My “If the Confederacy Had Won”

A Funny Girl
Jul 21, 2017 · 2 min read

I just read an AV Club article about why we should stop reimagining what the world would be like today if the South had been the visitors in the (American) Civil War.

So, of course, and so very immediately, my brain started shooting me ideas for what would make a truly unique version of this thought experiment. I have no interest in writing an actual short story (let alone novel or script or whatever) with this premise, but I thought it might be fun (and a good #OpenMicWrite exercise) to outline some of the thoughts I had on it.

  1. The South wins the war.
  2. Slavery continues to exist in Amercia.
  3. Word spreads slowly, but news of the failed “war of northern aggression” actually emboldens…
  4. Revolts, which had been popping up from before the war, continue to arise with growing frequency and strength.
  5. The underground railroad continues to function, but now free black folks also use it to infiltrate the Confederacy to spread information, literacy, and help coordinate attacks.
  6. Side note: Any “good” white people, in these stories, would play supplemental roles, helping slaves learn how to read, arrange contact points, exchange info, etc (and of course would serve as the main antagonists)
  7. The main actors, of course, are the black men and women. Northerners risking their own freedom to help their brothers and sisters in chains, and the actual slaves who lead and participate in the revolts which lead to…
  8. Revolution!
  9. One by one the states of the confederacy fall and are taken control of by various factions of former slaves.
  10. The revolutions in the surrounding states scare a lot of whites into fleeing their homes, and most of them end up in the last state to stage a revolution, Georgia.
  11. Because it was last, giving it’s government the most time to prepare, and it was now full of very angry whites, Georgia remains a slave state. Now a slave country.
  12. But the Second American Revolution (AR II) is considered a success.
  13. The United States, eager to get some of their former states back, ruin any chance of the remainder of the states to remain a country.
  14. A few states rejoin the Union, a handful of others turn into small countries of their own, while a cluster of landlocked states become the Free Peoples’ Union
  15. Florida, now cut off from the other now free states, ends up Balkanizing, with Georgia desperately grabbing it’s northern chunk for itself before the dust finally settles.

And this is where we are as the world enters the 20th century. From here it seems like there are countless possibilities. Maybe some become exemplars of the democratic notions that the US was built on? Maybe some of these nations fall under the sway of communism? How long until a very weakened Georgia is taken over by a stronger power? Will Europe create a new foothold in Florida?

I guess that’s it. Feel free to use these ideas for yourself and/or tell me how wrong I am because of numbers or geography or whatever. The only research I did was make sure I used the word “Balkanizing” right.

)

A Funny Girl

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Writing to be a better writer. Stand out mom by day. Stand up comedian by night. I hope to be embarrassed by the quality of my work here someday soon.

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