slavery

The cotton gin is widely regarded as one of the most transformative industrial inventions in agriculture, by making a minor crop into one of the forefronts of American industrialisation. Invented in 1794, Eli Whitney's machine was renowned for being able to remove the seeds from over 50 pounds...

So, assume that Abraham Lincoln does not get elected in 1860, and Stephen Douglas becomes president instead. He throws some bones to WASP conservatives, maybe even negotiates a provision that would allow for gradual abolishment of slavery in the southern states with compensation for the...

I wanted to branch off in a new thread similar to the one previously made but from a topic that was not exactly covered: slavery, specifically the development of a plantation economy or a mecantilist economy. Would England send in families or single men ? Would there even be a plantation economy...

I know this is borderline ASB, but let's say in this timeline, Portugal is slightly less of a quiet little sociopath and says "nah" when they're offered African Slaves, and after that, the Atlantic Slave Trade and European enslavement of Africans never really gets off the ground. Colonialism and...

What if in this alternate timeline all border states that had slavery joined the Confederacy? This would include D.C as well, the capital of United States. What would the population difference be? Who would win the war? How would it even go?

To begin with a short disclaimer, the origins of the Mamluk or Ghilman soldiers that would come to dominate the Islamic world, is shrouded in some ambiguity. In a similar mode to crucifixion in the Roman world, chroniclers often neglect to describe certain intricacies that are interesting to the...

Had Lincoln lost New York in 1860, the result would've been a hung electoral college and a contingent election in the House of Representatives. The three choices open to the House would be Lincoln, who won the most states and a plurality of electoral and popular votes, Vice-President...

IOTL many abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison were not fond of the constitution, with Garrison calling it a "An Agreement with Hell". In fact, his alliance with Frederick Douglass ended when Douglass adopted the more mainstream abolitionist view that the constitution could be...

What if the Spaniards were able to keep Portugal in the Iberian union? How would this affect the Atlantic Slave trade? How would American colonies develop without slaves or with less slaves?

Portugese traders were motivated to sail around west Africa to trade with Mali for it's gold. When Mali lost it's gold mines to the Songhai, they began selling slaves to the portugese. What if Mali prevents Songhai or any other empire from seizing it's gold mines and thus the slave trade is...

So I've been reading up on the bronze age, and Conan. And.... wow. There are a lot of slaves. Lots of slavery. But why? Is it because of the lack of machines, meaning everything is done via muscle power, meaning that humans are valuable? Is the lack of tech means that you have to...

Don't know very much about this period of US history beyond the basics, but were there any political figures during the late 1850s, 1860s, and even 1870s who had a decent shot at winning the Presidency and would have been far more radical on abolishing slavery and dismantling the South's racial...

The Society of Free Nations SFN The following post contains excerpts from the textbook from another timeline, a brief history of American Nations, and it's chapters dealing with SFN. Edited with readers from OTL in mind. Along with a curated and simplified brief timeline of the first 100...

What if the Confederate States of America had conscripted slaves into the army to resolve manpower problems?

The experience of how the US ended slavery was very unique. The rest of the America’s were able to end the practice without Civil War largely through free womb laws. Was the US relationship to slavery so unique that only mass violence and civil conflict could end it? Or is it possible to end...

I've been doing some reading about the history of slavery in the United States and the debate that it generated, and one thing that gets mentioned a lot but is never gone into in depth is the desire of many white Americans from the slave states, and some from the free states as well, to acquire...

What if Roman EMPIRE, not Republic, in around its peak bans slavery? Rome decreases slightly in size due to the military power needed to enforce this act. Would this allow them to survive longer or perish faster?

So lets make the American revolution were partly about slavery? In the 18th century the abolition movements in Europe (and to a much lesser extent to 13 colonies) are significantly more successful. And Britain is where the abolishes movement is most successful compared to OTL. In 1771 The 1807...

What if Rome banned slavery when it became a republic and used troops to enforce it?

Point of Divergence ... Thomas Jefferson was a complicated man. As a wealthy landowner, Thomas Jefferson owned many slaves on his plantations. And to all accounts, he treated his slaves rather well at the time, only using the whip in rare and extreme cases of fighting and theft. He made sure...