WI: more states were created in Reconstruction

samcster94

Banned
We all know West Virginia was created during the war. What if more states, especially areas with anti-Confederate whites, were created??? Examples would be northern Alabama and eastern Tennessee. Where does history go with these extra states?
 
They could have done some reorganizing too.

Virginia south of the Rappahannock river-North Carolina = Carolina
The rest of Virginia added to WV just called Virginia now

South Carolina Georgia= Savannah

Mississippi, Alabama and Florida west of the Apalachicola River = Lincoln

Tennessee divided in half, with a Chattanooga based government controlling Franklin.
 
They could have done some reorganizing too.

Virginia south of the Rappahannock river-North Carolina = Carolina
The rest of Virginia added to WV just called Virginia now

South Carolina Georgia= Savannah

Mississippi, Alabama and Florida west of the Apalachicola River = Lincoln

Tennessee divided in half, with a Chattanooga based government controlling Franklin.
This is making less states not more.

What about dividing them up in accordance with their federal courts making them at least a 1/4 of their original size.
 
This is making less states not more.

What about dividing them up in accordance with their federal courts making them at least a 1/4 of their original size.

True, but I see his point. Like me he probably thought it went with the spirit of it since they would be different states.
 
Tennessee divided in half, with a Chattanooga based government controlling Franklin.

And why wouldn't Knoxville be the capital of this division, like Knoxville was of the entire state until 1817?

Plus if you want a Republican state, you just need to divide Tennessee somewhere along the Cumberland Plateau (like how TN nowadays defines "East Tennessee"). Including more of Tennessee would make this new state of Franklin a swing state or even a reliably Democratic state. I think the Republicans would like the two senators East Tennessee is almost always guaranteed to elect to counterbalance the two Democrat senators which Tennessee OTL almost always provided (even in the best years, Republicans found it very hard to mount a campaign during the time of the Solid South).

Or alternatively divide Tennessee along the West/Middle/East Tennessee distinction. Call West Tennessee "Jackson", East Tennessee "Franklin", leave Middle Tennessee just "Tennessee". But unless you protect the civil rights of the now freed Blacks in the state, that will guarantee you two Democrat states and four Democrat senators, amongst other political gains.

And that's a big problem, since unless you protect the rights of Black voters, you'll be giving more influence and power to Southern Democrats once they "Redeem" their states.
 
Your "conquer and divide" scheme has a certain logic .... a logic that reduces risk of any one state becoming powerful enough to secede from the union.

I would like to see states divided by topography, religion, economy, micro-climate, etc. so that slave-employing plantations are in separate states from hillbillies or fishermen.
It would be most amusing to watch (formerly) poor mountain states surpass slave-employing states as coal and steel increase in importance during the industrial revolution.
Hah!
Hah!
OTL the south industrialized later than New England.
 
Your "conquer and divide" scheme has a certain logic .... a logic that reduces risk of any one state becoming powerful enough to secede from the union.

I would like to see states divided by topography, religion, economy, micro-climate, etc. so that slave-employing plantations are in separate states from hillbillies or fishermen.
It would be most amusing to watch (formerly) poor mountain states surpass slave-employing states as coal and steel increase in importance during the industrial revolution.
Hah!
Hah!
OTL the south industrialized later than New England.

Wouldn't necessarily happen, looking at Western Virginia. They'd just take the coal, iron, and other resources to the place where the labour was.
 
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