Chapter 37: Heart of Dixie
~ Chapter 37: Heart of Dixie ~
In many cases the political background of a state is the result of the work of a group of educated men, or even the work of a single man. This was the case in the former United States, where a group of men assembled drafted a binding document for many states, without dramatically altering the constitutions of said states. However, the Articles of Confederation proved to be too feeble to hold together states with competing interests and trends that followed different tracks. The most basic divide between the states was that between the northern and southern states, a difference that also materialised upon the breakup, as the northern states managed to coalesce and pull themselves back together under the Commonwealth of New England and the Atlantic Union; while none of the southern states merged with each other until the 1830s [1]. This was despite attempts of politicians such as James Madison to form a Confederation of the South, an idea that was quickly rejected by the Carolinas, and that left Georgia, the sole state interested in a larger union due to its small population and vulnerability, isolated.
Virginia, by virtue of size and population, soon emerged as the most relevant of the Southron Republics, a leadership that was further reinforced by the influence of their politicians, most notably, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was a former governor of the state, as well as a respected politician and a member of the political clique behind the Articles of Confederation that, now that the experiment had failed, was free to push his agenda forward in the new Commonwealth of Virginia. Jefferson’s idea of a society was different from that supported by northern intellectuals and politicians, as Jefferson distrusted the urban masses and banking institution, favouring a more agrarian view of society, where farmers would constitute the core of the nation by acting as defenders of their rights and liberties in a rather decentralised government; a way of thinking that mirrored what he saw in his home state of Virginia, with its small cities and mostly rural lifestyle [2].
Thomas Jefferson, President of Virginia (1789 - 1797)
Jefferson would become the man to adjust the constitution of Virginia for its new purpose as the legal background of a newly independent state upon becoming the first elected president of the newly independent Commonwealth. These adjustments to the constitution would essentially consist of: the power of the national government must be limited and kept in check by the people, the separation of church and state (especially against the Church of England), the exemplification of civic virtue in the agricultural classes, and that defence of the freedom of speech was paramount to keep the state in check. However, Virginia’s political legacy would not consist of Jefferson’s work alone, for in a country so focused on the rights of the individual there was a lack of description of said rights. Enter James Madison, also a prominent local politician, spent hundreds of hours revising documents and proposals for rights across the former USA, eventually drafting a document known as the Bill of Rights in 1793 [3].
The Bill of Rights and the concept of Jeffersonian Democracy would spread over the South, with Georgia adopting a similar Bill of Rights in 1794, followed by the Carolinas and Maryland the year after. This model of democracy heavily favoured the interests of the southern aristocracy, mostly composed of planter elites; while it found little support in the more industrial and merchant northern republics, where support was the strongest for a more powerful central government, especially after taking the brunt of the damage during the American Revolutionary War and almost being the starting grounds for a coup against the US government [4]. This climate of similar government structures helped prevent any conflict between the Southron Republics for decades, despite their fierce competition regarding prices for cotton and tobacco.
The Bill of Rights and the concept of Jeffersonian Democracy would spread over the South, with Georgia adopting a similar Bill of Rights in 1794, followed by the Carolinas and Maryland the year after. This model of democracy heavily favoured the interests of the southern aristocracy, mostly composed of planter elites; while it found little support in the more industrial and merchant northern republics, where support was the strongest for a more powerful central government, especially after taking the brunt of the damage during the American Revolutionary War and almost being the starting grounds for a coup against the US government [4]. This climate of similar government structures helped prevent any conflict between the Southron Republics for decades, despite their fierce competition regarding prices for cotton and tobacco.
James Madison, father of the Bill of Rights, later President of Virginia (1797 - 1801)
While conflict would not erupt between the republics, this does not mean that their armed forces, or rather, militias, would stay idle, as for the provisions of the 1783 Treaty of Paris the states had inherited large tracts of land extending from the Appalachians to the Mississippi, which, in Georgia’s case, more than doubled the original size of the state. Unlike in the Great Lakes Basin, the southern lands west of the Appalachians were almost devoid of Angloamerican presence barring parts of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. As for other powers involved in the area, Spain, despite officially sticking to the northern border of Florida being set at the parallel 32° 22′ N, unofficially stated that Florida’s border was the Tennessee River, with Spanish officials pushing further north from places like Fort Toulouse on the Alabama River to negotiate with the local tribes, especially those known as the Four Civilised Tribes: the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek [5].
Spanish interference would dwindle to a halt once the Peninsular War broke out and the scarce Spanish garrison in the area was sent to take back Louisiana from the Napoleonic Empire. This decrease in official contact opened new gates for Angloamerican settlers in West Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas to begin contacting the tribes and gain more power in the area. There was some division between those that defended the Indians could be civilised and integrated into Angloamerican society once embracing christianity and western customs, and those that defended that Indians were inherently primitive and had to be expelled to make room for new settlers and plantations. An example of the first type can be seen in Benjamin Hawkins’ “Account of the Tallushatchee Indians”, a book where he described his experiences in the “Civilising Mission” among the members of the Cherokee tribe. His work gained a lot of traction in Georgia, by far the less populated of the Southron Republics, whose government quickly backed up the assimilation plans, limiting land grabs west of the Appalachians, as there was plenty of free land already in the eastern part of the country.
Spanish interference would dwindle to a halt once the Peninsular War broke out and the scarce Spanish garrison in the area was sent to take back Louisiana from the Napoleonic Empire. This decrease in official contact opened new gates for Angloamerican settlers in West Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas to begin contacting the tribes and gain more power in the area. There was some division between those that defended the Indians could be civilised and integrated into Angloamerican society once embracing christianity and western customs, and those that defended that Indians were inherently primitive and had to be expelled to make room for new settlers and plantations. An example of the first type can be seen in Benjamin Hawkins’ “Account of the Tallushatchee Indians”, a book where he described his experiences in the “Civilising Mission” among the members of the Cherokee tribe. His work gained a lot of traction in Georgia, by far the less populated of the Southron Republics, whose government quickly backed up the assimilation plans, limiting land grabs west of the Appalachians, as there was plenty of free land already in the eastern part of the country.
A map of the Four Civilised Tribes superimposed over OTL borders
Georgia’s policy of amity with the native tribes deeply contrasted with that of South Carolina, whose claim to the western territories was only a thin strip of land coming from a dubious border demarcation, which led to the South Carolinians pushing aggressively against the Cherokee tribes on their way, displacing them south towards Georgia, affecting the local balance of power between the tribes, and generating a split among the Cherokee community between those embracing western customs and those that fiercely resented Angloamerican encroachment, a division that would soon spread to the Creek tribes downstream. Over the following decades, violence within the same tribes would escalate to the point of active civil war, with the Georgian government having to spend increasing amounts of resources to prop up the pro-western faction, attracting money from northern bankers willing to contribute to the civilising mission under a Republican regime [6], as natives had essentially been cleared out of North Carolina and Virginia. The difference in the treatment of natives would have consequences decades down the line, when the first war among Columbian Nations begins.
As time passed, Angloamerican traders began to control the area that was officially recognised as Spanish West Florida, despite Georgia’s claim to the lands west of the Apalachicola River. Sensing the weakness of Spain, the settlers rose up in 1811 following the example of Louisiana, proclaiming the Republic of West Florida. Mere months after the proclamation of independence, West Florida asked the Republic of Georgia for protection, an act which was quickly responded by president Josiah Tattnall, annexing the Republic of West Florida in October of 1811, with the Spanish delegation in Saint Agustine issuing a mild response. However, wishing to avoid any sort of conflict at a time during which Indian violence was at its peak, Tattnall approached the Spanish government offering to purchase West Florida for a token sum of money, which a Spain desperately in need of cash accepted, thus securing Georgia’s access to the Gulf of Mexico. However, the Georgian purchase was met with fear in New Orleans, as the capital was now mere miles away from a potentially hostile power, with Louisiana soon issuing a statement claiming the land to the west of the Perdido River, on the basis of Biloxi being founded by the French, which would eventually lead to tensions and conflict [7].
As time passed, Angloamerican traders began to control the area that was officially recognised as Spanish West Florida, despite Georgia’s claim to the lands west of the Apalachicola River. Sensing the weakness of Spain, the settlers rose up in 1811 following the example of Louisiana, proclaiming the Republic of West Florida. Mere months after the proclamation of independence, West Florida asked the Republic of Georgia for protection, an act which was quickly responded by president Josiah Tattnall, annexing the Republic of West Florida in October of 1811, with the Spanish delegation in Saint Agustine issuing a mild response. However, wishing to avoid any sort of conflict at a time during which Indian violence was at its peak, Tattnall approached the Spanish government offering to purchase West Florida for a token sum of money, which a Spain desperately in need of cash accepted, thus securing Georgia’s access to the Gulf of Mexico. However, the Georgian purchase was met with fear in New Orleans, as the capital was now mere miles away from a potentially hostile power, with Louisiana soon issuing a statement claiming the land to the west of the Perdido River, on the basis of Biloxi being founded by the French, which would eventually lead to tensions and conflict [7].
Contemporary map of Georgia after the West Florida purchase
[1] - A spoiler, take your guess at which two states will and under what conditions, the second part may surprise you more than the first.
[2] - I’m not accusing Jefferson of chauvinism but his ideal society resembles pretty much Virginia at the time.
[3] - Fairly similar to the OTL version, barring some changes that were done by the senate. However, this version of the Bill of Rights successfully passed a guarantee of protection of the individual against actions by state governments, riding the wave of Jeffersonianism in Virginia at the time. This would ultimately result in Virginia’s weak government being co-opted by agrarian elites, but Virginian democracy was solid during its first decades.
[4] - Check Chapter 10, but in a nutshell, French naval actions butterflied the southern British campaign, with the main thrust coming instead towards the Hudson and Delaware valleys.
[5] - The Seminoles are not present on the list as they would end up on the opposite side of the cultural border.
[6] - No way New York bankers and elites are going to finance that in the British-controlled Great Lakes, although this does not stop individuals from marching west to create new illegal settlements in British territory. This migration would reach a climax in the year 1815, when very poor harvests across the American northeast due to ash expelled from the eruption of Mount Tambora would result in thousands heading west in a quest for new lands.
[7] - Just setting the table for a large-scale North American war later down the line. Yes, I'm also aware that New Orleans land claims come from a ridiculous argumentation.
. Jokes aside, I really like that the Tecumseh's confederacy is surviving, I almost never see it survive in TL's, also the northern Louisiana Indians are in a far stronger position than OTL. Here's hoping Georgia doesn't do anything harsh with the five civilized tribes....
