Northern and Southern US States retain slavery until at least 1898

What would the political consequences for the U.S. be if slavery had remained both legal and common place in all former British colony States in the countryside? Have throughout this period however, a growing group of free men of colour and and an abolitionist movement on the left of American politics but without much power before 1900. Also have the constitution openly support slavery. How would the foreign powers act towards the U.S.?

I personally believe that a nascent industrial workers socialist movement and political party could emerge that with the trade unions allies itself with the abolitionist movement and an ATL civil rights movement be a proper left wing movement that is also anti-colonial. It's headway could spark an American civil war that is more complicated with all the extra States or a second revolution.
 

TFSmith121

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You do realize there were prohibitions and limits regarding

What would the political consequences for the U.S. be if slavery had remained both legal and common place in all former British colony States in the countryside? Have throughout this period however, a growing group of free men of colour and and an abolitionist movement on the left of American politics but without much power before 1900. Also have the constitution openly support slavery.

You do realize there were prohibitions and limits regarding slavery at the state level even before the Revolutionary War ended, right?

Best,
 
What would the political consequences for the U.S. be if slavery had remained both legal and common place in all former British colony States in the countryside? Have throughout this period however, a growing group of free men of colour and and an abolitionist movement on the left of American politics but without much power before 1900. Also have the constitution openly support slavery. How would the foreign powers act towards the U.S.?

I personally believe that a nascent industrial workers socialist movement and political party could emerge that with the trade unions allies itself with the abolitionist movement and an ATL civil rights movement be a proper left wing movement that is also anti-colonial. It's headway could spark an American civil war that is more complicated with all the extra States or a second revolution.

You'd need one hell of a POD, or multiple PODs to pull this scenario off(especially the part of the Constitution openly supporting slavery above all), TBH.

However, though, with the initial roadblocks towards getting there aside, the idea of abolitionists and socialists & trade unionists coming together to form a left-wing/progressive bloc actually is rather plausible here, perhaps especially even more so under certain conditions(such as after a major economic recession that could be tied to slavery, like what might happen when the boll weevil makes its way to the Deep South). The only problem is getting enough people to follow along with the message; which certainly can be done, it's just a matter of how.
 
You'd need one hell of a POD, or multiple PODs to pull this scenario off(especially the part of the Constitution openly supporting slavery above all), TBH.

However, though, with the initial roadblocks towards getting there aside, the idea of abolitionists and socialists & trade unionists coming together to form a left-wing/progressive bloc actually is rather plausible here, perhaps especially even more so under certain conditions(such as after a major economic recession that could be tied to slavery, like what might happen when the boll weevil makes its way to the Deep South). The only problem is getting enough people to follow along with the message; which certainly can be done, it's just a matter of how.

So the question would be how Dred Scott still happens, but without abolitionists in the North getting together enough beyond a President that the South can't stand?

You could see the abolitionist cause getting more violent; maybe not to the wet dreams of the boards Moonlight and Magnolias factions, but abolitionist sentiment will go somewhere if politics doesn't really offer them the avenue OTL does. The interesting here is that in the OP's scenario, the North is really going to feel the Federal boot even more than OTL(1). This could make the abolitionists more popular than they were in OTL. Might be hard to enforce Dred Scott in the North.

Additionally, the Bull Weevil will still show up. Assume that the trends that are very much present in 1860 OTL continue, a large chunk of the slave population will have nothing to do with cotton cultivation. The Bull Weevil will put a large chunk of the enslaved population out of "work" - could this be a spur to Southern industrialization?

Lastly, this means slavery survives well into the period where eugenics and the race theories of the fin de seicle are becoming popular. This could get hideously awful. No-one yet has put up a solid reason as to why a band of Southern slavers wouldn't jump on this bandwagon hard; after all, a ton of ex-slavers did OTL. They have a ton of hack biology and a lot of enslaved people they can treat as chattal. It will be awful.


(1) Remember, as much as secession gets recast as some proto-Paul rage at overarching Federal policy around here, in reality it was the South who benefited from Federal power over-riding the states in the form of the Fugitive Slave Act and Dread Scot.
 
So the question would be how Dred Scott still happens, but without abolitionists in the North getting together enough beyond a President that the South can't stand?

You could see the abolitionist cause getting more violent; maybe not to the wet dreams of the boards Moonlight and Magnolias factions, but abolitionist sentiment will go somewhere if politics doesn't really offer them the avenue OTL does. The interesting here is that in the OP's scenario, the North is really going to feel the Federal boot even more than OTL(1). This could make the abolitionists more popular than they were in OTL. Might be hard to enforce Dred Scott in the North.

Additionally, the Bull Weevil will still show up. Assume that the trends that are very much present in 1860 OTL continue, a large chunk of the slave population will have nothing to do with cotton cultivation. The Bull Weevil will put a large chunk of the enslaved population out of "work" - could this be a spur to Southern industrialization?

Lastly, this means slavery survives well into the period where eugenics and the race theories of the fin de seicle are becoming popular. This could get hideously awful. No-one yet has put up a solid reason as to why a band of Southern slavers wouldn't jump on this bandwagon hard; after all, a ton of ex-slavers did OTL. They have a ton of hack biology and a lot of enslaved people they can treat as chattal. It will be awful.


(1) Remember, as much as secession gets recast as some proto-Paul rage at overarching Federal policy around here, in reality it was the South who benefited from Federal power over-riding the states in the form of the Fugitive Slave Act and Dread Scot.

I agree with most of this: I'd add, too, that there's no avoiding the fact that slavery definitely would have had a negative impact on the employment of free workers in the northern states(which is a significant part of the reason why there was broader support for the Free Soil movement in general.). How much, exactly? Hard to say, as slavery was, thankfully, never opened up in any previously anti-slavery state, but there would have been *Some* impact.
 
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