A coat of arms was even drawn up and I felt really inspired by how much attention had been paid to the initial post. I had written a bit of fiction as inspiration and I'm now feeling more and more compelled to flesh this out into a full fledged story. How does this premise sound?
"In 1863, the Union Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade is routed at Gettysburg, dissolving in a disorganized retreat from Confederate military forces under General Robert E. Lee after a decisive Confederate cavalry raid by General JEB Stuart breaks the Union forces in the area.
With the road to Washington wide open, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, signs the Confederate drafted Instrument of Surrender which recognizes the right of the Confederate States of America to exist and protects the legal right of states to leave the Union as they so choose. Over night, Confederate governments spring up in the border states and the economic and military power of the United States slides slowly into irrelevance. After several decades of Union losses and Confederate gains in the West and in the Caribbean and Mexico, the Confederacy enters the 20th century as the dominant power in North America.
In the 1930s, the South falls on hard economic times as the world plunges into the Great Depression. The South's former slaves, freed by act of President Gustave Tutant Beauregard in 1917 in reaction to fears of reaction by anarchist radicals, are still horribly oppressed and are now denied even the meager wages of the sharecropping farms that have gone under in reaction to decreased demand from factories in Europe and the border states of the Confederacy. Uniting with prominent Southern Communists and dissatisfied veterans of the Confederate actions against Mexico in World War I, they march on Richmond and seize the capitol, executing President Thomas Hardwick and installing a vanguard party, headed by a Stalinst strongman to oversee the Confederacy.
On 5, May 1932, The Confederate States are reorganized into The Soviet Confederacy of America; a Workers' state in direct alliance with the Soviet Union."
Anyway, that's what I've got. The starting date is currently in flux, but I have a general idea of what I want in terms of characters. The latter half of the Civil War, for example, where things dovetail from our established timeline would be narrated by General Lee as he oversees the surrender of Lincoln's Union and the efforts to secure Confederate territories West of the Mississippi from rogue Union generals, Mexican military officers making a bid for lost territories, and bands of Indians who've been forced to try to invade new lands after being pushed from their homes by a desperate and dying Union. Lee, who evidence suggests might have held anti-slavery tendencies, will be firmly anti-slavery in this story, but his convictions will ultimately be swayed by what his civilian liasons tell him is best for his beloved Virginia.
The story would then continue under the presidency of General Beauregard as he battles to keep the Confederacy afloat amid economic crises and threats from the overpowerful constituent states that make up the Confederacy. All the while, the nation experiences explosive post-War economic growth which, despite a (real world) constitutional ban on the importation of further slaves, forces the nation to kidnap more innocents from Africa, fueling the growth of a discontented underclass.
Finally, I will have original characters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries discussing the proliferation of reading skills amongst the slaves, the smuggling of copies of The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital by unknown foreign agents to plantations across the South, the "freeing" of the slaves into indentured servitude under the tenure of President Beauregard, reactions to the Soviet revolution of 1917 and finally, the successful revolution of the workers against their former masters.
Characters in that stage of the story would include a labor organizer, President Beauregard, a plantation owner, an indentured former slave, one of the first female politicians in the Confederacy, the Union ambassador to the Confederacy, a hypothetical descendant of General Lee working to spread egalitarian ideals in the Confederate military (a large portion of which will defect during the Revolution), and others.
Overall, I am planning for this to be a very morally ambiguous tale - the sort of thing I've really always wanted to do. Both sides would have sympathetic characters and both sides would have brutal monsters. What I can promise you utmost is this, though. I can provide readers with a thrilling look at what could have been had things just made a sharp left turn at one of the most important intersections in the history of these United States. If enough people show interest, I can actually realistically guarantee that I'll have this written. I already have a very good, very talented, and very enthusiastic friend helping me with the characters, so I think this thing has a shot. I even have a tentative title: Red States.
UPDATE: 1, December 2012: My story has received mention from the good people over at Today in Alternate History! Thanks, guys! Have some additional art, while I'm updating here.
Anyway, that's what I've got. The starting date is currently in flux, but I have a general idea of what I want in terms of characters. The latter half of the Civil War, for example, where things dovetail from our established timeline would be narrated by General Lee as he oversees the surrender of Lincoln's Union and the efforts to secure Confederate territories West of the Mississippi from rogue Union generals, Mexican military officers making a bid for lost territories, and bands of Indians who've been forced to try to invade new lands after being pushed from their homes by a desperate and dying Union. Lee, who evidence suggests might have held anti-slavery tendencies, will be firmly anti-slavery in this story, but his convictions will ultimately be swayed by what his civilian liasons tell him is best for his beloved Virginia.
The story would then continue under the presidency of General Beauregard as he battles to keep the Confederacy afloat amid economic crises and threats from the overpowerful constituent states that make up the Confederacy. All the while, the nation experiences explosive post-War economic growth which, despite a (real world) constitutional ban on the importation of further slaves, forces the nation to kidnap more innocents from Africa, fueling the growth of a discontented underclass.
Finally, I will have original characters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries discussing the proliferation of reading skills amongst the slaves, the smuggling of copies of The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital by unknown foreign agents to plantations across the South, the "freeing" of the slaves into indentured servitude under the tenure of President Beauregard, reactions to the Soviet revolution of 1917 and finally, the successful revolution of the workers against their former masters.
Characters in that stage of the story would include a labor organizer, President Beauregard, a plantation owner, an indentured former slave, one of the first female politicians in the Confederacy, the Union ambassador to the Confederacy, a hypothetical descendant of General Lee working to spread egalitarian ideals in the Confederate military (a large portion of which will defect during the Revolution), and others.
Overall, I am planning for this to be a very morally ambiguous tale - the sort of thing I've really always wanted to do. Both sides would have sympathetic characters and both sides would have brutal monsters. What I can promise you utmost is this, though. I can provide readers with a thrilling look at what could have been had things just made a sharp left turn at one of the most important intersections in the history of these United States. If enough people show interest, I can actually realistically guarantee that I'll have this written. I already have a very good, very talented, and very enthusiastic friend helping me with the characters, so I think this thing has a shot. I even have a tentative title: Red States.
UPDATE: 1, December 2012: My story has received mention from the good people over at Today in Alternate History! Thanks, guys! Have some additional art, while I'm updating here.
The great seal of the Soviet Confederacy of America, courtesy of redditor Bezbojnicul.
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