look after it’s former colony that was created to house former slaves in the early 1800s. Other than this, he wanted nothing to do with the conference, deriding imperial powers in his private writings, though he seems to have left out the United States own expansion during his lifetime. The French also began construction during the decade on what it hoped would be the Panama Canal, however, they would abandon the project by 1889. Little did they know, the US was using their failure to help their own canal project they had begun planning in Nicaragua, which would begin in earnest during the 1890s.
On the cultural and scientific front several key events happened.
- In 1885, Edison first created a moving picture, the birth of the movie industry essentially.
- During the 1880s, author Robert Louis Stevenson, introduced the world to Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
- Mark Twain published his American classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
- And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his first work on a now famous detective, Sherlock Holmes.
The 1880s would close out with Grover Cleveland winning a close election in 1888 against Secretary of State, James G. Blaine. Cleveland is one of the least remembered President’s, which is remarkable considering he won two terms, though both by razor thin margins. The only thing of note for most Americans would only be found out decades after his death, when it was discovered that he had been quietly supporting secessionist movements in British Columbia as a way to get back that the British for their interference in the US Civil War. A movement that would bear fruit thanks to a European cataclysm that was only a couple of decades away.
Authors Notes: Struggled with what to do here, as the main part of this TL really kicks off in the mid 1890s so decided use more of a review method. So my apologies for a lackluster 1880s, I simply couldn't find the motivation to flesh out this decade any further.
As you can see, no assassinated President yet. I wanted to honor President Cleveland with his 2 elections but instead of 2 separate times, he gets it back to back. Lets face it, most Americans don't know there was a President named Grover, they only think of Sesame Street (sorry, had to say it!) What to expect in the 1890s, the first part will be brief but by mid 1890s you get what I think is an unexpected divergence within this new TL (though some of you may pick up on it from clues I left) as well as the next big change internationally from OTL. Not sure when next update is, studying for a required cert exam for work but hopefully can squeeze it out next week as I'm excited to get to the 1890s!
Just wait until the 1890s get going, I can't fully express how happy I am to get to the meat of this TL.
The meat being the US in the Modern age and the alt culture that has developed as a result? That is definitely going to be fun!
Meat being some political upheavals, domestic and international, laying the ground work for the Great War. Some expected, some not (at least I hope not expected
)Ooh, that sounds very interesting, I can't wait to see it!Meat being some political upheavals, domestic and international, laying the ground work for the Great War. Some expected, some not (at least I hope not expected
