| March 2 |  |
Editor says, what if John Calhoun had led a second unsuccessful bid for American independence? muses Eric Lipps. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1841, the Second American Insurrection [against the British Empire] ends with the capture of the last of its leaders, "provisional president" John Calhoun.
Calhoun CapturedThe South Carolina native is arrested in East Florida while attempting to take passage aboard a ship bound for Cuba. He will be executed for treason a month later.
Disorganized rebel bands will continue to operate throughout the formerly slaveholding South for years, often under banners based on the so-called "Eagle and Stars" adopted as the flag of the "United Commonwealths of America" declared by the rebels. This emblem featured an eagle with wings outspread, one claw clutching a set of arrows and the other an olive branch, surrounded by a wreath of stars, one for each commonwealth of the Union, on a blue field.
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Liberty Fails Source: Wikipedia Labels: John Calhoun, America, Slavery, Georgia, Andrew Jackson. Editor says, this event never occurred at all in our history. It's a "butterfly" following the collapse of the American Revolution in the 1770s because of Southern rejection of the Declaration of Independence.
~ I have been reading Liberty Fails thread for years, but only reading this article tonight it occurred to me the consequences of an "Angry Eagle" hence the choice of picture.
~ Headed for the Caribbean - always a thorn in the side of the British Empire.
~ Tariffs might be enough for a war. Anything that hits people in their pocketbooks is enough to act.
~ So what was New England doing? And did they have some sort of local "Congress" (one loyal to Britain, of course) to levy taxes?
~ The "states' rights" Confederates cared about were their rights to own, buy and sell African-Americans. This is made abundantly clear by (1) demands after the 1860 election that its outcome be ignored and a pro-slavery candidate (there were three candidates, of varying persuasions, besides Lincoln) installed as president; (2) the secession resolutions of such states as South Carolina, which stated baldly that protecting slavery was the reason for leaving the Union; and (3) the Confederate constitution, which explicitly prohibited the passage of any law "denying or impairing the right of property in Negro slaves." The slaveholding South certainly didn't care about the "states' rights" of Northern states: in the 1850s they demanded that the federal government send in troops if necessary to force the surrender of runaway slaves residing in free states.
As for South Carolina standing alone, that was during the "nullification crisis" in our history, a few years prior to the Insurrection in this timeline. In this timeline, the entire South faced a threat to its most cherished institution due to Britain's decision to ban slavery throughout the Empire.
And as for New England, its states, or rather colonies (remember, this alternate America is still under British rule) contribute troops to fight the Insurrection alongside the British. While independence sentiment remains, in this instance it's trumped by offense at the South's choice to rebel to keep slavery.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
