Confederate HBOs new show

Regarding the article:

From what I understand, the criticism outlined in the article is basically that it will be especially difficult- if not impossible- to create a faithful alternate history when the issues surrounding the Civil War aren't really "history" yet. "History" understood in the sense of it being widely viewed as a settled matter that has exited the realm of presently disputed political discourse.

The term "history", so understood, implies a certain permanence and uniformity in understanding that the present political climate in America currently lacks. Indeed, judging by the recent events surrounding Confederate monuments in Charlottesville and elsewhere, it could be argued that the moral status of the Confederacy is being disputed more vigorously now than ever.

I find this point interesting and somewhat compelling. I'm still not fully sold on it though, and this is assuming I'm interpreting this article correctly.

The main point of the article was that people aren't sure it's a good idea to promote an AU take on the civil war when people don't agree on what the actual one was about

Then it digressed onto dealing with the fact that one of the showrunners mentioned having used Shelby Foote's work as research material, and Foote's apparently a major lost-causer

So presumably, the Industrial Revolution would likely eliminate the need for slavery (other than, you know, wage slavery) because of the high costs of caring for and maintaining a viable population of people who are solely dependent on their "owner's" income. Besides, mechanization of agriculture practices especially for cotton and tobacco would make such large populations of slaves unnecessary.

Now, I could see slavery continuing amongst the very wealthy/one percent as a status symbol of sorts and for household services, but I'd imagine that most people would inevitably free their slaves as sharecroppers or the like. Besides, wouldn't a glut of unskilled laborers suddenly being released from bondage absolutely decimate the working class of the Confederacy? I'd almost be more likely to believe that the CSA pulled a Liberia and shipped the majority of the black population to Africa under the guise of "charity."

My guess is that the writers and showrunners are probably going to say slavery still exists just because 'we say so dammit!', without actually bothering to show how it could still exist. Simply put, it's still around because it is.

edited 20th Aug '17 1:31:55 PM by kkhohoho

The most likely outcome would be genocide of one form or another, with slavery persisting only as chattel slavery for the rich.

Oh yes. In fact, that was already happening in real life in the lead up to the war, with the wealthy slaveholders holding the threat of freed slaves stealing jobs as a way to keep the poor whites on their side. Sound familiar?

...Nope!

Maybe the Confedarcy in the show will be where foreign corporations outsource all their cheap sneaker assembly, inbetween animation work, and other sweatshop labor needs.

That could actually make for a very interesting story. Especially if one of the countries using the Confederacy like that is the US. So it could be similar to real-world America's relationship with China; a lot of moralizing even while benefiting from their abhorrent practices.

I hate to bring up Turtledove again, but he does go about explaining the abolition of slavery quite smartly.

To whit, the Confederacy abolishes slavery as an absolute last resort. The US is about to invade, and their traditional buddies Britain and France say that their condition for support is the abolition of slavery, which is slowly making the Confederacy a pariah (it's the only country in the Americas besides Brazil that still has it), and it's making Britain and France pariahs by proxy. On top of that, the Confederacy is industrializing and becoming less dependent on plantation agriculture, and the ideas behind the "War of Secession" have begun to slowly morph in the Confederate consciousness from being about slavery specifically to white supremacy more generally. It's nowhere near complete - in the 1880's, it's still the bedrock of Confederate society - but it isn't seen as indispensable the way it was 20 years prior.

Slavery is replaced with an apartheid-esque system (read: segregation, but worse) that keeps the white Confederacy's boot firmly on the black population's neck, with blacks as an unskilled labor class forbidden from any kind of meaningful education, wealth acquisition, or anything besides menial labor, just some are in factories now, instead of on farms. Slavery changes with the times, but the traditional racist ideas behind the practice are still there, just in a different form.

It's a highly plausible (and chilling) look at what would have happened if the ideals of the Confederacy had actually been successful. But slavery continuing as-is into the 21st century smacks of implausibility and is going to majorly cut into Willing Suspension of Disbelief.