Reconstruction: The Second American Revolution - The Sequel to Until Every Drop of Blood Is Paid

[Whiteshore]

Great update. With over a third of the freed slaves living in homesteads like this, it sounds like there's a great possibility the economy down there will recover somewhat quickly. Hopefully, at least the poor whites will be able to accept this and see the way things are going is helping them, too.

The other big advantage this gives is that in some m8nds, the freedom might be a little more accepted because having land was a status symbol

And on that note, the lack of sharecropping means urbanization of African-Americans is going to be more rapid than OTL, which is also a good sign owing to the role of urbanization at breaking old class distinctions and social hierarchies

 

[A Random Man]

This would probably be a good OTL Freedman to be a possible president, maybe in the 1920s, maybe 1910s of someone suggested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_P._Cheatham&ie=UTF-8

Having read up on the man, I'd say he'd make a good Vice President for any Republican Presidency. Him having a white father could convince southerners that he represents true reconciliation between White/Black and North/South.

 

[PrognosticHannya]

Great update. With over a third of the freed slaves living in homesteads like this, it sounds like there's a great possibility the economy down there will recover somewhat quickly. Hopefully, at least the poor whites will be able to accept this and see the way things are going is helping them, too.

Yeah for some reason I doubt it lol

 

[A Random Man]

Yeah for some reason I doubt it lol

Your probably gonna have to somehow physically separate whites and blacks from each other for a time. Both sides need grow and prosper after such a devastating war that affected the South, going too in your face about politics (despite the importance) could alienate people into sliding into reactionary ideology, something the white supremacists will exploit with the Union being firmly victorious over the Confederacy.

 

[HyperMuscularDemon]

Wow! Again a great chapter!

 

[Milarqui]

I join the others in congratulating you for the (high) quality of this chapter. It is very much welcome, and a good sight into what the black population was going through during and after the war.

There's only one thing I'd like to suggest, because there's a part that is ambiguous enough as to induce confusion:

One example was the freedman West Turner, who was asked if he had been whipped by a Union soldier.

I know what the real intent of the sentence is, but on a first reading I got confused because it sounded as if this West Turner was whipped by a Union soldier and asked if it had happened. If you were to change the bolded part to "who was asked by a Union soldier if he had been whipped", this would become clearer.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

And on that note, the lack of sharecropping means urbanization of African-Americans is going to be more rapid than OTL, which is also a good sign owing to the role of urbanization at breaking old class distinctions and social hierarchies

As long as that urbanization allows them to actually have a fair shake in the cities.

Of course, there's no reason black cities can't spring up in parfts of the South; after all, there will be parts of the South that are still rather underpopulated, given the vastness of some of these plantations. Perhaps they get tired of planting crops and having them ravaged in a few areas - or, as was implied, just the bad harvests of 1866-67 discourage them - and a group gets together and says, "Hey, who says we have to farm this? Let's ask for help getting a road through here and set up a small city." Especialy in Texas, where there's lots of room for growth, but even in other areas.

 

[The Angry Observer]

Great update. With over a third of the freed slaves living in homesteads like this, it sounds like there's a great possibility the economy down there will recover somewhat quickly. Hopefully, at least the poor whites will be able to accept this and see the way things are going is helping them, too.

The other big advantage this gives is that in some m8nds, the freedom might be a little more accepted because having land was a status symbol



This would probably be a good OTL Freedman to be a possible president, maybe in the 1920s, maybe 1910s of someone suggested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_P._Cheatham&ie=UTF-8

I believe Robert Smalls actually has an increased role in this TL-- I could see him being on a ticket.

 

[The Angry Observer]

Wow, great update! Excellent read all the way through, you really captured the messiness of "winning the peace", in many ways far more agonizing and complex than actually winning the war itself. I appreciate the detail you've tackled the whole thing with, the many different perspectives and how they're all affected by these events make it feel painfully real. It's comforting to know that however difficult it is, the struggles of everyone from Lincoln to the lowly grunts in the Union Army are fundamentally worthwhile and are creating a better nation and world.

 

[The Angry Observer]

The Treason trials will be very interesting to see. IOTL the Federals ultimately buckled on concerns that the Southern jury will acquit people like Jeff Davis. IIRC, it's been mentioned that were tried by military court, which practically guarantees the sentence. That said, the use of military courts will be divisive - there will be cries of despotism while even Republicans will express concerns that this sets a precedent for engineering a 'right' outcome for a trial. That said, I'll definitely be curious to see the Southern reaction to their leaders being hung. IOTL Jeff Davis got a big popularity boost despite being hated toward the end of the war. With the break down of order in the South, I see it being less likely, though it would inflame the diehards that have so far escaped engagement with Federal authorities.

It definitely can't be a normal civilian trial (Davis committed his crimes in Richmond, at his desk, where he would've been at the mercy of a jury of southern whites), which, to be fair, makes way more sense here because the south is still an active war zone. If I recall, the National Union's argument of peace kinda depended on there being an organized authority in the south to deal with, and after the Coup, that disintegrated. Toombs and Jackson may be dead but that doesn't change the fact that there's still a ton of Confederate forces running around, like Kirby Smith, and there's really nobody to accept their surrenders. The destruction in the south is also way worse.

It's politically easier, both because Lincoln and the Radicals have more power and because the south still is in rebellion for the most part, to argue that the Confederates should be tried by military courts. IIRC, ex parte Vallandigham would basically protect the tribunal's proceedings. The fact that they aren't hanging a "civilian" leader like Breckinridge/Davis is also going to make it a way easier pill to swallow. Even the Junta is mostly dead, and a lot of the other most notable Confederates have just been exiled. I imagine this is deliberate strategy on Lincoln's part, because it's way easier to hang a bunch of majors that massacred USCT than, say, Alexander Stephens.

It's been awhile since I read the original TL, so I may have missed something.

 

[DanMcCollum]

This likely falls outside the immediate scope pf this to, as it focuses primarily on the United States.

But the thought strikes me that the Union experiment in land redistribution, should it be successful (and it needs to be for this TL to reach the goals of the author) is going to be studied heavily in Europe.

As just one example, I suspect that it is going to really impact the goals, arguments and methods of the Irish Land League, once the Land Wars start in the 1870s. Michael Davitt, Dillon (and to a lesser extent, Parnell) were hyper aware of conditions in the United States and spent a great deal of time there.

And if the Southron Land Redistribution leads to greater productivity and wealth, an argument can be made that the abolition of the tenancy system in Ireland would do the same. And those leaders mentioned above would most certainly jump on the comparison to push their cause

 

[Arnold d.c]

It's politically easier, both because Lincoln and the Radicals have more power and because the south still is in rebellion for the most part, to argue that the Confederates should be tried by military courts. IIRC, ex parte Vallandigham would basically protect the tribunal's proceedings. The fact that they aren't hanging a "civilian" leader like Breckinridge/Davis is also going to make it a way easier pill to swallow. Even the Junta is mostly dead, and a lot of the other most notable Confederates have just been exiled. I imagine this is deliberate strategy on Lincoln's part, because it's way easier to hang a bunch of majors that massacred USCT than, say, Alexander Stephens.

IIRC Kirby-Smith has already fled to Mexico, with his army practically mutinying to dissolve itself. The epilogue in 'Until Every Drop of Blood is Paid' states that several civilians and military men were executed:
- Wade Hampton : cavalry commander in the Army of Northern Virginia
- Jeb Stuart: head of the cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia
- Governor Zebulon B. Vance: of NC, hung for actions against Unionists in NC
- James Chesnut: senator of SC, general in the Confederate Army
- Howell Cobb: former Speaker of House, one of the founders of the CSA
- Robert Barnwell Rhett: one of the founders of the CSA

Several received lighter sentences such as Georgia Governor Joseph Brown (10 years) and General Joseph Johnston (20 years, died in imprisonment due to ill health). A larger chunk seems to have fled or exiled.

Hmm, now that I look at it: there's no Jubal Early among the executed. Did he get away or is he awaiting trial?

 

[Whiteshore]

Hmm, now that I look at it: there's no Jubal Early among the executed. Did he get away or is he awaiting trial?

And there's always him getting killed in the last battles of the war, now you mentioned it.

 

[Arnold d.c]

And there's always him getting killed in the last battles of the war, now you mentioned it.

It's a possibility, but I expected one of the main figures of the Lost Cause to get his due.

 

[The Angry Observer]

IIRC Kirby-Smith has already fled to Mexico, with his army practically mutinying to dissolve itself. The epilogue in 'Until Every Drop of Blood is Paid' states that several civilians and military men were executed:
- Wade Hampton : cavalry commander in the Army of Northern Virginia
- Jeb Stuart: head of the cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia
- Governor Zebulon B. Vance: of NC, hung for actions against Unionists in NC
- James Chesnut: senator of SC, general in the Confederate Army
- Howell Cobb: former Speaker of House, one of the founders of the CSA
- Robert Barnwell Rhett: one of the founders of the CSA

Several received lighter sentences such as Georgia Governor Joseph Brown (10 years) and General Joseph Johnston (20 years, died in imprisonment due to ill health). A larger chunk seems to have fled or exiled.

Hmm, now that I look at it: there's no Jubal Early among the executed. Did he get away or is he awaiting trial?

I would think Early is among the guerrillas, but I don't recall anything said about him either.

All of these people are pretty easy targets-- they're way politically simpler to hang by military tribunal, especially given the circumstances, than OTL. I also don't think it really matters at the end of the day, since politically I doubt the north would have a big problem with hanging Confederate leaders. After all, the famous Union marching band song literally invokes hanging Jeff Davis on the nearest tree. Lincoln has been especially magnanimous from what we've seen, and it looks like capital punishment has been reserved for war leaders that directly committed illicit violence (beyond slavery). Even then, Lincoln has characteristically opted for alternative means of justice. I don't think there would be much serious political blowback.

 

[Whiteshore]

After all, the famous Union marching band song literally invokes hanging Jeff Davis on the nearest tree. Lincoln has been especially magnanimous from what we've seen, and it looks like capital punishment has been reserved for war leaders that directly committed illicit violence (beyond slavery). Even then, Lincoln has characteristically opted for alternative means of justice. I don't think there would be much serious political blowback.

And on that note, Cobb and Rhett, while not war criminals per se, got the rope for being prominent as "architects of secession" due to how they were both prominent fire-eaters and helped organize the nascent Confederate government.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

For those interested, the stories from the previous thread with Dr. Jacob Da Costa and his study on Soldier's Heart - which in our timeline became the first real study on stress but which TTL will be extended, because of the greater emotional toil on the country and connection with a few ambassadors, into greater understanding of trauma - can be found here and here

Dr. Jacob Da Costa smiled sadly at the coffee mug on his desk. He lifted his eyes as a familiar face entered. He grinned. "Mr. President."

"I can't stay long," Lincoln said as he entered, "but I wanted to give you at least a little good news myself as I visite4d some of the last of the soldiers here."

"Here" was Satterlee General Hospital in Philadelphia, a medical hospital which had opened in 1862. With the war now more or less over - though there were still slaves being told they were free even now, in the fall of 1865 - they had been told that the hospital would be closing.
LIncoln continued. "This has become its own little town of sorts, given how many were treated here. some of it is being transferred to a couupe of other area hospitals. Indeed, a small portion may be donated to the Institute for Colored Youth where Mr. Catto teaches."

"Good to know." Da Costa picked up his heavy coffee... well, people would later call it a mug. "Look; a tiny imprint from how often this or some other thing has sat here as I worked late into the night."

"Your work will be remembered. I still remember a few months ago when you interviewed me, as it were, as I was visiting our men. Rather than the lengthy interview regrding my memories of the attempt on my life, combined with wrestling exploits when I was young, you began asking me thigns like what I'd had for breakfast three days earlier. I thought it quite odd, but one never knows what will provoke a cry of 'Eureka' - the scientific mind puts things together in ways we who are not enamored with such gifts cannot comprehend."

"Indeed. I shall publish concerning this heart condition among soldiers either next year early the following." He would, indeed, publish it in 1867, after a year of proofreading and so on. "That will keep me busy. However, I continue to mull over this concept of anxiety. I find the concept fascinating, and feel there may be some sort of link between the heart and mind, between this heart condition among soldiers and whatever causes that little girl I mentioned last year, that child I learned about from the Napoleonic Wars, and others, children and adult, whom I have heard about to have these... symptoms."

"Keep upthe good work. I am certain that whatever school or hospital you work at next, you will be of great service."

"Thank you. I plan to go back to Thomas Jefferson University and teach. How long until the embassies start moving back?"

"It will be a while yet, but thankfully, we shall have a new birth of freedom, coupled with a brand new capital, produced by free men, black and white. It will be glorious to see the races united, freely contributing to it," LIncoln proclaimed.

"That it will.

------------------

Da Costa stopped in to see the stafffrom the Russian Embassy some days later. "This December wind is biting; but probably still better than the chill of MOscow," he remarked.

It certainly is. Do you have any more requests concerning the Napoleonic Wars? Unfortunately, when we contacted some of our leading doctors, we were not able to find anything other than what we have given, but I do have some friends who served in the Crimean War."

"Perhaps - if you can give me a summary of what you might be able to find, it would be helpful."

"Are you after your work is done, or going back to teaching?"

"Still practicing a little more, there are some soldiers who still have some very deep physical scars. It astounds me what one thing smashed against someone in close-quarter combat can do," he said idly.

----------------------

Dr. Da Costa had lost a two-month old boy, though he and his wife had one child. The couple had attended a Shakespearean play one evening and happened to see a familiar face.

"Mr. President," Da Costa called, waving to him. As the president and his wife came over, Da Costa introduced his wife. ""I knew that you enjoyed the theater;I would not have expected to see you here."

"After what I have been through already, a trip to the theater can't help but be relaxing." Lincoln chuckled. "I was considering another play as Mary and I chatted; those things you mentioned about soldiers and others seeing things that were there long ago reminded me of Lady MacBeth with that spot on her hand. Shakespeare was a genius when it came to understanding the human condition and utilizing it in his plays. I have lately had the time to consider that Ophelia's is a story as tragic as Hamlet's, for had she merely waited, she could have married Fortinbras or, if he was too old, his eldest son and become Queen herself. Just as we did not give up but hung on till the traitors were defeated, and we shall hang on until the peace is won, too."

"A fascinating observation, Mr. President; thank you."

-----------------

Da Costa relaxed in his office soon after theNew Year, 1866, dawned. He picked up his glass and mulled over all of the various factors in his mind, all the information he was collecting. Two little girls, half a century apart,fixated on a battle in the same way the soldiers he'd observed had. Scary dreams reported by soldiers and civilians alike. How could the heart impact the mind in some of these ways, when it was not just soldiers, but civilians. Especially, from the few inerviews he'd done with USCT soldiers, former slaves, who had a few of those symptoms - but not the Soldier's Heart - stemming frmo peacetime.

Although, from what he'd been hearing there had been no such thing as peace for the slave.

But, that was for another day. Slavery was dead; dead as a doornail. But those symptoms... was it something different, or... was it connected?

Indeed, could it be not only connected to Soldier's Heart, but actually the catalyst? And if it was the catalyst, then how?How did something produce Soldiers' Heart in soldiers, dramatic re-creations and terrifying hallucinations in children, and so on?

He'd slowly been able to help that one child to focus on other things, the power of prayer was helping with the nightmares, even trying to teach her to control them. that would be an interesting tact. But to treat it more easily, he needed to figure out how something int he brain could be a catalyst for all those myriad things.
he gazed at the ring as he picked up his heavy cup. President LIncoln was right; Dr. Da Costa, too, had pondered Lady MacBeth at times. He thought of the scars of not only that spot on her hand, which had been self-inflicted through her joining in treachery, but also those inflicted by battle, both external and...

Wait. Where had THAT come from?
And yet, as he pondered, he wondered about the brain. Could it be that somehow, some sort of imprint - like memories, but somehow... stronger - could foist itself onto the brain to such an extent that it affects the rest of the body?

He gazed at his stack of papers from the subjects who had sat waiting for him when the firecracker was set off - a study he would also publish sometime. Expectations but also reactions among athletes and non-athletes, male and female, soldiers and non-soldiers, adults and children, all with a myriad of combinations of each in the subjects - if one counted the few 13- through 15-year-old Confederate soldiers brought in near the end of the war - and test and control groups. Perhaps this, too, tied in - there went another round of his walking to various embassies while they remained in Philadelphia to get more possible studies and more European colleagues to correspond with.

He gazed at the ring on his desk left by the cup, and pondered... what if somehow, there was a method to all of this? A scale by which one could measure the impact of... these imprints, he supposed he would call them? And what if these imprints were the cause of these myriad cases of what he'd thought was "just" Soldier's Heart, but which were clearly impacting civiliants, too. And if too consistent an injury to the brain came, or too sharp of an injury at once, and it led to that imprint which led to...

He continued to stare at the stain on his desk as he pondered the anxiety reported by soldiers and civilians alike. Slowly, the seedling of an idea germinated in his mind, till at once, he slammed the cup down and let out a shout that reverberated into the PHiladelphia night.

"EUREKA!"

------------------

A/N: Dr. Da Costa didn't just magically come up with the idea of PTSD; but this is a logical step. Indeed the idea of an "imprint" will change from somehow physical (if microscopic) once the chemical and electric processes are discovered. Rightnow, it's more like a conceptthat will make sense to others, they'll just keep trying to figure out how those imprints get there.

However, the greater number of civilians as well as soldiers being seen with the same symptoms, his access to embassies from other nations as well as the President and other government leaders, and indeed perhaps even the greater carnage forcing him to work later and have that stain on his desk, have allowed his study on anxiety, which will be published in 1871 as OTL, to be changed and become more tied in to the stress he's observed here, as well as seeing a more direct link with the mind, and gathering correctly that what happens in the mind, psychologically, is affecting the rest of the body.

So, what has happened is that a few tweaks allowed his study into anxiety to nudge him toward the idea of post-traumatic stress, as well as to allow his concept of imprints caused by various things to become a more sensible basis for psychoanalysis, potentially, once that is developed, rather than Freud's more intense sexual stuff.

Edfit: It will also help to explain the desire for nostalgia that soldiers had afterward, as it is a familiar, safe "imprint" - but that will be for later studies.

 

[The Angry Observer]

And on that note, Cobb and Rhett, while not war criminals per se, got the rope for being prominent as "architects of secession" due to how they were both prominent fire-eaters and helped organize the nascent Confederate government.

Yeah. Typically the immediate aftermath of the war is when it's easiest to get away with hanging the losers under military law. It's really easy to do this when the south is an active war zone and Lincoln has been as wise and generous as he has ITL. He also has 80% majorities in both chambers.

 

[Daztur]

I posted on the old thread about how massively important land reform is for building a middle class. Even if landowning farmers don't have much money, they make it MUCH MUCH easier for their kids to be able to break into the middle class compared to sharecroppers or tenant farmers.

For example, I really think that the post-WW II land reform that happened in South Korea (made much easier by the Japanese breaking the back of the old South Korean landowning class and then getting kicked out themselves) really helped with the building of the South Korean middle class in the post-war period despite having a lot of rural areas be pretty badly neglected by economic policy under the dictatorship. Just really simple things like being able to send a box of food to your kids in the city, having "well if thing go south in the city I can go back to the farm and at least eat" as a viable fall-back plan, or being able to sell your one and only cow to cover tuition to give you kid a good shot at life made a MASSIVE difference and would often be impossible for a sharecropper to do.

This was still the case with South Korea farming being pretty inefficient and not very mechanized even today.

 

[Red_Galiray]

Please like the update and share any thoughts you might have!

Moving to something else I've been thinking... could in the next few decades a freedman President be elected out of the grouping of freedman politicians that are undoubtedly going to stick around ITTL where they faded into the background OTL?


Imagining both's OTL positions reversed is just hilarious.

It'll take much longer to see the first Black President... probably after the turn of the century. What's true is that there will be a class of Black politicians and party bosses. We could see Black families with an august lineage that they can trace back to the Civil War and Reconstruction, similarly to White people talking of their Revolutionary war origins.

If Reconstruction is a success in the US as @Red_Galiray says, I see the potential for a popularly elected Black President coming in the mid 1930s to early 1940s IMO.

I mean, I've defined success as Black people enjoying legal equality, the Republican Party or its successors remaining viable in the South, and the nation not descending into the nadir of race relations. I don't think completely eliminating racism within two or three generations would be likely. Though, I guess, a Black president is a possibility by that time.

Now, I finally join this Timeline, too.

I am excited to see where Reconstruction will lead America. Hopefully, to a better Future than in OTL.

Glad to have you on-board!

I agree. You could potentially get one sooner by being first nominated as a Vice-President (a nice feel-good measure, to show the rank and file that the party cares for the Freedmen as an interest group) and then the President (in)conveniently shakes off the mortal coil. Though, I suspect that a Freedmen President gaining office in such a way would have a great deal of challanges to his legitimacy and it would be a difficult presidency. If the economy is good, and they really go above and beyond in pushing popular policies and governing effectively, they could find themselves nominated for a term of their own and MAYBE narrowly win.

Its important to remember that this timeline is going to see LESS racism towards Freedmen and their descendents, and the hard racism of Jim Crow , state-mandated segregation laws and the like are not going to exist. But there's still going to be a lot of soft racism and bias in the country that will take a lot longer to go away (or die down to such a level that it can be overcome in the political arena).

Yeah, I've always talked of less racism, not no racism. I, however, would like the first Black president to be someone who wins the Presidency outright. Maybe we could see a Black Vice-President being the first Black major party nominee, and then maybe winning?

Random thought, but Black Americans need their own Henry Clay's, influential politicians that while not gaining the Presidency had a massive impact on future policy throughout the US. Getting decades of black politicians holding their own, and even dominating, in DC will provide great dividends in showing to the American populace their worthiness for accession to the White House.

Certainly. It'll take a little while more but we'll soon see Black people in all important positions, including Senators, Cabinet members, Governors, etc.

If one would come out of ITTL civil war, it would probably involve the black version of William McKinley for example (a young soldier)

However, I could see reconstruction era black politicians get into high positions like cabinet secretaries or leaders in congress

Exactly.

As they said in the Middle Ages, city air makes one free.

Yes, in many ways the initial urbanization of the South happened because of Black people fleeing the countryside for the cities, where greater security, more job opportunities, and Federal power awaited. Several cities saw their Black population double or triple, or even quadruple during this era. It also created a pattern of settlement of a main White city surrounded by Black shantytowns. Hopefully we can pacify the Southern countryside and accomplish a more orderly rural to urban migration pattern, resulting in more integrated cities.

@Red_Galiray Amazing work! And yes! Military occupation to enforce the New laws!

The first steps towards a better United States are beign taken!

Thanks for your comment! And yes, the work is beginning now

Great stuff as usula!

Thank you

Good chapter, nice to see successful land distribution among the black populace with the collapse of the Confederacy. I can already see the books/films/shows having tales black managed towns having fending for themselves against the savage hordes of evil white planters. Keep up the good work.

Oh, I can imagine towns banding together to defend themselves against Junta-supporting returning veterans becoming a staple of American cinema. Of the "Southern," as it was discussed previously.

Good update! We've seen the better conditions of the freedman vs. OTL building up in the ACW. Now, it's time to develop and actually defend those developments. I assume that more home farms will be formed along with their defending regiments. I'm sure there's plenty of discarded small arms from both the Federal and rebel armies to give around. Speaking of which, what will be done with home farm regiments? Will they later perhaps be reclassified as National Guard to ensure the army's numbers stay below the cap set by Congress?

That's a good starting number - IIRC W.E.B. Du Bois once estimated that the freedmen needed 25-50 million acres if they were to become independent peasant farmers. With better leasing conditions, their starting situation is better than OTL. One aspect that I considered was the conflict between farmers and merchants. IOTL since the South's banking sector was utterly destroyed due to its support of the Confederacy, farmers had to rely on merchants for both crops and credit. Maybe this is what the Freedman's Bank can be repurposed to later. On another note, there's bound to be a bit of hardship over the droughts in 1866-67 - on the other hand, if less cotton and more food was planted, there might be less hardship vs. IOTL.

The Treason trials will be very interesting to see. IOTL the Federals ultimately buckled on concerns that the Southern jury will acquit people like Jeff Davis. IIRC, it's been mentioned that were tried by military court, which practically guarantees the sentence. That said, the use of military courts will be divisive - there will be cries of despotism while even Republicans will express concerns that this sets a precedent for engineering a 'right' outcome for a trial. That said, I'll definitely be curious to see the Southern reaction to their leaders being hung. IOTL Jeff Davis got a big popularity boost despite being hated toward the end of the war. With the break down of order in the South, I see it being less likely, though it would inflame the diehards that have so far escaped engagement with Federal authorities.

Given that the war is technically over, the Home Farm regiments that will be formed will probably be National Guard units instead, while those that already existed will either be folded into the National Guard or become more irregular Union League paramilitaries. The development of the National Guard will be interesting indeed.

Yes, the freedmen's position is infinitely better than OTL. Even those who didn't receive land directly are in a much better position, since with Black landowners, and even a few large proprietors, they have more options than working for the planters or dying. I also had the Freedmen's Bank and that Southern Unionist Bank in mind for future credit. For the time, the Bureau offers seed and tools as part of its "cotton-mule" policy, which allows loyalists to receive them and later pay with a share of their crop, but this policy won't be in there forever. As for the drought, I thought that having cotton production take a little longer to start anew could at least assure that cotton prices remain high come 1866, meaning that yeomen would have been able to build a little wealth first.

I think that within this TL's historiography the treason trials will be some of the most complex and controversial episodes in American jurisprudence. The use of military courts is a given, and given the Southern conditions their use is rather justified, but many will see these as controversial for a host of reason we'll discuss soon. As for the consequences, the Coup was a big deal in part because it cleaved Southerners in two regarding their opinion of their leaders. Many aren't likely to shed tears for supporters of the Junta that killed Breckinridge, and then oppressed and starved them. But still, the Union keeps in mind the popularity of those in trial when determining whether execution, imprisonment, or exile is the correct choice.

great one. Can't wait for the next

Thanks so much!

Great update. With over a third of the freed slaves living in homesteads like this, it sounds like there's a great possibility the economy down there will recover somewhat quickly. Hopefully, at least the poor whites will be able to accept this and see the way things are going is helping them, too.

The other big advantage this gives is that in some m8nds, the freedom might be a little more accepted because having land was a status symbol



This would probably be a good OTL Freedman to be a possible president, maybe in the 1920s, maybe 1910s of someone suggested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_P._Cheatham&ie=UTF-8

At the very least breaking the plantation is bound to erode the "colonial" mold of the Southern economy and lead to earlier diversification and industrialization. As for acceptance... it'll be hard. At these with poor Whites we'll need a mix of accommodation, force, and enticement, tying Black landowning to their own benefits. Making them believe that Black people losing their lands could make them lose the land they also had been granted could be a beginning. And you're right, that at least in the North they could see the freedmen as a fulfillment of Jefferson's ideal of an independent farmer as a true republican man.

Your probably gonna have to somehow physically separate whites and blacks from each other for a time. Both sides need grow and prosper after such a devastating war that affected the South, going too in your face about politics (despite the importance) could alienate people into sliding into reactionary ideology, something the white supremacists will exploit with the Union being firmly victorious over the Confederacy.

Most Black people actually wished for a degree of social separation in the short term, given their understandable resentment of Whites. While we won't see State-sponsored legal segregation, for the first few decades we'll probably see little integration in the private sphere. And trying to force it can only be disastrous.

Wow! Again a great chapter!

Thanks for reading!

I join the others in congratulating you for the (high) quality of this chapter. It is very much welcome, and a good sight into what the black population was going through during and after the war.

There's only one thing I'd like to suggest, because there's a part that is ambiguous enough as to induce confusion:

I know what the real intent of the sentence is, but on a first reading I got confused because it sounded as if this West Turner was whipped by a Union soldier and asked if it had happened. If you were to change the bolded part to "who was asked by a Union soldier if he had been whipped", this would become clearer.

Thank you for your kind comment And yeah, you're right. I'll fix that.

As long as that urbanization allows them to actually have a fair shake in the cities.

Of course, there's no reason black cities can't spring up in parfts of the South; after all, there will be parts of the South that are still rather underpopulated, given the vastness of some of these plantations. Perhaps they get tired of planting crops and having them ravaged in a few areas - or, as was implied, just the bad harvests of 1866-67 discourage them - and a group gets together and says, "Hey, who says we have to farm this? Let's ask for help getting a road through here and set up a small city." Especialy in Texas, where there's lots of room for growth, but even in other areas.

That's very likely. Whenever Black people IOTL managed to acquire land, they prefered to have plots one next to the other, which were farmed almost communally. Especially in the Black belt areas that saw extensive land redistribution, we may see entirely Black cities.

Wow, great update! Excellent read all the way through, you really captured the messiness of "winning the peace", in many ways far more agonizing and complex than actually winning the war itself. I appreciate the detail you've tackled the whole thing with, the many different perspectives and how they're all affected by these events make it feel painfully real. It's comforting to know that however difficult it is, the struggles of everyone from Lincoln to the lowly grunts in the Union Army are fundamentally worthwhile and are creating a better nation and world.

Thank you, you're very kind I do try to approach every event described from a multifaceted angle, to explain as best as I can how difficult this period would be for the people living through it, and yet at the same time to show how the little people still have agency and a role in shaping this new world, not just the leaders at the top.

It definitely can't be a normal civilian trial (Davis committed his crimes in Richmond, at his desk, where he would've been at the mercy of a jury of southern whites), which, to be fair, makes way more sense here because the south is still an active war zone. If I recall, the National Union's argument of peace kinda depended on there being an organized authority in the south to deal with, and after the Coup, that disintegrated. Toombs and Jackson may be dead but that doesn't change the fact that there's still a ton of Confederate forces running around, like Kirby Smith, and there's really nobody to accept their surrenders. The destruction in the south is also way worse.

It's politically easier, both because Lincoln and the Radicals have more power and because the south still is in rebellion for the most part, to argue that the Confederates should be tried by military courts. IIRC, ex parte Vallandigham would basically protect the tribunal's proceedings. The fact that they aren't hanging a "civilian" leader like Breckinridge/Davis is also going to make it a way easier pill to swallow. Even the Junta is mostly dead, and a lot of the other most notable Confederates have just been exiled. I imagine this is deliberate strategy on Lincoln's part, because it's way easier to hang a bunch of majors that massacred USCT than, say, Alexander Stephens.

It's been awhile since I read the original TL, so I may have missed something.

No, you're spot on! For the most part only the most prominent Confederates are being trialed, and usually the Union authorities find the argument of war crimes easier than that of treason. The trials, we'll soon see, open a lot of questions regarding the true nature of treason, the limits of military jurisdiction, and also how to separate between the Breckinridge government and the Junta without granting legitimacy to either of them. In many ways, the Coup has helped Lincoln because it's easier to justify treating the Junta and its supporters this way. Had Breckinridge been captured, I could see the question of trials collapsing as it did IOTL.

This likely falls outside the immediate scope pf this to, as it focuses primarily on the United States.

But the thought strikes me that the Union experiment in land redistribution, should it be successful (and it needs to be for this TL to reach the goals of the author) is going to be studied heavily in Europe.

As just one example, I suspect that it is going to really impact the goals, arguments and methods of the Irish Land League, once the Land Wars start in the 1870s. Michael Davitt, Dillon (and to a lesser extent, Parnell) were hyper aware of conditions in the United States and spent a great deal of time there.

And if the Southron Land Redistribution leads to greater productivity and wealth, an argument can be made that the abolition of the tenancy system in Ireland would do the same. And those leaders mentioned above would most certainly jump on the comparison to push their cause

It indeed will probably be the referent for land redistribution worthwhile, and for the goals of all kinds of reform and revolutionary movements. I'm afraid that I know little of Ireland, so I can't really delve deeply into the exact consequences there.

IIRC Kirby-Smith has already fled to Mexico, with his army practically mutinying to dissolve itself. The epilogue in 'Until Every Drop of Blood is Paid' states that several civilians and military men were executed:
- Wade Hampton : cavalry commander in the Army of Northern Virginia
- Jeb Stuart: head of the cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia
- Governor Zebulon B. Vance: of NC, hung for actions against Unionists in NC
- James Chesnut: senator of SC, general in the Confederate Army
- Howell Cobb: former Speaker of House, one of the founders of the CSA
- Robert Barnwell Rhett: one of the founders of the CSA

Several received lighter sentences such as Georgia Governor Joseph Brown (10 years) and General Joseph Johnston (20 years, died in imprisonment due to ill health). A larger chunk seems to have fled or exiled.

Hmm, now that I look at it: there's no Jubal Early among the executed. Did he get away or is he awaiting trial?

I actually meant to include Jubal Early with those executed, but for some reason I overlooked him. But, yes, he's totally been executed alongside the rest of the people in this list, which is not meant to be exhaustive, but only provide some prominent names.

For those interested, the stories from the previous thread with Dr. Jacob Da Costa and his study on Soldier's Heart - which in our timeline became the first real study on stress but which TTL will be extended, because of the greater emotional toil on the country and connection with a few ambassadors, into greater understanding of trauma - can be found here and here

Nice vigenette. Thank you, my friend.

I posted on the old thread about how massively important land reform is for building a middle class. Even if landowning farmers don't have much money, they make it MUCH MUCH easier for their kids to be able to break into the middle class compared to sharecroppers or tenant farmers.

For example, I really think that the post-WW II land reform that happened in South Korea (made much easier by the Japanese breaking the back of the old South Korean landowning class and then getting kicked out themselves) really helped with the building of the South Korean middle class in the post-war period despite having a lot of rural areas be pretty badly neglected by economic policy under the dictatorship. Just really simple things like being able to send a box of food to your kids in the city, having "well if thing go south in the city I can go back to the farm and at least eat" as a viable fall-back plan, or being able to sell your one and only cow to cover tuition to give you kid a good shot at life made a MASSIVE difference and would often be impossible for a sharecropper to do.

This was still the case with South Korea farming being pretty inefficient and not very mechanized even today.

Of course! One of the many tragedies of Reconstruction's failure is that it actively prevented Black children from building up wealth. This, plus States that still include them in the body politic, will allow for a much bigger, stronger, and stable Black middle class. We'll probably see similar stories of future generations of Black people remembering how their parents had been granted very small homesteads by the Federals, yet they were able to endure and put their kids through college, or make them learn valuable skills, or through hard work amass more land.