What if the South stayed in the Union?

I think in Britain, the reformists had been better accommodated, so there was less need for an armed revolution.

(Not sure when the Reform Acts were passed.)

I think there was fear of one coming, though--the government armed museum guards, among other things. :)
 
When I read sports stories about some athlete being "sold" to another team...:eek::rolleyes: I think of slavery...of course there are many differences, but I wonder about the possibility of that sort of thing happening decades earlier than in OTL.
Machines may replace slaves, but they can still be used in other lines of work than in planting and harvesting.
They can be nannies, teachers, launderers, doormen, etc. Those occupations wouldn't be soon replaced by machines.
Any thoughts on that?

I think that as the South industrialized, you'd see more and more of the slaves moving from agriculture to industry. While mechanizing farming might eliminate the need for slaves, manufacturers would love a source of cheap labor. China does the same thing with convict labor today.

Of course you might see non-slave States and even anti-slavery nations like Great Britain and France slapping taxes and tarriffs on "slave produced" products.

Frankly, what I'd look for would be abolition taking place at some point and a westward immigration of slaves to areas where they could set up their own communities. I'd imagine the west might come to resemble the deep south of the post-Civil War era from a demographic standpoint.
 
I think that as the South industrialized, you'd see more and more of the slaves moving from agriculture to industry. While mechanizing farming might eliminate the need for slaves, manufacturers would love a source of cheap labor. China does the same thing with convict labor today.

Of course you might see non-slave States and even anti-slavery nations like Great Britain and France slapping taxes and tarriffs on "slave produced" products.

Frankly, what I'd look for would be abolition taking place at some point and a westward immigration of slaves to areas where they could set up their own communities. I'd imagine the west might come to resemble the deep south of the post-Civil War era from a demographic standpoint.
Note: The US Constitution forbids a state from " slapping taxes and tariffs" on another state, this is the "Commerce Clause".
As for other nations restricting trade it depends on how much cheaper they can get the product from the South as opposed to say Libya.
Countries tend to turn a blind eye to thing if it is in their economic self interest.
 
It became inevitable when the Democratic Convention split, essentially handing victory to Abraham Lincoln. Conspiracy by fire eaters? You decide. But lets say the fire eaters don't push for a plank on slavery, which keeps the convention from splitting. It may be enough to push Johnson to victory, which could keep the South in the Union.


1) Johson wasn't a candidate in 1860.

2) If one man had gotten all the votes that went to Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas combined, Lincoln still would have won.
 
As slavery becomes less and less viable economically, the southern states dominated by a slaveholding oligarchy become more and more of a financial burden on the more technologically advanced states and the union as a whole.

Since states weren't recieving Federal assistance in the 1860's I fail to see how this is possible. And slavery was still "economically viable" in Brazil a couple decades after this.

Finally, by 1870, president William Seward decides that enough is enough and issues an ultimatum to the remaining slaveholding states: manumit all slaves and abolish the institution by 31 December 1871 or face expulsion from the Union, saying "...the United States will be better off without the continuing burden of these backward jurisdictions...".

After which he is impeached for exceding his authority as President. If Seward manages to come through that still holding office, he's still committing political suicide, since he's losing the mouth of the Mississippi and every port on the Gulf coast.
 
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