The United Southern States of America in 1776 TL

On 22nd August 1772, after nearly six months worth of evidence and witnesses talking, the Somerset v Stewart state trial case, has reach its end, having heard both sides of the argument, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, retired to make his decision.

While sitting in his chamber, Lord Mansfield, felt as though the whole world was resting on his shoulders. He had read in the papers that they were calling him-
"The founder of English commercial law" and "The Judge of Enlightenment"

He knew that England had been involved in the slave trade since 1553, and that ships registered in Liverpool, Bristol and London carried more than half the slaves shipped in the world.

He also knew that his decision, did not just affect the slave owning, Customs officer, Mr Charles Stewart or Mr James Somerset, the enslaved African but every person alive today and anyone born here after.

On 25th August 1772, the legal status of slaves, not only in England but through out the British Empire

In 1773, Frederick North, called an emergency General Election, which saw Charles James Fox (who was already noted as an anti-slavery campaigner) win the election with his main slogon being "if we can enslave a man because the colour of his skin, what stops someone enslaving me because of the way I look or who I am."
This election also saw the involved the monarch when King George III's brother, Prince William, the Duke of Clarence, who at that time, a member of the House of Lords, spoke out publically against the abolition of not only the slave trade, but also the unethical practice of slavery it self.

On 11th May, King George III, gave Royal Assent to the Slavery Abolition Act 1773, this led to on Friday 13th August 1773, Royal Governor of Georgia, James Wright, was sitting in his house, in Savannah, Georgia, with his wife, when a large rebel militia force entered his home and took him prisoner, the leader of the group was lieutenant Archibald Bulloch.
This would be the start of the "Colonial Rebellion," when three other colonies joined, Province of South Carolina, on 31st October, 1773, followed by the Province of North Carolina on 5th November 1773 and finally by the Dominion of Virginia, on 25th January 1774.

With the British fearing more losses, the navy was dispatched on 30th November to the Province of Maryland, where they set up a strong hold south of Baltimore, using the Potomac River as a natural defence and were nicknamed the Army of the Potomac.

The last battle fought was the "Battle of Antietam" on 17th September 1774, with another stalemate, British General Benedict Arnold and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington, signed a peace treaty.

----- Time Line So Far -----
These are just a list of things for referencing and are to be continued.

List of Provinces, that began to abolish or rule against maintaining slavery and when:
Province of New York - 1775
Province of Pennsylvania -1775
Province of Maryland - 1776
Province of New Jersey - 1776
Province of New Hampshire - 1777
Province of Massachusetts Bay - 1777
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations - 1777
Connecticut Colony - 1777
Delaware Colony - 1778

Premier of Northern America
1. Benjamin Franklin (1775-1786)
2. John Adams (1786-1790)
3. Thomas Chittenden (1790-1796)
. John Adams (1796-1804)
4. Rufus King (1804-1812)
5. DeWitt Clinton (1812-1822)
6. John Quincy Adams (1822-1830)
7. William Wirt (1830-1834)
8. Richard Rush (1834-1842)
9. William H. Harrison (1842)
10. Winfield Scott (1942-1846)
Richard Rush-(1846-1850)
11. Martin Van Buren (1850-1854)
12. James Buchanan (1854-1858)
13. Stephen A. Douglas (1858-1861)
14. Daniel S. Dickinson (1861-1862)
15. Abraham Lincoln (1862-1870)
16. John A. Macdonald (1870-1874)
17. William A. Wheeler (1874-1878)
18. Samuel J. Tilden (1878-1882)
19. David Davis (1882-1886)
20. Rutherford B. Hayes (1886)
. John A. Macdonald (1886-1890)
21. Grover Cleveland (1890-1898)
22. Wilfrid Laurier (1898-1902)
23. Theodore Roosevelt (1902-1910)
24. Eugene Foss (1910-1914)
Theodore Roosevelt (1914-1919)
25. Robert Borden (1919-1922)
26. William Lyon Mackenzie King (1922-1926)
27. Charles Evans Hughes (1926-1930)
William Lyon Mackenzie King (1930-1936)
29. Al Smith (1936)
30. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1936-1944)
31. (1944)
32 Wendell Willkie (1944-1948)


President and Vice President of United Southern States of America (USSA)
1. George Washington / Thomas Jefferson (1776-1784)
2. Thomas Jefferson / James Madison (1784-1792)
3. Edmund Randolph / Thomas Pinckney (1792-1796)
4. James Madison / James Monroe (1796-1804)
5. Thomas Pinckney / (1804-1812)
6. James Monroe/ John Milledge (1812-1818)
James Monroe/ Vacant (1818-1824)
7. William H. Harrison / Henry Middleton (1824-1830)
8. Andrew Jackson / William H. Crawford (1830-1834)
Andrew Jackson / Vacant (1834-1845)
9. Zachary Taylor / John Tyler (1845-1850)
10. John Tyler / Vacant (1850-1856)
11. John C. Breckinridge / Robert M. T. Hunter (1856-1864)
12. Robert E. Lee / William A. Graham (1864-1872)
13. Robert M. T. Hunter / Andrew Johnson (1872-1876)


Woodrow Wilson (191-192
Oscar Underwood (192
Jimmy Carter (1976-?)
 
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On 22nd August 1772, after nearly six months worth of evidence and witnesses talking, the Somerset v Stewart state trial case, has reach its end, having heard both sides of the argument, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, retired to make his decision.

While sitting in his chamber, Lord Mansfield, felt as though the whole world was resting on his shoulders. He had read in the papers that they were calling him-
"The founder of English commercial law" and "The Judge of Enlightenment"

He knew that England had been involved in the slave trade since 1553, and that ships registered in Liverpool, Bristol and London carried more than half the slaves shipped in the world.

He also knew that his decision, did not just affect the slave owning, Customs officer, Mr Charles Stewart or Mr James Somerset, the enslaved African but every person alive today and anyone born here after.

On 25th August 1772, the legal status of slaves, not only in England but through out the British Empire

In 1773, Frederick North, called an emergency General Election, which saw Charles James Fox (who was already noted as an anti-slavery campaigner) win the election with his main slogon being "if we can enslave a man because the colour of his skin, what stops someone enslaving me because of the way I look or who I am."
This election also saw the involved the monarch when King George III's brother, Prince William, the Duke of Clarence, who at that time, a member of the House of Lords, spoke out publically against the abolition of not only the slave trade, but also the unethical practice of slavery it self.

On 11th May, King George III, gave Royal Assent to the Slavery Abolition Act 1773, this led to on Friday 13th August 1773, Royal Governor of Georgia, James Wright, was sitting in his house, in Savannah, Georgia, with his wife, when a large rebel militia force entered his home and took him prisoner, the leader of the group was lieutenant Archibald Bulloch.
This would be the start of the "Colonial Rebellion," when three other colonies joined, Province of South Carolina, on 31st October, 1773, followed by the Province of North Carolina on 5th November 1773 and finally by the Dominion of Virginia, on 25th January 1774.

With the British fearing more losses, the navy was dispatched on 30th November to the Province of Maryland, where they set up a strong hold south of Baltimore, using the Potomac River as a natural defence and were nicknamed the Army of the Potomac.

The last battle fought was the "Battle of Antietam" on 17th September 1774, with another stalemate, British General Benedict Arnold and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington, signed a peace treaty.

----- Time Line So Far -----
These are just a list of things for referencing and are to be continued.

List of Provinces, that began to abolish or rule against maintaining slavery and when:
Province of New York - 1775
Province of Pennsylvania -1775
Province of Maryland - 1776
Province of New Jersey - 1776
Province of New Hampshire - 1777
Province of Massachusetts Bay - 1777
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations - 1777
Connecticut Colony - 1777
Delaware Colony - 1778

Premier of Northern America
1. Benjamin Franklin (1775-1786)
2. John Adams (1786-1790)
3. (1790-1796)
. John Adams (1796-1804)

President and Vice President of United Southern States of America (USSA)
1. George Washington / Thomas Jefferson (1776-1784)
2. Thomas Jefferson / James Madison (1784-1792)
3. Edmund Randolph / Thomas Pinckney (1792-1796)
4. James Madison / James Monroe (1796-1804)
5. Thomas Pinckney / (1804-1812)

William H. Harrison / Henry Middleton (1824-1830)
Andrew Jackson (1830-1845)
William H. Harrison /John Tyler 1841)
John Tyler/ Vacant (1841-
Woodrow Wilson (191-192
Robert E. Lee / (1860-?)
Jimmy Carter (1976-?)

Interesting idea, but I'm afraid it's not terribly plausible in spots. Later convergence set aside, one thing you may want to keep in mind is that abolitionism had not yet taken off in the British Empire in 1772, and wouldn't for some time, and it's early start was actually mainly thanks to the fact that the Patriots *won* the Revolution; more than anything, it humbled Britain for a time.....but until then, the abolitionist movement, sadly, remained on the fringes for the time being.

If you're going for an expanded IOTL Somerset decision, the best that can be done is perhaps also suggesting that slaves who could buy their own freedom be allowed to emigrate to Britain, or something along those lines, but other than that, I'm afraid you'll need a POD that goes back a good bit. :(
 
Agreed; if you can find an earlier POD that leads to your listed scenario (which honestly I don't see as anything impossible), it's an interesting notional TL to read.
 
Interesting idea, but I'm afraid it's not terribly plausible in spots. Later convergence set aside, one thing you may want to keep in mind is that abolitionism had not yet taken off in the British Empire in 1772, and wouldn't for some time, and it's early start was actually mainly thanks to the fact that the Patriots *won* the Revolution; more than anything, it humbled Britain for a time.....but until then, the abolitionist movement, sadly, remained on the fringes for the time being.
I was hoping that a civil rights act like this would spur people like John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, to actually state that they are fully behind abolishment. And places like Vermont had abolished slavery within their boundaries by 1777, so this ATL is only three years early.

If you're going for an expanded IOTL Somerset decision, the best that can be done is perhaps also suggesting that slaves who could buy their own freedom be allowed to emigrate to Britain, or something along those lines, but other than that, I'm afraid you'll need a POD that goes back a good bit. :(
The British would not accept having freed slaves living amongst them, what if the slave owner had threaten or actually attempted physical violence upon the slave in court would this get more of the ball rolling
 
But there was no abolitionist movement in Britain that would get such a civil rights act passed in the first place.
 
Judges are products of their time.

Moreover, if you're trying to posit that slavery was abolished after an election... well, at the time, the property requirements for voting were so strict that no enfranchised voter could connect to the "will we be next?" slogan. Working-class people might; OTL's Britain only enfranchised the working class after WW1.
 
Judges are products of their time.

Moreover, if you're trying to posit that slavery was abolished after an election... well, at the time, the property requirements for voting were so strict that no enfranchised voter could connect to the "will we be next?" slogan. Working-class people might; OTL's Britain only enfranchised the working class after WW1.

So I have to have an earlier case to set a precedent for later cases?

So in stead of a slogan, Charles Fox makes, an emotional speech?
 
Not just an earlier case - an earlier framework for British elites to be against slavery before the US declares independence.
 
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