Senior-Thesis: The Evolution of the African-Confederate

Okay so basically what I wanted to do was create a fictional college essay from the viewpoint of a College Senior in the CSA (Don't know whether the student should be generic or have specific details). The essay would be how African-Confederates slowly become the biggest and most powerful group in 2010 CSA (sorta like OTL South Africa). Anyway I don't know what direction to send this in. Any suggestions?:eek:
 
Maybe slavery ends in the early 1900s and is followed by some sort of apartheid, but with a different name, because apartheid is an afrikaans word. Maybe it ends at some point before 2010. I like that term, African-Confederate, but it'd be like calling them in the US African-Uniteds. How 'bout just keeping "African-American"?
 
Maybe slavery ends in the early 1900s and is followed by some sort of apartheid, but with a different name, because apartheid is an afrikaans word. Maybe it ends at some point before 2010. I like that term, African-Confederate, but it'd be like calling them in the US African-Uniteds. How 'bout just keeping "African-American"?
No, I would stick with African-Confederate. It clearly indicated that the AH is taking place in world where the CSA was victorious, and the juxtaposition is a good attention grabber. Besides, political terms can evolve over time to mean to different things.
 
Thanks for the comments.

Anyway I got the Idea for African-Confederate from the timeline-191 books. In the series everyone except the Confederates called them Confederates. The Confederates just simply refer to themselves as Americans.

Anyway there are some reasons why African-American might be the better term.

#1 Unless the Term Confederate becomes popular, Americn would be the more natural term.

Will post rest and an introduction later... Really Sorry!!:(
 
No personal details outside of the introduction. Before you start go out to the library, amazon or whatever else and simly copy books on Civil Rights, African history, and anything else that grabs your eye. You are looking for titles names, and citations to copy and tweak to fit your paper.

Try to keep the focus on the CSA, if you speak of America have it be a footnote to a longer citation. "After the Californian Uprising* the CSA found itself rather free of the US oversight, and as such the Confederate African population found its largest supporter distracted..."

*Burgess, Anthony, 334- From 1897 to 1899 a small scale war amongst Californian-Chinese immigrants and the native white population. It was stoped by th military intervining, and a series of congressional hearing which started off the Anti-Immigrantion movement for much of the Western united States.
 
That's a very cool idea.

And I agree with Fenwick - if at all possible assume your reader knows more or less what happened in the US during this period. Since this is about the CSA, you can go into deatail about it, but the US shuld just get passing mentions.
 
Hmm. If you want blacks to become a majority in the CSA, you're going to have to make some rather substantial demographic changes. Whites outnumbered blacks roughly 2 to 1 in the antebellum South. Black and white fertility rates in the USA have tracked reasonably closely throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and it would take some extreme social changes for them to change enough that blacks can outbreed whites.

I'd suggest three things. Firstly, the independent CSA should be the original seven states, not the eleven it became later. There are a couple of reasons for this. About the only plausible way for the South to win its independence is if it doesn't have to fight for it. Also, the original seven states were those where the black population was largest, and hence they will come closest to forming a South Africa type situation over time.

Secondly, the CSA should not be a target for immigration, at least not white immigration. There are several ways to achieve this. The South was not overly fond of immigration anyways, due to perceived problems with foreigners. An independent CSA should be stubbornly proud of having the "right" view of race - whether slavery or just some version of apartheid/Jim Crow - and mistrustful of foreigners who have different views. Whether through official immigration controls, or just general hatred and harassment of immigrants, the CSA should be the last place on any would-be immigrant's list. It would help if it were an international pariah as apartheid-era South Africa became, but even if not that, it should be hostile to white immigrants.

Thirdly, the CSA should be a target for white emigration. Poor whites should have little opportunity for jobs or social advancement within the CSA, and so leave in search of a better life. The USA is right next door, and won't mind white immigrants. It will, of course, be extremely hostile to black immigrants, so blacks will be stuck in the CSA while whites leave. The ripe time for this is in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the USA is going through a massive industrialisation program, and welcoming of any immigrant labour. White Confederates would be ideal... they already speak English, aren't cuturally that different, and will find good jobs for themselves "up North." In OTL this was the era of the Great Migration when a lot of blacks moved north; in an independent CSA, it should be poor whites who lack opportunities at home, and want to leave.

As a consequence of this, the CSA must remain stubbornly poor and agricultural. There may well be some industry, but what industry there is will be in large part staffed either by slaves, or by cheap black labour if and when the slaves are freed. Even then, there shouldn't be too much industry, since that will need a lot of white labour, which is likely to attract immigrants. Fortunately, a lot of the areas which would be likely to industrialise (Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina) will be excluded if the CSA consists only of the original seven states, so that's another reason for letting those states go.

I'm envisioning a CSA which wins its independence without a shot being fired, and which consists mostly of the cotton states of the Deep South. After going independent, they grow nothing but cotton, cotton and more cotton (except for a bit of cattle in Texas, and later oil, and a small amount of citrus in Florida). The international price of cotton slowly declines, but the South is unable to get around to putting up decent tariffs for a long time. Come the twentieth century, the boll weevil hits, and international cotton prices are at record lows. International competition from cotton grown in India, Egypt etc is increasing, and the South doesn't know much about what they can do with it. No-one who matters in the CSA is going to listen to a black man like George Washington Carver who has ideas about alternative crops, after all.

Poor white farmers have gone bankrupt due to the cotton bust and boll weevils. They first flood the cities in search of jobs, but with Confederate industry moribund and plenty of cheap black labour around, they don't have much luck. The Confederate government remains in the hands of the propertied classes, who prefer cheaper black labour, and while populist movements arise, they don't have much success. At the same time, the USA is turning into an industrial superpower, and crying out for more labour. Poor white Southerners have tried to vote for a government which will give them relief, but since in the CSA it's the people who count the votes that matter, populism fails. Disadvantaged whites vote with their feet instead, going north by the hundreds of thousands. The Great Migration took seven million black Americans north in OTL; a similar white migration could move five or six million whites to the USA and leave the CSA in a rather odd demographic position.

As a bonus, involvement in some sort of major European conflict in the twentieth century would also help. WW1 as we know it is probably out, but there's no reason why a big conflict couldn't start up in Europe, and the CSA could easily get involved. It's not as if they'll be conscripting blacks, so you will need firstly a lot of white war dead, but also some disillusionment amongst the white survivors. They feel betrayed by their government, angry, and that they have no future within the CSA.. and so a lot of young whites leave for a better life within the USA or elsewhere around the world.

Come the 1950s, the CSA remains mostly rural. They've started to experiment with more crops by then, but under the control of planters who remain the effective landlords of whole regions. The middle and lower class whites have mostly fled north, leaving an increasingly outnumbered upper class of whites, and a growing majority of blacks in the South.

How does that sound?
 
Looking at numbers post-ACW is not a good gauge of the population at the time. During the 1860's the number in the south was 9 million, and 3.5 million was slaves. Go along with increases in agriculture, industry and other aspects of becoming a modern nation and the African American population could easily reach an equal point.

If one goes with the assumption that the south will remain an agricultural nation then a good population of white people will move north to the United States to seek urban jobs. Of course the converse can be true, but it is doubtful the CSA would let blacks travel so freely.
 
Introduction!

Sorry I haven't updated. Now here's a little preview.
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It was a warm spring day that week. Lily-June McDaniel sat quietly under the old Magnolia Tree. She loved the spot and loved to think there. Still, today was not another usual day at her college. She finally had her chance to become a bigger star then she already had been. It started a few months ago after her professors published her master paper. The paper covered her people's evolution from slaves to equal Citizens of the C.S.A. In fact she used the new term African-Confederate many times; a fact that many older Blacks in the Country disdained. Lily-June took a quick look at her phone and discovered her uncle left her a message. He warned her not to be late for her speech. Lily just sighed and started to walk to the lecture hall. Still, her uncle had a right to be worried. The speech was a huge deal. Senators, historians, professors, and Mirravision Producers were all going to listen to her speak. Even the Governor from her home state of Little Egypt was going to be there. While all these thoughts rushed through her head, Lily heard a blood-curling scream. In a heartbeat, Lily knew who the person was and was gone in a flash to save the poor victim.
 
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Advice/Criticisms.

So yeah... my writing ability sucks so I would be grateful for some advice.

Critisims and suggestions for the story are welcome. Also just tell me if you want me to continue the story. Thanks!!
 
WEll, if you are going to do an update, make it a little longer than a paragraph. Unless that is only a teaser, in which case I really liked it and you should keep going.

Jared, who provided a very good analysis of a majority black CSA usually an 8 or 9 page long update for his timeline. Now, his timeline is currently around 600,000 words and growing, but if you want to have a good update make it a page or two on a word document.
 
Well Thanks Nicksplace, Jared and all the others that responded. Yeah that was just a teaser and hopefully I can do better than that. There's going to be a second teaser which should be longer and explain more details about the world at large. Anyway if there's enough support I'll start the lecture divided into sections 3-4 pages long. Also at the end of each section I'll allow my fellow A.H.com users to pose as members as the audience and ask questions. The questions will be addressed at beginning of the next section.


Anyway the world I'm trying to create involves Utopian patterns, CSA Victory clichés, British/Japanese Empire clichés, Cold War style clichés, and a general feeling of good triumphs over ever. Still I know this stretches realism (which I want to try and keep). Anyway, any type of involvement is welcomed. Thank you!!
 
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