Something Completely Different

As I was falling asleep last night, I came up with a curious notion - a sort of alternate history based on a scientific renaissance in the 1850s. I'm posting it here, because I think you might appreciate it, and it's pretty convenient to do so.

The story begins in the mid-1840s, with the American reform movements of that time. In contrast to real history, no abolitionist movement arises - instead, there is a civil rights movement for slaves, not working for their freedom (as, after all, they were legitimately purchased and owned), but rather seeking to give them protection against the abuses of their masters. By 1854, several northern states have created civil rights laws for slaves; a large-scale border feud in the newly created states of Kansas and Nebraska - Nebraska's possession of such laws, in contrast to Kansas's lack, inspiring large numbers of runaways to the north - is seen as a referendum on the movement. When federal troops move in to quash the fighting, it is clear that slavery's time is at an end. President Lincoln's greatest moment is widely seen as being in 1865, in his second term, as he presided over the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. The amendment guaranteed civil rights to all slaves and freedom to the children of all current slaves; behind-the-scenes negotiations promised large-scale support for Southern industrialization in return. By 1865, only two states failed to ratify: Louisiana and Arkansas.

Without a cataclysmic war, and with increasing Southern industrialization (if with less aid than was promised), America boomed, reaching heights of productivity that were only reached in our history two decades later. Steel production boomed after the invention of a new steel-production process; created by the free child of a black slave. Electric streetlights, newly devised, filled the cities with light. America bounded ahead, as the rest of the world watched in astonishment.

Part Two will come later. This should be a three-part series; we'll see how it goes.