"LUCY I'M HOME!"
*rushes to hide printing press shooting out anti-Negro propaganda*
The Star-Spangled Expanded Universe of "What Madness Is This?"
- Thread starter Napoleon53
- Start date
*rushes to hide printing press shooting out anti-Negro propaganda*
Hope you liked it--I'm open to comments, and would love to receive criticism--my prose is...eh... >.>
---
This is something I've had in mind for quite a bit.
THE NEW ORTHODOXY
China in the 19th Century-Part II
Emperor Tao'kwang; a shy man, he commissioned very few portraits
The Forbidden City was a complex that had undergone 700 years of refitting and garrisoning. The city was divided into two halves: the "Inner Palace" (the harem) and the "Outer Palace" (the bureaucratic offices). Manchu heavy infantry was stationed throughout the Outer Palace and the Forbidden City's walls, with elite men drawn from each of the 8 banners. Stakes, moats, and armories had been placed at strategic points by Emperors centuries ago. Contingencies were drafted for any eventuality--this meant that the only way to storm the city was through subterfuge. At dawn, 150 White Lotus cultists gathered at various points outside the Forbidden City. 100 were dressed as craftsmen scheduled to commission a new stone craving while the remainder were dressed as ice haulers. The cultists hid swords, daggers and anything they could get their hands on beneath their workingman's clothes, ready to unsheath them whenever the time came.
The 25-year-old Emperor Tao'kwang woke up at precisely 05:00 AM and changed into official robes with the help of chief eunuch, Yin'ge. At 06:00 AM, he would head for the Hall of Heavenly Purity to begin the 8-hour work day of an Emperor. Tao'kwang yawned in frustration--court proceedings had long been dominated by Prince Fuk'anggan and his clique of military men. The Emperor was left with very little real power.
Then, a scream. The slash of a sword. Shouting broke out as steel clashed against steel. [1]
Tao'kwang scrambled for his musket and stormed out in silk robes. Before him, he saw a horde of cultists "The azure sky has passed! The yellow sky will soon rise!" they screamed. Arrows whizzed past centimeters from his head, striking the wooden door behind him. The few guards in the vicinity desperately held back this horde of men, their spirits on the verge of breaking. The musket Tao'kwang held was Chinese-made, crude in comparison with European models. But what China lacked in technology, Tao'kwang had in skill. Tao'kwang had practiced his musketry with his Mongol cousins during long hunting tours to the steppe. With that thought, Tao'kwang confidently loaded his musket and aimed it squarely at a White Lotus standard-bearer, perhaps no more than 15 years of age.
The bullet flew from Tao'kwang's musket. It hurtled through the air to strike the White Lotus cultist 200 paces away square in the chest. The cultist looked on in disbelief but soon fell to the floor clutching his chest. Triumphal shouts in Manchu could be heard, "Baturu! Baturu!" the rallying guards cried. More shots rang out, and soon the cultists were in a full rout, unable to face the Emperor's fury.
Tao'kwang was livid. That there were rebels was one thing; that there were rebels threatening the capital--that was another. The morning's bureaucratic proceedings were called off. An edict was swiftly issued summoning Prince Fuk'anggan to return to the capital on pain of death. The Prince, having heard of the cultist uprising knew that he would receive punishment of some kind--though chances were that it would be nothing but a slap on the wrist.
Prince Fuk'anggan took his sweet time traveling Northwards. Officially, bandits had sabotaged the roadways up North; in truth, the Prince wanted the gauge what plans the Emperor had up his sleeve. Contacts at court revealed that Tao'kwang had grown into somewhat of an upstart jumped up on hubris after a taste of battle. Still--Fuk'anggan had been Emperor in all but name for half a decade. Surely this young upstart could do him no harm?
Fuk'anggan would not reach Beijing. Whilst traveling by boat along the Grand Canal, the Prince's ship spontaneously erupted into flames, and his corpse was never to be found again.
CLOAK AND DAGGER
2 years to the day after Prince Fuk'anggan's unfortunate passing, a new agency was quietly founded in the Qing bureaucracy. The Imperial Household Department (Neiwufu) was created nominally to better organize the Emperor's vast army of eunuchs. In truth, the department was a revival of China's eunuch-run secret service.
Yin'ge, Chief Eunuch and head of the Neiwufu
For all his life, the Tao'kwang Emperor had been trapped in an ivory tower by Confucian bureaucrats supposedly wholly loyal to the throne. The only social interaction Tao'kwang was allowed was with the eunuchs that cared for every detail of his life. It was only logical that only people Tao'kwang trusted were those very eunuchs. That a eunuch had no progeny and therefore no aspirations for the throne only made them more trustworthy. First amongst the eunuchs was one Yin'ge, who had been the Emperor's personal companion since his birth.
160 skilled craftsmen were ordered to create an underground palace beneath the Forbidden City's gardens. In contrast with the beauty of the Forbidden City's ornate structures, this was a palace with walls of cold, undecorated stone, where utilitarianism reigned supreme. Torches illuminated rooms filled with torture racks and execution cauldrons. Ledgers recorded the names of each official under the Emperor's employ. The misdeeds and virtues of each official would be cataloged and reviewed, their friendships and rivalries mapped out by diligent eunuchs. The Neiwufu began with just 20 eunuchs Tao'kwang considered loyal and trustworthy; by 1830 it had swelled to 300; and by Tao'kwang's death in 1860, 650 eunuchs were stationed across the length and breadth of China.
THE GREAT PURGE
Summer turned to winter and Fuk'anggan faded into a distant memory. There was a greater threat: the scourge of Opium. Opium was stubbornly rooted amongst the populace and ruling class alike despite efforts to root out the drug. This was not helped by many officials choosing to turn a blind eye to the production and trade of the drug.In 1830, the Viceroy of Canton, Ruan Yuan was revealed to own large Opium plantations across Southern China. More shockingly, the plantations were supervised by English exiles from India. The Tao'kwang Emperor had heard of great happenings regarding the English. Merchants had spoken of a great conqueror by the name of Napoleon who had taken Europe by storm. The English were the arch-nemesis of that great conqueror and had therefore suffered greatly under Napoleon's rule. It seemed that Napoleon's reach had now grown so great as to have chased the English out of their empire in India. These Englishmen found employ under Viceroy Ruan Yuan, who was delightfully intrigued about their strange customs. Angered at such open flaunting of Imperial Law, Tao'kwang soon decided that he would make an example of the Viceroy. With Yin'ge's help, Ruan Yuan was made to disappear one day in 1831. The Qing bureaucracy fumbled around trying to get to the bottom of the mystery, only for Ruan Yuan--or rather, what remained of him to resurface a month later before the gates of the Forbidden City.
Ruan had been torn limb from limb, his body was coated in his own blood. A silent crowd gathered around the corpse in minutes. Confucian scholars without the stomach for such gruesome sights turned a marble-like alabaster in shock, with civilians not faring much better. Only a Mongol general by the name of Sodnamdorji dared stepped forth to touch the corpse. The iron-scented blood coating the corpse was wet. Ruan's eyes were wide open, as if about to pop out of their sockets. Sodnamdorji held back his vomit and motioned for his servants to quickly dispose of the corpse before leaving hastily.
The barbarians in Ruan Yuan's employ had been apprehended via more traditional means. They had been convicted of numerous crimes, including sedition and the promotion of "demon-worship". Upon investigation, these barbarians were found to have a great deal more wealth than simple opium farmers should have had. Most astonishingly, they were possession of a great jewel known as the "Kooh-i-noor", an ornate diamond crafted by the most skilled of Indian artisans, previously belonging to Emperor Paul I. It was decided that these Englishmen would be carted Northwards to Beijing where they would face the Emperor's justice.
James Brooke, one of the many Indian exiles
Hundreds more would fall to the Neiwufu's purges in the following years. Tao'kwang grew to believe that the only way to curb corruption, and therefore effectively rule a country the size of China was through absolute authority. And absolute authority Tao'Kwang would have. From hereon in, harsh, almost arbitrary punishments would be put in place. The Emperor was no longer to show his face, rather, he would be hidden behind a thin, silk curtain as thousands of bureaucrats knelt in reverence. Gold was to be used only in the imperial household, and methods of torture left abandoned since the Ming Dynasty were to be rediscovered. Princes, officials, and even Tao'kwang's own sons were to be gifted concubines to add to their harems--in truth the Emperor's spies within the homes of his subjects.
The first building blocks of the new China had been laid.
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For some reason I got zero notifications for this thread! Got some catching up to do! I love it!
The Union is about to use the phrase "Better Dead Than Red" in a whole different context
The Red Revolution of 86 was a long time coming in Carolina. The economy was still decrepit from the utter catastrophe of the Great Disturbance, and the people were desperate. Millions of acres of farmland lay fallow, as farmers drowned in seas of bankruptcies, tax raises, and bad loans. The middle class was watching its living evaporate as ever fewer people could afford their goods. Even the unofficial aristocracy of the Confederation was starting bleed, and rather badly at that. Meanwhile, racial tensions that had been heating for years since Emancipation boiled over into an almost open race war, with whites lashing out at blacks in riots and lynchings, and blacks striking back with their own riots, as well as terrorist bombings. Most concerning was the number of blacks turning to the AFC for salvation. After Adelbert Ames, an AFC missionary on a secret mission in the South, stirred up the black population of Spartanburg to turn their weapons on unarmed white people in town on April 8th 1885, panic swept the nation. The Confederation's stores ran out of ammo, powder and weapons within days. Chancellor Holden called in the 15th Cavalry to crush the rebellion in Spartanburg, but the damage was done.....
It didn't help that Holden was deeply unpopular. He had risen to power through political wheeling and dealing, and was seen as out of touch by the population. Within Raleigh proper, the House of Citizens derided his bullying, power-hungry ways, while the military secretly thought him to be a dishonorable scoundrel who had, as General John Bell Hood put it, "the moral backbone of one of those French chocolate eclairs." Nonetheless, the powerful respect the nation held for the office of Chancellor prevented a coup or rebellion. As Holden went into the 1886 election for Chancellor, he still felt secure in his position. The rival Jacksonian party was in disarray, and although concerned about the League of the South's rise, he felt sure that he could beat them in the upcoming election.
A popular racist pamphlet sold shortly after the Spartanburg Massacre
However, this was not necessarily the case. The LOS had a fair amount of electoral support, albeit a relatively small amount of actual believers. While only about 15% of the population subscribed to Normanism, plenty of folks liked the idea of punishing Holden and his opponents in the Jacksonian party for their incompetence and apathy. Indeed, as one Carolinian would later recall in an interview conducted by the Stockholm Recorder, who was running a series of stories on the new order in Carolina, "Most of us didn't give a damn about the Norman race nonsense the League was pushin. A lot of us still don't, even if our numbers have shrank since '86. What I cared about then, and still care about now, is honesty and results. I'll say this right now, a lot of those League fellers are absolutely bonkers, what with all that race theory malarkey and wanting to "restore the Old South." But they're honest-to-God patriots, who know how to get things done, don't think they're superior to us, and won't steal from us." Nonetheless, thanks to gentlemen like this anonymous Carolinian, and the fiery speeches of Zebulon Vance and Joseph E Johnston, the LOS had a strong start to the election season. This took Holden by surprise, and he was immensely distressed by the idea of losing power "to those damnable League lunatics."
To prevent this, Holden secretly began giving weapons, ammunition, and cash to his more radical supporters, and began ordering that they attack LOS rallies. Throughout the nation, Holdenites viciously harassed League members, and even killed them in an effort to keep Holden's power secure. However, despite the Chancellor's attempts to censor newspaper coverage of these riots, massacres, and harassment campaigns, plenty of newspapers were still able to spread knowledge of the Holdenites violent acts across the nation. This inflamed the general public, and hardened the zealotry of the LOS Redshirts, who were now convinced that this wasn't so much an election as a "test from God." LOS supporters began striking back, and striking back hard, attacking pro-Holden rallies and assassinating pro-Holden officials who had turned a blind eye to the violence. As fighting spread from the cities to the countryside, the military, already demoralized and contemptuous of Holden, was spread thin trying to contain the constant violence.
Carolinian Cavalrymen hunt down political radicals outside Raleigh in January 1886
As election day came up on November 12th, 1886, military leaders urged Holden to deploy troops to the polls in order to protect the integrity of the vote. The Chancellor dismissed them, claiming that their "excellent work cleaning up the radicals" meant that the vote would be fair and open. In reality, this was a cover for the exact opposite to happen. Holden was so worried about a potential defeat, he sent in armed thugs to intimidate voters and stuff ballot boxes to ensure his "victory." Shortly after voting ended, news of this utter corruption reached both the LOS leadership, and the press. Vance was outraged beyond all belief. Although the LOS had engaged in voter intimidation in the past, Vance ended this after 1884 calling it "a dishonorable practice bound to make us less popular, not more so." When Holden found out that the press knew, he ordered the military to go in and shut down the newspapers for "spreading treasonous, seditious lies about our Chancellor." The military openly refused, and the Chancellor was forced to back off after some members of the brass implied a coup might occur if he pressed the issue. The LOS declared the election illegitimate and demanded a new one be held, one where soldiers would be present to guarantee that no voter fraud occurred. Holden responded that no new elections would be held, and called the LOS "A bunch of Beutelist scum in red shirts."
Vance was positively furious when he heard the news. The Knights of the Golden Circle (minus Forrest, who was in Jacksonland) held an emergency meeting. They decided to hold mass demonstrations in Columbia and Wilmington, two LOS strongholds, on December 1st to voice their displeasure. Holdenites promised to confront the Redshirts to "prevent a rebellion." Ironically, they would wind up sparking the very rebellion they feared. In Wilmington, on the day of the demonstrations, the LOS Redshirts led by Zebulon Vance himself were confronted by a mob of Holdenites that had come from as far away as Newport News. In a moment of clarity, both Vance and the Holdenite leader, Curtis Hooks Brogden, realized that a violent clash would be disastrous, and successfully prevented their men from fighting. Part of this had to do with how heavily armed both sides were. The Redshirts had the finest weapons money could buy, including a handful of Coffee Grinders, all donated by rising industrialist and ardent LOS backer F. W. Dawson. The Holdenites had older weapons, but made up for it by having 1.5 times as many people on their side.
Curtis Hooks Brogden
However, both groups did exchange verbal barbs. In particular, a 22 year old Holdenite got into an insult-trading contest with a 15 year old Redshirt. Eventually, the older man was so angered by the Redshirted teen that he picked up a loose paving rock, hoping to hit the youngster in the arm and get him to "shut up." Unfortunately, he aimed as the boy turned around, and hit the 15 year old right in the back of the head. He fell with a thud. The boy's father, a fellow LOS member, rushed to his side. The Lyons Gazette recorded what happened next:
"The boy's father shook him, demanding he get up and defend his honor. As the child remained unresponsive, his father began yelling, including obscenities this paper will not print. Finally, the older man picked him up, and saw the pool of blood that had formed under his son's head. A Redshirt doctor rushed to the front, and checked the boy's pulse. The doctor, with a look of pure fury, declared the boy dead. His assailant turned white as snow, yelling "I didn't mean to kill em!" The fallen lad's father let out a roar of anguish, more beast than man. Then, with a blank expression on his face, and with the gleaming eyes of a man who has lost everything, the boy's father arose. He marched up to one of the Coffee Grinder squadrons, ripped the gun and several ammo belts right out of their hands, and returned to his son's side. The begrieved patriarch exclaimed "Father forgive me for what I must do!" Then, he opened fire on the crowd of Holdenites."
Redshirt aligned citizens in civilian dress after the Battle of Wilmington
In the ensuing gun battle the Redshirts routed the Holdenites, who were utterly demoralized by the sight of a crazed, grieving father slaughtering them with a Coffee Grinder like an enraged demon. Vance, wearing his Great American War uniform, led the charge, narrowly escaping several Holdenite bullets. After the enemy disappeared, Vance gave a roaring speech declaring that the Chancellor "murdered that poor boy today." He then announced his intention to march on Raleigh and depose Holden. As news spread of the disastrous events in Wilmington, the whole nation was horrified. Anti-Holden Carolinians, LOS or otherwise, began openly protesting and revolting, calling for Holden's resignation. In Jacksonland, Governor Forrest declared that he no longer recognized Holden as the legitimate Chancellor, and seized total power over the colony. The enraged Chancellor declared martial law, and sent the 35th Infantry to Columbia to "make an example of the Redshirts." However, the Redshirts had already fled the city to join Vance in Wilmington, and the only protestors there were peaceful. This news was telegramed to Raleigh. The response read "Treason is treason regardless of whether or not the perpetrators are armed. Make an example of Columbia gentlemen. Hark the Sound!"
Utterly shocked that their Chancellor would call for them to fire upon unarmed civilians, no matter the situation nationally, the 35th mutinied. They announced their intention to join the March on Raleigh, declaring Holden a "War Criminal and Federalist style tyrant." Across the nation, the military was barely keeping the situation under control, and many feared that the Yankees would take advantage of their disarray and invade the Carolinas. The nation's elites and military brass had had enough. They weren't going to burn half their country to the ground on the behalf of a Chancellor none of them actually felt any loyalty towards. On December 19th, with the Redshirts closing in on Raleigh, the military brass and House of Citizens ordered the Confederation Guard, the Chancellor's personal cavalry/bodyguard detachment from Jackson onward, to arrest Holden for treason, murder, and subversion of democracy. The Guard, who had hated Holden from day one, complied. Some of the cavalrymen surrounded the Chancellor's mansion, while others dismounted and stormed in. Holden and his whole family were arrested, and when the Redshirts arrived on the 21st, Vance was invited in by the House of Citizens.
Redshirts battle the 2nd Rifle Regiment in South Carolina
A bargain was struck. The military and House would not allow a revolutionary radical to seize the Office of Chancellor. Vance also knew that if the military held new elections without his approval and backed a candidate he hated, the majority of Carolinians would support them. His revolution had succeeded because everyone hated Holden, not because they loved the LOS. The compromise was the creation of the Office of Protector-General of the Confederation. Vance would be appointed to the post by the interim government, and confirmed by the new Chancellor after new elections were held, ones which the League would not participate in. They would be allowed to run for the House of Citizens however. Furthermore, the Protector-General's office was essentially promised to the LOS, with the League's leader being informally granted the spot. The Protector-General would serve as an "advisor to the Chancellor and Protector of our Liberties," and would also be the head of the new Confederate Security Bureau (CSB) a secret police force designed to suppress "Beutelist and Negro insurgency." In practicality, this meant that the Redshirts would be receiving new uniforms and badges, and become an actual government body. Finally, provisions were allowed to accommodate the League's legislative agenda, mainly focusing on land reform, industrialization, and the institution of a mandatory draft. The deal was announced to the world on Christmas Day, 1886, to thunderous approval by much of the citizenry. Even if they didn't buy into the League or Normanism yet, the people saw Vance as a hero who fought tyranny and won. With his newfound powers being written into the Constitution, and with the League now claiming roughly 25% of the nation's loyalty, it truly seemed like Vance was slowly reshaping the Confederation.....
LOS aligned Great American War veterans beat back Holdenite forces while waving the flag of the "Confederation of the South."
Members of the Jacksonland Security Force attack revolting natives in Jacksonland during the Red Revolution
The Honorable Zebulon Baird Vance, Protector-General of the Confederation of the Carolinas.
The Red Revolution and the Rise of Zebulon Vance
The Red Revolution of 86 was a long time coming in Carolina. The economy was still decrepit from the utter catastrophe of the Great Disturbance, and the people were desperate. Millions of acres of farmland lay fallow, as farmers drowned in seas of bankruptcies, tax raises, and bad loans. The middle class was watching its living evaporate as ever fewer people could afford their goods. Even the unofficial aristocracy of the Confederation was starting bleed, and rather badly at that. Meanwhile, racial tensions that had been heating for years since Emancipation boiled over into an almost open race war, with whites lashing out at blacks in riots and lynchings, and blacks striking back with their own riots, as well as terrorist bombings. Most concerning was the number of blacks turning to the AFC for salvation. After Adelbert Ames, an AFC missionary on a secret mission in the South, stirred up the black population of Spartanburg to turn their weapons on unarmed white people in town on April 8th 1885, panic swept the nation. The Confederation's stores ran out of ammo, powder and weapons within days. Chancellor Holden called in the 15th Cavalry to crush the rebellion in Spartanburg, but the damage was done.....
It didn't help that Holden was deeply unpopular. He had risen to power through political wheeling and dealing, and was seen as out of touch by the population. Within Raleigh proper, the House of Citizens derided his bullying, power-hungry ways, while the military secretly thought him to be a dishonorable scoundrel who had, as General John Bell Hood put it, "the moral backbone of one of those French chocolate eclairs." Nonetheless, the powerful respect the nation held for the office of Chancellor prevented a coup or rebellion. As Holden went into the 1886 election for Chancellor, he still felt secure in his position. The rival Jacksonian party was in disarray, and although concerned about the League of the South's rise, he felt sure that he could beat them in the upcoming election.
A popular racist pamphlet sold shortly after the Spartanburg Massacre
However, this was not necessarily the case. The LOS had a fair amount of electoral support, albeit a relatively small amount of actual believers. While only about 15% of the population subscribed to Normanism, plenty of folks liked the idea of punishing Holden and his opponents in the Jacksonian party for their incompetence and apathy. Indeed, as one Carolinian would later recall in an interview conducted by the Stockholm Recorder, who was running a series of stories on the new order in Carolina, "Most of us didn't give a damn about the Norman race nonsense the League was pushin. A lot of us still don't, even if our numbers have shrank since '86. What I cared about then, and still care about now, is honesty and results. I'll say this right now, a lot of those League fellers are absolutely bonkers, what with all that race theory malarkey and wanting to "restore the Old South." But they're honest-to-God patriots, who know how to get things done, don't think they're superior to us, and won't steal from us." Nonetheless, thanks to gentlemen like this anonymous Carolinian, and the fiery speeches of Zebulon Vance and Joseph E Johnston, the LOS had a strong start to the election season. This took Holden by surprise, and he was immensely distressed by the idea of losing power "to those damnable League lunatics."
To prevent this, Holden secretly began giving weapons, ammunition, and cash to his more radical supporters, and began ordering that they attack LOS rallies. Throughout the nation, Holdenites viciously harassed League members, and even killed them in an effort to keep Holden's power secure. However, despite the Chancellor's attempts to censor newspaper coverage of these riots, massacres, and harassment campaigns, plenty of newspapers were still able to spread knowledge of the Holdenites violent acts across the nation. This inflamed the general public, and hardened the zealotry of the LOS Redshirts, who were now convinced that this wasn't so much an election as a "test from God." LOS supporters began striking back, and striking back hard, attacking pro-Holden rallies and assassinating pro-Holden officials who had turned a blind eye to the violence. As fighting spread from the cities to the countryside, the military, already demoralized and contemptuous of Holden, was spread thin trying to contain the constant violence.
Carolinian Cavalrymen hunt down political radicals outside Raleigh in January 1886
Vance was positively furious when he heard the news. The Knights of the Golden Circle (minus Forrest, who was in Jacksonland) held an emergency meeting. They decided to hold mass demonstrations in Columbia and Wilmington, two LOS strongholds, on December 1st to voice their displeasure. Holdenites promised to confront the Redshirts to "prevent a rebellion." Ironically, they would wind up sparking the very rebellion they feared. In Wilmington, on the day of the demonstrations, the LOS Redshirts led by Zebulon Vance himself were confronted by a mob of Holdenites that had come from as far away as Newport News. In a moment of clarity, both Vance and the Holdenite leader, Curtis Hooks Brogden, realized that a violent clash would be disastrous, and successfully prevented their men from fighting. Part of this had to do with how heavily armed both sides were. The Redshirts had the finest weapons money could buy, including a handful of Coffee Grinders, all donated by rising industrialist and ardent LOS backer F. W. Dawson. The Holdenites had older weapons, but made up for it by having 1.5 times as many people on their side.
Curtis Hooks Brogden
However, both groups did exchange verbal barbs. In particular, a 22 year old Holdenite got into an insult-trading contest with a 15 year old Redshirt. Eventually, the older man was so angered by the Redshirted teen that he picked up a loose paving rock, hoping to hit the youngster in the arm and get him to "shut up." Unfortunately, he aimed as the boy turned around, and hit the 15 year old right in the back of the head. He fell with a thud. The boy's father, a fellow LOS member, rushed to his side. The Lyons Gazette recorded what happened next:
"The boy's father shook him, demanding he get up and defend his honor. As the child remained unresponsive, his father began yelling, including obscenities this paper will not print. Finally, the older man picked him up, and saw the pool of blood that had formed under his son's head. A Redshirt doctor rushed to the front, and checked the boy's pulse. The doctor, with a look of pure fury, declared the boy dead. His assailant turned white as snow, yelling "I didn't mean to kill em!" The fallen lad's father let out a roar of anguish, more beast than man. Then, with a blank expression on his face, and with the gleaming eyes of a man who has lost everything, the boy's father arose. He marched up to one of the Coffee Grinder squadrons, ripped the gun and several ammo belts right out of their hands, and returned to his son's side. The begrieved patriarch exclaimed "Father forgive me for what I must do!" Then, he opened fire on the crowd of Holdenites."
Redshirt aligned citizens in civilian dress after the Battle of Wilmington
In the ensuing gun battle the Redshirts routed the Holdenites, who were utterly demoralized by the sight of a crazed, grieving father slaughtering them with a Coffee Grinder like an enraged demon. Vance, wearing his Great American War uniform, led the charge, narrowly escaping several Holdenite bullets. After the enemy disappeared, Vance gave a roaring speech declaring that the Chancellor "murdered that poor boy today." He then announced his intention to march on Raleigh and depose Holden. As news spread of the disastrous events in Wilmington, the whole nation was horrified. Anti-Holden Carolinians, LOS or otherwise, began openly protesting and revolting, calling for Holden's resignation. In Jacksonland, Governor Forrest declared that he no longer recognized Holden as the legitimate Chancellor, and seized total power over the colony. The enraged Chancellor declared martial law, and sent the 35th Infantry to Columbia to "make an example of the Redshirts." However, the Redshirts had already fled the city to join Vance in Wilmington, and the only protestors there were peaceful. This news was telegramed to Raleigh. The response read "Treason is treason regardless of whether or not the perpetrators are armed. Make an example of Columbia gentlemen. Hark the Sound!"
Utterly shocked that their Chancellor would call for them to fire upon unarmed civilians, no matter the situation nationally, the 35th mutinied. They announced their intention to join the March on Raleigh, declaring Holden a "War Criminal and Federalist style tyrant." Across the nation, the military was barely keeping the situation under control, and many feared that the Yankees would take advantage of their disarray and invade the Carolinas. The nation's elites and military brass had had enough. They weren't going to burn half their country to the ground on the behalf of a Chancellor none of them actually felt any loyalty towards. On December 19th, with the Redshirts closing in on Raleigh, the military brass and House of Citizens ordered the Confederation Guard, the Chancellor's personal cavalry/bodyguard detachment from Jackson onward, to arrest Holden for treason, murder, and subversion of democracy. The Guard, who had hated Holden from day one, complied. Some of the cavalrymen surrounded the Chancellor's mansion, while others dismounted and stormed in. Holden and his whole family were arrested, and when the Redshirts arrived on the 21st, Vance was invited in by the House of Citizens.
Redshirts battle the 2nd Rifle Regiment in South Carolina
A bargain was struck. The military and House would not allow a revolutionary radical to seize the Office of Chancellor. Vance also knew that if the military held new elections without his approval and backed a candidate he hated, the majority of Carolinians would support them. His revolution had succeeded because everyone hated Holden, not because they loved the LOS. The compromise was the creation of the Office of Protector-General of the Confederation. Vance would be appointed to the post by the interim government, and confirmed by the new Chancellor after new elections were held, ones which the League would not participate in. They would be allowed to run for the House of Citizens however. Furthermore, the Protector-General's office was essentially promised to the LOS, with the League's leader being informally granted the spot. The Protector-General would serve as an "advisor to the Chancellor and Protector of our Liberties," and would also be the head of the new Confederate Security Bureau (CSB) a secret police force designed to suppress "Beutelist and Negro insurgency." In practicality, this meant that the Redshirts would be receiving new uniforms and badges, and become an actual government body. Finally, provisions were allowed to accommodate the League's legislative agenda, mainly focusing on land reform, industrialization, and the institution of a mandatory draft. The deal was announced to the world on Christmas Day, 1886, to thunderous approval by much of the citizenry. Even if they didn't buy into the League or Normanism yet, the people saw Vance as a hero who fought tyranny and won. With his newfound powers being written into the Constitution, and with the League now claiming roughly 25% of the nation's loyalty, it truly seemed like Vance was slowly reshaping the Confederation.....
LOS aligned Great American War veterans beat back Holdenite forces while waving the flag of the "Confederation of the South."
Members of the Jacksonland Security Force attack revolting natives in Jacksonland during the Red Revolution
The Honorable Zebulon Baird Vance, Protector-General of the Confederation of the Carolinas.
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I'm totally writing part of a script for that after I cover North Carolina's rising business titans!
Nordreich and CoCaro could. I love the idea of a Prusso-Carolinian-Korean axis. That being said, it might be tough to swing
The AFC views them as racially inferior. The only Asians they approve of are Japanese
I like xianfeng emperor idea. also, are you going to do an update on Scotland and Ireland? maybe make an update on making WALES mad?
I like it too, but there's no reason for them to be AFC. They can be batshit insane Protestants while still hating the Union.
I personally don't know much about Wales, so I'll leave that to Napo or the others
I like the Protestant idea as well, as long as its madI'mim fine with it.
but how about Scotland?
I assume they're about to go fascist and/or unite with Fascist England. Remember, Napo has been saying he's going to introduce Cecil Rhodes as a Lincoln figure in England
That's why I think a Union conquest (like version 1.0) should be replaced with an invasion by Holy Nippon backed by Union advisers, as a smaller-scale copycat version of the Immolation of Mexico.
I look forward to it! I suppose Arnolds would make more sense as a Cuban camp commander transferred to newly occupied Carolina (it's obviously down the road), where he meets and marries Lucy, who still Harks the Sound in her heart of hearts. Given the racial realities of the Union, it'd be interesting if the stand-ins for the Mertz's were black. I could see moral guardians all over upset about it (Yankees because they believe it promotes the subversion of family and country and Southrons because it bastardizes Normanism and features black characters as equals), only to be culturally accepted because 1) Arnolds is always proven right in the end, 2) *Lucille Ball is a decorated member of the WAC in real life, and 3) Joe Steele found the show hilarious. IOTL Stalin loved Westerns, so a wider pop-culture appreciation isn't out of the question, especially for something mocking his enemies. Actually, with that in mind I could see a version of the Producers revolving around some Napoleon or other but that is neither here nor there.
HISTORY OF PLEASURE PARKS: PART 1
History of Pleasure Parks: Part 1
Pleasure parks can trace their origins back to two earlier traditions. The first was the periodic fairs of medieval Europe - one of the earliest was the Bartholomew Fair in England from 1133. By the early 19th century they had evolved into places of entertainment for the masses where the public could view freak shows, acrobatics, conjuring and juggling, take part in competitions, and walk through petting zoos. The second influence was the pleasure garden. These were spaces open to the public providing recreation and entertainment venues such as concert halls and bandstands. Throughout Europe and even colonial America pleasure gardens appeared including Vauxhall Gardens in London, Prater in Vienna, and Dyrehavsbakken outside of Copenhagen. However, many of these pleasure gardens, including Vauxhall and Dyrehavsbakken, closed as a result of the tumultuous end of the 18th century.
With pleasure gardens mostly a relic of a bygone era, the periodic fairs once again became the main venue for outdoor entertainment. Shortly after Napoleon I's final victory against Britain, the famous Festival of Victory (Festival de la victoire) was held. This extravagant fair became the inspiration for various national fairs across the world such as Herbstfest[1] and the National Harvest Fair of Russia. Despite the death of the pleasure gardens, their legacy was still strong. Fairgrounds started to become more permanent structures, anchored by the venues of old pleasure gardens such as bandstands and pavilions. In some cases, such as Prater in Vienna, these fairgrounds were former pleasure gardens.
There were fairs in the New World, but outside of the carnivals of Brazil, they weren't the gaudy, extravagant parties of Europe. The closest thing America ever had to the fairs of Europe was the circus, but that didn't become popular until the 1860's and 70's thanks in part to Phineas Barnum[2]. Instead, people often would flock to beaches or picnic grounds for recreation. Many of these beaches and grounds later became the first pleasure parks. The oldest pleasure park in America, Brewer's Grove of Haddonfield, Iowai[3], started as a picnic ground in 1855.
Despite the immense innovations of the industrial revolution, such innovation did not spread to the realm of fairs and recreation grounds. Attractions such as the garosello (known outside of Europe and Africa as the galloper)[4] were invented during the nineteenth century, but due to the nature of fair operations, they never caught on. Instead, fair management companies began using parlor machines[5] like pinball, fortune tellers, bagatelle, chance machines, peepshows, and coin operated shooting galleries. Because of this decision, the realm of recreation mostly stayed the same through the modern era. That is, until the Europa Exhibition and Centennial Exposition.
The Europa Exhibition of 1889 was originally planned to be a celebration of Napoleon II's golden jubilee. However, after he passed away, Napoleon III instead made it about the 120th birthday of his grandfather. The Aiglon tower was the star of the exhibition, but among the other famous attractions of the fair was the world's first alpinbahn, the namesake Alpinbahn[6]. The designer, Wilhelm Maybach, came up with the idea after working on railways and mines in Helvetia. During low ridership, the trains or mine carts would often be driven down hill and passengers would ride it for amusement. It wasn't a big hit, but the idea would outlive the exhibition. High King Francis Joseph of the Rheinbund enjoyed the attraction so much that he hired Maybach to build a second in Frankfurt. It would be followed by a third in Hannover, a fourth in Rotterdam, and a fifth in Copenhagen. Copycats quickly popped up and by 1900, alpinbahns were a staple of "freizeit parks" (the phrase for pleasure park in German, Dutch, and Danish) all over Central Europe.
The Aiglon Tower, 1889
It was the Aiglon Tower that gave inspiration to the catalyst of the modern pleasure park: the Sky Wheel. After the success of the Europan Exhibition, Custer wanted America to have it's own exposition that would top the one in Paris. Of course, that meant an attraction to top the Aiglon Tower. As the fair planning got further underway, a design contest was held by the Centennial Exposition Committee (CEC) to find their Aiglon Tower. The designer of the winning attraction was to receive $500 upfront and an additional $9,500 if it attracted more people than the Aiglon Tower. Many talented engineers entered, but the winner was ultimately Wilbur Wright, the founder and CEO of Daedalus Motorworks (DMW)[7]. While designing the first commercially successful motorcycle, Wright had a burst of inspiration while watching the wheel on a prototype rotate. He concluded that a wheel-and-axle-like system could offer panoramic views of a city at a continuous rate. When the design contest came about, Wilbur sent in the proposal for the Sky Wheel, and the rest was history. At the Expo, the Sky Wheel, located at the "Pleasure Park" (Metropolis' Central Park) was the most popular attraction there. Of the 28 million people who attended, 21 million rode the Sky Wheel over the year-long operating period of the fair. After the fair, the park was handed over to the city government. They wanted to make the area an "oasis in the urban jungle", so everything was to be cleared from the Wild West Spectacular to the beloved Sky Wheel. Despite pleas from the populace to keep it in Metropolis, the City Council decided to remove it. When the Sky Wheel was dismantled, it is said that the city collectively wept.
Wilbur Wright
Not wanting to see his creation go to waste, Wright took repossession of the wheel and moved it to his home base of Sandusky, Ohio[8]. He bought an old beach in the Trappers Point neighborhood[9] and opened Sandusky Pleasure Park on June 1st, 1902. The park was an instant success, soon inspiring copycats calling themselves "pleasure parks". The age of pleasure parks had finally begun.
The Sky Wheel at Sandusky Pleasure Park, 1905. In the bottom right hand corner is the park's first alpinbahn.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Oktoberfest, which goes by a different name (fall fest) due to small butterflies
[2] Barnum's life shall be explored in more detail soon. After all, there is a reason Portland is named Barnumsburg ITTL.
[3] OTL Springfield, IL. Brownie points to anyone who can find the last-minute Easter egg from this.
[4] Carousel
[5] Arcade machines.
[6] OTL roller coasters. Brownie points for the person who knows Maybach's OTL role
[7] Wilbur Wright works alone ITTL because Orville died at infancy ITTL. Also, Wilbur never developed an interest in flight.
[8] Another "small butterfly". ITTL the Ohio and Erie Canal ends at Sandusky rather than Cleveland, so Sandusky is Ohio's largest city ITTL. Cleveland, meanwhile, is just a college town known for Case Western Reserve University.
[9] Site of OTL Cedar Point
Pleasure parks can trace their origins back to two earlier traditions. The first was the periodic fairs of medieval Europe - one of the earliest was the Bartholomew Fair in England from 1133. By the early 19th century they had evolved into places of entertainment for the masses where the public could view freak shows, acrobatics, conjuring and juggling, take part in competitions, and walk through petting zoos. The second influence was the pleasure garden. These were spaces open to the public providing recreation and entertainment venues such as concert halls and bandstands. Throughout Europe and even colonial America pleasure gardens appeared including Vauxhall Gardens in London, Prater in Vienna, and Dyrehavsbakken outside of Copenhagen. However, many of these pleasure gardens, including Vauxhall and Dyrehavsbakken, closed as a result of the tumultuous end of the 18th century.
With pleasure gardens mostly a relic of a bygone era, the periodic fairs once again became the main venue for outdoor entertainment. Shortly after Napoleon I's final victory against Britain, the famous Festival of Victory (Festival de la victoire) was held. This extravagant fair became the inspiration for various national fairs across the world such as Herbstfest[1] and the National Harvest Fair of Russia. Despite the death of the pleasure gardens, their legacy was still strong. Fairgrounds started to become more permanent structures, anchored by the venues of old pleasure gardens such as bandstands and pavilions. In some cases, such as Prater in Vienna, these fairgrounds were former pleasure gardens.
There were fairs in the New World, but outside of the carnivals of Brazil, they weren't the gaudy, extravagant parties of Europe. The closest thing America ever had to the fairs of Europe was the circus, but that didn't become popular until the 1860's and 70's thanks in part to Phineas Barnum[2]. Instead, people often would flock to beaches or picnic grounds for recreation. Many of these beaches and grounds later became the first pleasure parks. The oldest pleasure park in America, Brewer's Grove of Haddonfield, Iowai[3], started as a picnic ground in 1855.
Despite the immense innovations of the industrial revolution, such innovation did not spread to the realm of fairs and recreation grounds. Attractions such as the garosello (known outside of Europe and Africa as the galloper)[4] were invented during the nineteenth century, but due to the nature of fair operations, they never caught on. Instead, fair management companies began using parlor machines[5] like pinball, fortune tellers, bagatelle, chance machines, peepshows, and coin operated shooting galleries. Because of this decision, the realm of recreation mostly stayed the same through the modern era. That is, until the Europa Exhibition and Centennial Exposition.
The Europa Exhibition of 1889 was originally planned to be a celebration of Napoleon II's golden jubilee. However, after he passed away, Napoleon III instead made it about the 120th birthday of his grandfather. The Aiglon tower was the star of the exhibition, but among the other famous attractions of the fair was the world's first alpinbahn, the namesake Alpinbahn[6]. The designer, Wilhelm Maybach, came up with the idea after working on railways and mines in Helvetia. During low ridership, the trains or mine carts would often be driven down hill and passengers would ride it for amusement. It wasn't a big hit, but the idea would outlive the exhibition. High King Francis Joseph of the Rheinbund enjoyed the attraction so much that he hired Maybach to build a second in Frankfurt. It would be followed by a third in Hannover, a fourth in Rotterdam, and a fifth in Copenhagen. Copycats quickly popped up and by 1900, alpinbahns were a staple of "freizeit parks" (the phrase for pleasure park in German, Dutch, and Danish) all over Central Europe.
The Aiglon Tower, 1889
It was the Aiglon Tower that gave inspiration to the catalyst of the modern pleasure park: the Sky Wheel. After the success of the Europan Exhibition, Custer wanted America to have it's own exposition that would top the one in Paris. Of course, that meant an attraction to top the Aiglon Tower. As the fair planning got further underway, a design contest was held by the Centennial Exposition Committee (CEC) to find their Aiglon Tower. The designer of the winning attraction was to receive $500 upfront and an additional $9,500 if it attracted more people than the Aiglon Tower. Many talented engineers entered, but the winner was ultimately Wilbur Wright, the founder and CEO of Daedalus Motorworks (DMW)[7]. While designing the first commercially successful motorcycle, Wright had a burst of inspiration while watching the wheel on a prototype rotate. He concluded that a wheel-and-axle-like system could offer panoramic views of a city at a continuous rate. When the design contest came about, Wilbur sent in the proposal for the Sky Wheel, and the rest was history. At the Expo, the Sky Wheel, located at the "Pleasure Park" (Metropolis' Central Park) was the most popular attraction there. Of the 28 million people who attended, 21 million rode the Sky Wheel over the year-long operating period of the fair. After the fair, the park was handed over to the city government. They wanted to make the area an "oasis in the urban jungle", so everything was to be cleared from the Wild West Spectacular to the beloved Sky Wheel. Despite pleas from the populace to keep it in Metropolis, the City Council decided to remove it. When the Sky Wheel was dismantled, it is said that the city collectively wept.
Wilbur Wright
Not wanting to see his creation go to waste, Wright took repossession of the wheel and moved it to his home base of Sandusky, Ohio[8]. He bought an old beach in the Trappers Point neighborhood[9] and opened Sandusky Pleasure Park on June 1st, 1902. The park was an instant success, soon inspiring copycats calling themselves "pleasure parks". The age of pleasure parks had finally begun.
The Sky Wheel at Sandusky Pleasure Park, 1905. In the bottom right hand corner is the park's first alpinbahn.
[1] Oktoberfest, which goes by a different name (fall fest) due to small butterflies
[2] Barnum's life shall be explored in more detail soon. After all, there is a reason Portland is named Barnumsburg ITTL.
[3] OTL Springfield, IL. Brownie points to anyone who can find the last-minute Easter egg from this.
[4] Carousel
[5] Arcade machines.
[6] OTL roller coasters. Brownie points for the person who knows Maybach's OTL role
[7] Wilbur Wright works alone ITTL because Orville died at infancy ITTL. Also, Wilbur never developed an interest in flight.
[8] Another "small butterfly". ITTL the Ohio and Erie Canal ends at Sandusky rather than Cleveland, so Sandusky is Ohio's largest city ITTL. Cleveland, meanwhile, is just a college town known for Case Western Reserve University.
[9] Site of OTL Cedar Point
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Here we see Carolina's economy revive itself under careful guidance and ruthless exploitation cunning business tactics. Up next will be John Pemberton & Caleb Bradham as dueling pharmacy/beverage tycoons.
Thus, when Carolina joined the Great American War in 1859, William volunteered to join the infantry. As he departed, young Francis hoisted the Moon and Stars over their house in Charleston and hollered "I hope you Virginians are ready to have my daddy beat the tar outta you! Hark the Sound!" William embraced his son one last time, and promised him that he would swiftly return. Throughout the war, William served in the Liberation of West Carolina, and served admirably, winning commendations and awards for heroism. When the war ended in 1860, William began the journey back to Charleston. However, he would not return home. Some slaves in the southern part of North Carolina had found out about Lincoln's decree for their emancipation in CoCaro and revolted in a bid to earn their freedom early, while also pledging loyalty to the AFC. William's regiment was diverted from their journey back to Charleston to crush the revolt, and he fell during the final battle against the rebels. When news arrived of his father's death, F. W.'s family was devastated, and his mother was flung into a depression she never really recovered from. Being the man of the house now, Francis put on his bravest face, quit school, and began working construction like his father used to while also reading his dad's books on machinery in his spare time, hoping to pick up the trade. The whole affair led to Francis developing a life long hatred of the Union and Carolina's black population, as he later recorded in his autobiography The Life of F.W. Dawson, as Told by Him:
"My father was a good man, and an honest one. He loved our country, fought for our country, and died for it, like a great Spartan hero of antiquity. Such a life should not have been stolen from Carolina, from Charleston, and from my grieving family. My momma never was the same after he passed. My sisters barely remember the man who gave them life because he was stolen from them so young. Stolen from them, my momma, and myself by the damnable Negro hellspawn and their crazed Yankee puppet masters! When my father died, I took a blood oath right then and there. I would burn the Union to the ground, and destroy the Negro menace, or I would die trying. As of writing, I have yet to die."
A depiction of the NC Slave Revolt of 1860
Dawson's overpowering ambition and sharp mind served him well at his construction job, and he became the foreman of the McCarthy Construction Company's contract to build the new Charleston city hall at the young age of 15. However, there was a severe budgetary problem. The project was expected to cost twice the budget thanks to the cost of shipping and labor. F. W. went to Mr. McCarthy a "tough old Irish bastard," and asked for permission to fire the whole crew, and employ a new workforce management technique that would wind up being eerily similar to Goodyear's. McCarthy consented, and Dawson laid off the whole crew the next day. He then went around Charleston, and found every free Negro he could as well as any of the newly arrived Union Protestants who had shown up fleeing the AFC. Desperate and hungry, Dawson was able to coerce these poor souls into working 18 hours a day for room and board (a cot in a cheap barracks and meager rations). He then called in his father's old war buddies to help him keep the workers in line, and they eagerly obliged, viewing it as their duty to F. W. and his family to help get them back on their feet. F. W. himself would walk among the work crews with a revolver on his hip and a lash in his hands, personally beating "slackers" within an inch of their lives. F. W.'s ruthlessness achieved the desired results, and the project went from being over budget and barely on time, to being on budget and ahead of schedule. Mr. McCarthy gave the young lad a large bonus and offered him a promotion. Dawson took the bonus, but declined the promotion, as he was done working construction. He used the bonus money to pay off his family's debt and took the remainder to set up his own machine repair business like his father before him. However, opportunity appealed to F. W. once again.
The 17 year old was sitting in his home, going over schematics of the machinery at the local H. R. Anderson cotton mill, when he noticed something. The Carolinas were by and large dependent on foreign machinery, and it tended to be over priced and cheaply made. With his knowledge of textile machinery, he could easily create new and improved versions that surpassed even the most sophisticated machines in the Union. He set to work furiously, tinkering with every spare moment he had. Finally, in 1870, the 20 year old machinist created his new machines, including his pride and joy, the Charleston Loom. However, the local cotton mills didn't want to pay the expensive up front cost of buying the new equipment. Instead of giving up, Dawson got a loan from the Bank of Charleston, combined it with his savings, and opened up Dawson Mills right outside Charleston. Using the same workforce management methods he used on the Charleston City Hall project, Dawson soon had a large mill using start of the art machinery, and fueled by Negro and Union laborers. Dawson quickly became famous for his promise that "any veteran of our armed forces is guaranteed a job as a floor supervisor, if he is of good health and standing." With incredibly cheap (almost slave) labor, and the most efficient machines in Carolina, and indeed most of the world, Dawson quickly began seeing money pour in. By the time he was 23, he had bought out every other mill in the Charleston area, and was now the single largest textile manufacturer in the Carolinas. In 1874, he married the beautiful Scarlett O'Hara, the daughter of an Irish born down-on-his-luck plantation owner, and bought her father's property. He quickly imported the most advance agricultural methods from Europe, and began using the property to produce cotton for his mills. He would eventually buy all the neighboring plantations, and by 1882 he would own over 50,000 acres of cotton land.
Scarlett Dawson (nee O'Hara)
When the Great Disturbance hit, Dawson was prepared. He owned his own supply of cotton, so there was no concern about the fluctuations in the price of cotton. Furthermore, he was so wealthy at this point that only a total breakdown of the Carolinian economy would put him in trouble, and thankfully Carolina never crossed that precipice. If anything, the Disturbance made him even richer and more powerful, as he used his great cash reserves to buy the Charleston News and Courier, the Ol'Caroline Shipyard, the Andy Jackson Bourbon Distillery, Purdey and Sons Gun and Rifle Makers, and several construction companies, including his old employer McCarthy's. Despite the great success he was able to achieve during the Disturbance, and the popularity he was experiencing as a great philanthropist and businessman, Dawson was legitimately disturbed by Carolina's decline. Ruthless and brutal he may have been, but he genuinely loved his country as the best in the world, and always remembered his mother's words that "Without the Confederation, your father and I would have been murdered in London." With this in mind, the 30 year old Dawson picked up a copy of The Book of Normans, curious to see what Zebulon Vance had to say. He was an instant convert, and began a correspondence with Vance. It was Dawson that impressed upon Vance the need for rapid industrialization and the idea of using Negroes as expendable laborers to fuel this modernization campaign. When the League of the South was founded, Dawson quickly signed up and became the fourth member of the Knights of the Golden Circle.
Dawson was the group's main financial backer, and essentially cut the League a blank check to do what they wished. He helped outfit and equip the Redshirts in the mianland, and Governor Forrest's Security Force in Jacksonland. He also stopped donating to non-League politicians, and effectively turned Charleston into a one-party League playground thanks to his economic stranglehold on the city. Even Chancellor Holden had to feign respect for Dawson's political ideals, lest the "Titan of the Lowlands" decide to strangle Holden's businesses and allies as punishment. When the Red Revolution broke out, Dawson personally outfitted a detachment of 5,000 Redshirts and marched through South Carolina, cowing Holdenites wherever they were. In a foreboding for what the League's future would look like, Dawson also sent wagons with men and Coffee Grinders on them to black ghettos that resisted League power to massacre the unfortunate residents by the hundreds. It's estimated that 3,500 unarmed blacks were gunned down this way, in what amounted to ethnic cleansing in many areas. When Vance became Protector-General, the two men worked in coordination with each other to use the League's sizable minority in the House of Citizens, Vance's newfound powers, and Dawson's money to seize control of the Confederation. While Vance would not live to see this dream come to fruition, as he died while still in office in 1894, Dawson would fund a new generation of mass media technologies and charismatic Normanist leaders to accomplish this goal.
In the meantime, Dawson used the government's support and his immense wealth to forcibly drag Carolina into the modern age, building railroads, buying and building new cotton mills, starting up a modern military supply chain, and expanding the harbors of Wilmington and Charleston. In an unexpected show of largesse, Dawson also bought large tracts of fallow arable land throughout the Carolinas and broke them up into 40 acre farms to give to to LOS supporters, especially former Redshirts. This also had the effect of boosting League membership, as a farm promised freedom, independence, and a middle class life in the mind of the Carolinian people. Many of these farmers would sign contracts with Dawson, granting him exclusive and low-cost access to their crops, effectively granting him a monopoly on the nation's food supply. By 1900, F. W. Dawson was without a doubt the most powerful man in Carolina. Carolinians ate food grown on Dawson Farms, wore clothes made in Dawson Mills, sent telegrams through Dawson's Confederate Telegram Line, protected themselves with Dawson Guns & Rifles, got drunk on liquor and beer from Dawson's Andy Jackson Breweries and Distilleries, and read newspapers owned by one F.W. Dawson. Part of the reason Dawson was so acquisitive in the time leading up to, and after the Red Revolution was the arrival of his three sons and two daughters over a period from 1875-1881. He wanted to ensure their financial security so that if he died, they wouldn't endure what he did. Throughout the world, Dawson was known as "Carolina's Goodyear," a nickname he took to be a great insult due to his hatred of all things Yankee. Yet, as Goodyear himself said "Hate it as he might, that Dawson boy and I were cut from the same cloth. He practically owns the Confederation. We're the same, me and him."
Dawson Rail Company runs a new line through the Appalachian Mountains
New Charleston Looms in Dawson's first mill
A depiction of some of the products offered by Andy Jackson Breweries and Distilleries, including the famous Old Hickory Rye Whiskey.
Carolina's Goodyear: The Rise of F. W. Dawson
On April 13th, 1850, Francis Warrington Dawson was born in London, England to William and Mary Dawson. His father, an Englishman, and his mother, an Irishwoman, faced persecution in England due to their mixed marriage and Mary's refusal to disavow the Catholic Church. Running out of patience and seeing harassment increase, the two saved up everything they could and booked three one way tickets to Charleston, SC in 1853, to begin their lives anew. They were greeted on arrival by Baptist ministers who provided them with blankets, food, and a cot to sleep in at the shelter their church ran. Their generosity converted both William and Mary, and they had Francis baptized into the church. William was a construction worker by trade, but had also taught himself how to repair many of the machines associated with the textile industry. He was able to quickly quit construction and become a full time machinist for the local cotton mills, and earned a good living doing it. The generosity and opportunity afforded to the Dawsons in Carolina made ardent patriots out of all of them, and F. W. and his siblings (Mary gave birth to twin girls, Catherine and Elizabeth, in 1855) were raised by their grateful, upwardly mobile parents to believe that CoCaro was "the finest land to ever grace God's green Earth."
Thus, when Carolina joined the Great American War in 1859, William volunteered to join the infantry. As he departed, young Francis hoisted the Moon and Stars over their house in Charleston and hollered "I hope you Virginians are ready to have my daddy beat the tar outta you! Hark the Sound!" William embraced his son one last time, and promised him that he would swiftly return. Throughout the war, William served in the Liberation of West Carolina, and served admirably, winning commendations and awards for heroism. When the war ended in 1860, William began the journey back to Charleston. However, he would not return home. Some slaves in the southern part of North Carolina had found out about Lincoln's decree for their emancipation in CoCaro and revolted in a bid to earn their freedom early, while also pledging loyalty to the AFC. William's regiment was diverted from their journey back to Charleston to crush the revolt, and he fell during the final battle against the rebels. When news arrived of his father's death, F. W.'s family was devastated, and his mother was flung into a depression she never really recovered from. Being the man of the house now, Francis put on his bravest face, quit school, and began working construction like his father used to while also reading his dad's books on machinery in his spare time, hoping to pick up the trade. The whole affair led to Francis developing a life long hatred of the Union and Carolina's black population, as he later recorded in his autobiography The Life of F.W. Dawson, as Told by Him:
"My father was a good man, and an honest one. He loved our country, fought for our country, and died for it, like a great Spartan hero of antiquity. Such a life should not have been stolen from Carolina, from Charleston, and from my grieving family. My momma never was the same after he passed. My sisters barely remember the man who gave them life because he was stolen from them so young. Stolen from them, my momma, and myself by the damnable Negro hellspawn and their crazed Yankee puppet masters! When my father died, I took a blood oath right then and there. I would burn the Union to the ground, and destroy the Negro menace, or I would die trying. As of writing, I have yet to die."
A depiction of the NC Slave Revolt of 1860
Dawson's overpowering ambition and sharp mind served him well at his construction job, and he became the foreman of the McCarthy Construction Company's contract to build the new Charleston city hall at the young age of 15. However, there was a severe budgetary problem. The project was expected to cost twice the budget thanks to the cost of shipping and labor. F. W. went to Mr. McCarthy a "tough old Irish bastard," and asked for permission to fire the whole crew, and employ a new workforce management technique that would wind up being eerily similar to Goodyear's. McCarthy consented, and Dawson laid off the whole crew the next day. He then went around Charleston, and found every free Negro he could as well as any of the newly arrived Union Protestants who had shown up fleeing the AFC. Desperate and hungry, Dawson was able to coerce these poor souls into working 18 hours a day for room and board (a cot in a cheap barracks and meager rations). He then called in his father's old war buddies to help him keep the workers in line, and they eagerly obliged, viewing it as their duty to F. W. and his family to help get them back on their feet. F. W. himself would walk among the work crews with a revolver on his hip and a lash in his hands, personally beating "slackers" within an inch of their lives. F. W.'s ruthlessness achieved the desired results, and the project went from being over budget and barely on time, to being on budget and ahead of schedule. Mr. McCarthy gave the young lad a large bonus and offered him a promotion. Dawson took the bonus, but declined the promotion, as he was done working construction. He used the bonus money to pay off his family's debt and took the remainder to set up his own machine repair business like his father before him. However, opportunity appealed to F. W. once again.
The 17 year old was sitting in his home, going over schematics of the machinery at the local H. R. Anderson cotton mill, when he noticed something. The Carolinas were by and large dependent on foreign machinery, and it tended to be over priced and cheaply made. With his knowledge of textile machinery, he could easily create new and improved versions that surpassed even the most sophisticated machines in the Union. He set to work furiously, tinkering with every spare moment he had. Finally, in 1870, the 20 year old machinist created his new machines, including his pride and joy, the Charleston Loom. However, the local cotton mills didn't want to pay the expensive up front cost of buying the new equipment. Instead of giving up, Dawson got a loan from the Bank of Charleston, combined it with his savings, and opened up Dawson Mills right outside Charleston. Using the same workforce management methods he used on the Charleston City Hall project, Dawson soon had a large mill using start of the art machinery, and fueled by Negro and Union laborers. Dawson quickly became famous for his promise that "any veteran of our armed forces is guaranteed a job as a floor supervisor, if he is of good health and standing." With incredibly cheap (almost slave) labor, and the most efficient machines in Carolina, and indeed most of the world, Dawson quickly began seeing money pour in. By the time he was 23, he had bought out every other mill in the Charleston area, and was now the single largest textile manufacturer in the Carolinas. In 1874, he married the beautiful Scarlett O'Hara, the daughter of an Irish born down-on-his-luck plantation owner, and bought her father's property. He quickly imported the most advance agricultural methods from Europe, and began using the property to produce cotton for his mills. He would eventually buy all the neighboring plantations, and by 1882 he would own over 50,000 acres of cotton land.
Scarlett Dawson (nee O'Hara)
Dawson was the group's main financial backer, and essentially cut the League a blank check to do what they wished. He helped outfit and equip the Redshirts in the mianland, and Governor Forrest's Security Force in Jacksonland. He also stopped donating to non-League politicians, and effectively turned Charleston into a one-party League playground thanks to his economic stranglehold on the city. Even Chancellor Holden had to feign respect for Dawson's political ideals, lest the "Titan of the Lowlands" decide to strangle Holden's businesses and allies as punishment. When the Red Revolution broke out, Dawson personally outfitted a detachment of 5,000 Redshirts and marched through South Carolina, cowing Holdenites wherever they were. In a foreboding for what the League's future would look like, Dawson also sent wagons with men and Coffee Grinders on them to black ghettos that resisted League power to massacre the unfortunate residents by the hundreds. It's estimated that 3,500 unarmed blacks were gunned down this way, in what amounted to ethnic cleansing in many areas. When Vance became Protector-General, the two men worked in coordination with each other to use the League's sizable minority in the House of Citizens, Vance's newfound powers, and Dawson's money to seize control of the Confederation. While Vance would not live to see this dream come to fruition, as he died while still in office in 1894, Dawson would fund a new generation of mass media technologies and charismatic Normanist leaders to accomplish this goal.
In the meantime, Dawson used the government's support and his immense wealth to forcibly drag Carolina into the modern age, building railroads, buying and building new cotton mills, starting up a modern military supply chain, and expanding the harbors of Wilmington and Charleston. In an unexpected show of largesse, Dawson also bought large tracts of fallow arable land throughout the Carolinas and broke them up into 40 acre farms to give to to LOS supporters, especially former Redshirts. This also had the effect of boosting League membership, as a farm promised freedom, independence, and a middle class life in the mind of the Carolinian people. Many of these farmers would sign contracts with Dawson, granting him exclusive and low-cost access to their crops, effectively granting him a monopoly on the nation's food supply. By 1900, F. W. Dawson was without a doubt the most powerful man in Carolina. Carolinians ate food grown on Dawson Farms, wore clothes made in Dawson Mills, sent telegrams through Dawson's Confederate Telegram Line, protected themselves with Dawson Guns & Rifles, got drunk on liquor and beer from Dawson's Andy Jackson Breweries and Distilleries, and read newspapers owned by one F.W. Dawson. Part of the reason Dawson was so acquisitive in the time leading up to, and after the Red Revolution was the arrival of his three sons and two daughters over a period from 1875-1881. He wanted to ensure their financial security so that if he died, they wouldn't endure what he did. Throughout the world, Dawson was known as "Carolina's Goodyear," a nickname he took to be a great insult due to his hatred of all things Yankee. Yet, as Goodyear himself said "Hate it as he might, that Dawson boy and I were cut from the same cloth. He practically owns the Confederation. We're the same, me and him."
Dawson Rail Company runs a new line through the Appalachian Mountains
New Charleston Looms in Dawson's first mill
A depiction of some of the products offered by Andy Jackson Breweries and Distilleries, including the famous Old Hickory Rye Whiskey.
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The first chapter about the Boots Corporation has been done, which introduces the idea of Social Capitalism, the beginnings of it becoming a massive monopoly in the 20th Century and the introduction of Jakob and Ada.
Up next, 1870-1900:The Tea Empire,
Jakob get's married, expands Boots operations into Africa, brings the teachings and ideas of Social Capitalism with him (and armed thugs, lots of them) and creates BootsLand whilst Ada goes to Asia, causes controversy, discovers Shrangi-La, has visions and gets into horrible hi-jinks in Nepal.
The Boots Corporation is going to wholeheartedly drink the Madness Juice.
Up next, 1870-1900:The Tea Empire,
Jakob get's married, expands Boots operations into Africa, brings the teachings and ideas of Social Capitalism with him (and armed thugs, lots of them) and creates BootsLand whilst Ada goes to Asia, causes controversy, discovers Shrangi-La, has visions and gets into horrible hi-jinks in Nepal.
The Boots Corporation is going to wholeheartedly drink the Madness Juice.