A couple of thoughts strike me.
A Liberian colony could be politically possible. Sell it to the racists as a way to siphon off blacks, to the expansionists as colonization, to the moral freaks as spreading the benefits of American democracy to Africa. A black majority state, where blacks actually are in power, might by reputation draw blacks to emmigrate and expand Liberia. Less corruption would help in the future, and economic planning is a must, but I'm sure something could have been made out of it.
As for a US-French rivalry, would that really be so hard at this point? Their violation during the Civil War, their sympathy for the South... A less isolationist US OTL might have remembered perceived slights, rather than forgetting about them in the Gilded Age.
A simple black majority state in the conUS isn't that unbelievable either. Remember, pre-, during, and immediatly post-Civil War a number of the southern states were majority black. The blacks spread out (and weakened their political clout) in search of jobs and/or cheap land post war when the plantations weren't broken up. But if that radical redistribution of wealth had occured, the famous "40 acres and a mule" that Sherman spoke of, and the blacks seized control of the political machinery before the troops pulled out, it wouldn't be impossible for a state or two (though three is pushing it) to become "black" states, where the majority and politics are black. The real challenge would be two fold: not having the political voters disperse to the north, and having an educated black cadre ready to seize the political machinery.
A Liberian colony could be politically possible. Sell it to the racists as a way to siphon off blacks, to the expansionists as colonization, to the moral freaks as spreading the benefits of American democracy to Africa. A black majority state, where blacks actually are in power, might by reputation draw blacks to emmigrate and expand Liberia. Less corruption would help in the future, and economic planning is a must, but I'm sure something could have been made out of it.
As for a US-French rivalry, would that really be so hard at this point? Their violation during the Civil War, their sympathy for the South... A less isolationist US OTL might have remembered perceived slights, rather than forgetting about them in the Gilded Age.
A simple black majority state in the conUS isn't that unbelievable either. Remember, pre-, during, and immediatly post-Civil War a number of the southern states were majority black. The blacks spread out (and weakened their political clout) in search of jobs and/or cheap land post war when the plantations weren't broken up. But if that radical redistribution of wealth had occured, the famous "40 acres and a mule" that Sherman spoke of, and the blacks seized control of the political machinery before the troops pulled out, it wouldn't be impossible for a state or two (though three is pushing it) to become "black" states, where the majority and politics are black. The real challenge would be two fold: not having the political voters disperse to the north, and having an educated black cadre ready to seize the political machinery.
