I had a thought. Pre Civil war, have an expanded Nat Turner or earlier Black rebelion. Needing a solution, immigration from China turned up
on 20 years indentured servitude and a small plot of land afterwards
(not threatening to local lower class whites, but an acre is very
important to a Chinese well being.)
The
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lotus_Rebellion came too
early for most PODs, but 16 million did die in that one and the
emperor was looking for solutions. The one he used was the
carrot and the stick. Offering exile with your clan in the American
south with land after a period might help an initial 30,000
immigration. A long way, but enough to start things out, and
early enough that a compromise for the ending of [legal] slavery
importation seems valid politiking to reintroduce indentured servitude,
which died out soon after the American Revolution.
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A systematic program of pacification followed in which the populace was resettled in hundreds of stockaded villages and organized into militia. In its last stage, the Qing suppression policy combined pursuit and extermination of rebel
guerrilla bands with a program of
amnesty for deserters. Although the rebellion was finally crushed by the Qing government in 1804, it marked a turning point in the history of the Qing dynasty. Qing control weakened and prosperity diminished by the 19th century.
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Other rebellions soon after were as follows:
Taiping Rebellion,
Dungan revolt,
Panthay Rebellion,
Nien Rebellion,
Dzungars#Conquest by Qing China,
The Taiping Rebellion was the big one, with about 20 million deaths and
a strong Christian element to it. By that time, 1850 - 1864 OTL, the
independent desire for Chinese to go the American South would have
to be firm, or else no soap politically. Even if the South had won an
alternate Civil war, there would be no money for that. Chinese in
particular are eager to save money and spend it to increase the chance
at prosperity.
While at it, in an alternate Civil War, through in a critical help of former
guerrillas in chinese rebellions giving the edge, increasing the respect
and (properly subservient) place of Chinese there. Have the population
at 4 million Chinese throughout, and thought of similar to Jewish, Scotish,
or other well thought of but different people in the south of the time.
They start a bamboo industry (which still has not taken off in the US
South, though a similar climate to China.)
And to combine another thread, large numbers of Muslim immigrants
could arrive at the same time.