What if the Confederacy had been allowed to secede peacefully?

[Friends]

Try to imagine what would have happened if the eleven states of the Confederacy had been allowed to secede peacefully from the United States in 1861.

The South has always been the problem child of the United States. I think what remained of the United States would have been better off without the South. If the United States had been able to peacefully unite with Canada the results would have been even better.

In the South slavery impeded the development of industry, and of labor saving agricultural machinery. The vast majority of whites did not own slaves. Those who did not own slaves usually had a lower standard of living than their skills would have earned for them in the North.

Negro slavery discouraged the development of a work ethic among Southern whites, because they thought hard work was something slaves did.

An additional advantage of letting the Confederacy go peacefully is that the Negroes would have remained slaves. They would not have been able to move to the North and turn downtown areas of Northern cities into crime ridden slums.

 

[JakeStarkey]

The standard and style of living in the North for the middle and laboring classes would have been much higher than the South.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Try to imagine what would have happened if the eleven states of the Confederacy had been allowed to secede peacefully from the United States in 1861.

The South has always been the problem child of the United States. I think what remained of the United States would have been better off without the South. If the United States had been able to peacefully unite with Canada the results would have been even better.

In the South slavery impeded the development of industry, and of labor saving agricultural machinery. The vast majority of whites did not own slaves. Those who did not own slaves usually had a lower standard of living than their skills would have earned for them in the North.

Negro slavery discouraged the development of a work ethic among Southern whites, because they thought hard work was something slaves did.

An additional advantage of letting the Confederacy go peacefully is that the Negroes would have remained slaves. They would not have been able to move to the North and turn downtown areas of Northern cities into crime ridden slums.

Aaaaahhhhhh nooooooo!!! I can't unsee it!!!!!!! It's too stupid!!!!!!

 

[Mr Natural]

It would be one more in a long list of countries we send foreign aid to.

 

[Impenitent]

If you think negotiating with China over reasonable economic, environmental, and human rights policies is difficult, think about the Confederacy!

 

[bendog]

I'd be a lot happier if y'all hadn't waged your war of northern aggression. (-:

Personally, I think the southern econ was doomed. Not because southern subsitance farmers worked less than those in the midwest, or immigrants in the east, but because Southern capital was tied to slaves and "agra biz" like rice and cotton. But, when europe saw those supplies shut down, new markets emerged. The US emerged as the preeminent economy because of manufacturing. The South sought political positions, like low tarrifs, that didn't support manfacuture but agriculture. A losing game.

The fact that the Southern elite was tied to a social structure of slavery that was viewed by the ciivilized world as, at best, as an anachronism pretty much said it all. The war was about slavery, don't misunderstand. But it wasn't about freeing the slaves.

 

[Toro]

It would have been poorer because it would have remained more agrarian whose products would have been subject higher tariffs. It also probably would have turned into an international pariah state like South Africa, shunned and boycotted by the rest of the world.

 

[JakeStarkey]

I'd be a lot happier if y'all hadn't waged your war of northern aggression. (-:.

The proper title is "The War of Southern Aggression".

 

[gipper]

I'd be a lot happier if y'all hadn't waged your war of northern aggression. (-:.

The proper title is "The War of Southern Aggression".

Yeah...the South attacked the North and destoryed it...but only in your deluded mind.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

Try to imagine what would have happened if the eleven states of the Confederacy had been allowed to secede peacefully from the United States in 1861.

The South has always been the problem child of the United States. I think what remained of the United States would have been better off without the South. If the United States had been able to peacefully unite with Canada the results would have been even better.

In the South slavery impeded the development of industry, and of labor saving agricultural machinery. The vast majority of whites did not own slaves. Those who did not own slaves usually had a lower standard of living than their skills would have earned for them in the North.

Negro slavery discouraged the development of a work ethic among Southern whites, because they thought hard work was something slaves did.

An additional advantage of letting the Confederacy go peacefully is that the Negroes would have remained slaves. They would not have been able to move to the North and turn downtown areas of Northern cities into crime ridden slums.

Everything you stated is nothing but speculation.

 

[Sunni Man]

I'd be a lot happier if y'all hadn't waged your war of northern aggression. (-:.

The proper title is "The War of Southern Aggression".

Incorrect nitwit.......

 

[Politico]

We'd probably be speaking German.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

I imagine unicorns and rainbows would have been the dominant resources of southern Confederacy export.

 

[bodecea]

I'd be a lot happier if y'all hadn't waged your war of northern aggression. (-:.

The proper title is "The War of Southern Aggression".

Exactly. They fired first.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

I'd be a lot happier if y'all hadn't waged your war of northern aggression. (-:.

The proper title is "The War of Southern Aggression".

Exactly. They fired first.

Is that really how it happened? I think not.

The federal government refused to surrender southern forts. This included Fort Sumter. The scurmish that began the "civil war" (biggest oxymoron ever). The war was on e of northern aggression on seceding states.

 

[legaleagle_45]

Try to imagine what would have happened if the eleven states of the Confederacy had been allowed to secede peacefully from the United States in 1861.

IMHO, if the South had been allowed to secede there would have been no Spanish American War. Japan would have no reason to see the US as a threat and would not have attacked us at Pearl because we would not have Pearl. Hawaiil would have been a British possession and Japan would have turned its attention upon helping bring the Brits to their knees and providing support for Germany's effort agianst the Soviets.

Further, the US would not be nearly the industrial giant as the oil and coal wealth was concentrated in Southern states. This combination would have resulted in the Nazis easily winning WWII and we would now be speaking German.

 

[Wry Catcher]

It would be one more in a long list of countries we send foreign aid to.

Very likely. And of course the Southern Accent would have devolved further in pidgin English, making communication between the American People and the confederate tribes more difficult than it is already.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

It would be one more in a long list of countries we send foreign aid to.

Very likely. And of course the Southern Accent would have devolved further in pidgin English, making communication between the American People and the confederate tribes more difficult than it is already.

“If I must be enslaved let it be by a King at least, and not by a parcel of upstart lawless
Committeemen. If I must be devoured, let me be devoured by the jaws of a lion and not
gnawed to death by rats and vermin.ʺ

Samuel Seabury


You would have made an excellent and outspoken Loyalist.

 

[Alfalfa]

Another USMB Pulitzer nominee.


"The South has always been the problem child of the United States."

"If the United States had been able to peacefully unite with Canada the results would have been even better."

"The vast majority of whites did not own slaves. Those who did not own slaves usually had a lower standard of living than their skills would have earned for them in the North." (well, they didn't own plantations...)

"Negro slavery discouraged the development of a work ethic among Southern whites, because they thought hard work was something slaves did."

"They would not have been able to move to the North and turn downtown areas of Northern cities into crime ridden slums."

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

The standard and style of living in the North for the middle and laboring classes would have been much higher than the South.

How do you come to that conclusion? The south had a higher standard of living overall than the northern states prior to the Civil War.