WMG / C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America

Fauntroy's test results were rigged.

There was a news report on how mistakes were made in DNA tests. What if those WEREN'T mistakes? What if someone had swapped Fauntroy's test results to get an outcome they wanted? All the major parties had motivation:

• Democrats: If 'negative results' meant 'no black ancestry', then this would be used to further discredit the Republicans.

• Republicans: If 'negative results' meant 'not pure white', then THEY would be the ones to do the discrediting, specifically of Fauntroy for passing, and of the Democrats for hypocrisy in letting someone pass right under their noses.

• JBU: If 'negative results' meant 'not pure white', well, they'd use the opportunity to question 'well, if Fauntroy, scion of the most influential political family in the CSA, was unknowingly passing this whole time, who ELSE could be passing and not know it' and cause chaos.

Either of the latter two would eventually lead to the abolition of slavery, the Democrat scenario would cement their power for years. However, what they didn't count on were the voters believing 'guilty until proven innocent' and causing Fauntroy to lose the election, and subsequently commit suicide. Whoever did the swap felt remorse and left a 'tip' to the Proven White group that some test results might be false.

The building that houses the Lincoln Memorial in our timeline houses the Davis Memorial in the CSA timeline.

Seems a logical leap.

The slave that plays Cleofus in That's My Boy! is mentally challenged.

The Hollywood producers would want a slave that's pliable and easily manipulated, and-above all-won't realize that he isn't really free, or won't question it. (I highly doubt they'd actually FREE a slave just for a TV show.)

Fauntroy the First's wife was infertile.

If what Horace said was true, why go to such risks to take in the light skinned slave children and pass them as part of the family? Because his legal wife couldn't have children. So they chose one of their slaves-Horace's great-great grandmother-and used her more or less as a broodmare to give Fauntroy children that he could pass as white and legitimate. (It's very likely that Horace's ancestress was herself lightskinned, and possibly the result of a union between a slave and a white man, either by a previous slave owner that was from before 'the beginning', or from a friend of Fauntroy's ancestor if he let his friends have his slaves for fun.)

Lindsay was a spy.

As pointed out elsewhere, if Fauntroy had won the election, he would have caused a devastating war between the US and Canada, and remember, the CSA DOES have the bomb. Either Britain, worried about what the impact of the war would be on their relations with Canada, sent one of their spies to uncover something to discredit Fauntroy with, or Canada enlisted a British-born spy to do the same. Either way, the documentary was their guise to get in the country.

• This explains why the documentary is so poorly produced. It merely mentions a few key events then devotes a whole section solely to Fauntroy without mentioning his opponent whatsoever. It could also be a JBU plot to discredit the CSA altogether (like the first WMG suggests) and Fauntroy was merely the pawn they choose.
  • The movie IRL is an odd tribute to Walter E. Fauntroy, a Black activist.

The Soviet Union is the world's dominant power.

Without U.S. interference in Europe, the Soviets "liberated" the whole continent. France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and the rest of western Europe are Soviet satellites. The blatant racism of the C.S.A. makes communism look good, so the U.K. and Canada are Soviet allies and the Summit Nations is headquartered in Moscow. In real life, Soviet propaganda tried to win over Third World countries by portraying the U.S. as racist. In this world, the Soviets used the same strategy to greater effect. Africa and Asia are mostly, if not entirely, composed of Soviet satellites. Without the Cold War to motivate them, glasnost and perestroika never happened and there was no fall of communism.

• There will be Perestroika and fair trade between the Soviet Union, China, Canada and Britain, just like in Real Life Between China and the States in 1980s.

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union swallowed each other, and the other European and Asian countries had to pick up the pieces.

• If not for America's industrial machine entering the war to provide the Allies with reinforcement, and Hitler's decision to back-stab his former ally Stalin in Real Life World War II, Germany and Italy's Axis could well have seized all of Europe and much of the rest of the Mediterranean as well. Considering that Europe's other nations are indicated to have been victorious over Germany despite the C.S.A. staying out of the war, it stands to reason that something weakened Germany. That something? Likely that Hitler still back-stabbed Stalin in this alternate continuity.
  
  Hitler still would have wanted Russia's oilfields, still would have had to purge Ernst Roehm (with his decidedly Marxist brand of Nazism) and the S.A. to maintain his grip on power, and still would have had all the ideological motivations for betraying Stalin he did in our world. Therefore, he likely pulled the very same betrayal; only, without America to help, it cost the Soviet Union even more blood and famine to get the upper hand over the Nazis, and the rest of Europe was more than happy to stand back and let the two despotic nations destroy each other. In the aftermath, with both enemies in ruins, the victorious Allies occupying Germany also seized control of nearly all of Russia's Western land, while the still-free-market-loving Chinese and Mongols (newly liberated thanks to the C.S.A. nuking Japan) conquered Siberia and any other scraps of Russian land the Europeans deemed to be of no value.
  
  That's why we don't hear much about the Commies at all, except for a certain miserable time the C.S.A. had over in Vietnam...

The movie is set in the Mirror Universe from Star Trek.

Because why not.

Poe's Law.

You just know some racists saw this movie, took it at face value, and lamented that this was not a reality; only reason I can't confirm or Joss it is that I don't want to give their websites hits.

• Seconded.

• A racist leadership who builds a wall covering the entire US border of the people they hate. The scary part is apparently America’s President saw it and said “good idea”.
  • This is mostly opinion. YMMV- the border wall is meant to keep out people we "don"t like" because racism, or the border wall is meant to control immigration and protect national sovereignty over our border?

Fauntroy knew he was passing.

Otherwise, why would he refuse to take a DNA test until he was forced to; if he knew he was purely white then he'd have nothing to hide, now would he?

• It's partly about pride and partly about politics. Fauntroy (ultimately wrongly, as we find out) decided it would be better to stand on principle and not submit to a test, because submitting to the test inherently acknowledges there was a reason to take the test and thus something to prove.
  • He certainly didn't study human character then, cause, again, refusing to take it just means he has something to hide in the average person's eyes.
  • Here's another thing: if he was confident he was purely white, he wouldn't have killed himself. A) He would have taken his revenge on Horace for ruining his campaign, and b) he would have run again, with using the 'pure white' heritage as a talking point to discredit the Republican party. However, I speculate they did find out he was passing, and let him know ahead of time so he could take the 'honorable' way out and offed himself.
  • The 'tell' may actually be in the clip played after the documentary said the test results: Fauntroy asks the host to imagine America where everyone has the same deep pride in their Ayran birth, and then says "I want to reclaim that heritage". Ironic Echo, anyone?

If the Fauntroys have black ancestry, then they are in for sheer hell.

Thanks to the one drop rule, every single Fauntroy that can trace his/her ancestry to John Ambrose Fauntroy I is going to be promptly sold into slavery. And imagine if they got sold to a former friend who'd be willing to mistreat them or have to interact with their former slaves, who might be willing to taunt them. I'll bet Fauntroy V won't be the only one willing to commit suicide.

The women that married into the family won't fare much better either, thanks to the sexist culture they'd be seen as tainted at best. Best they could hold out for is ostracism, worst is imprisonment or perhaps slavery as well.

The men that married into the family? Honestly they'd come out on top in this matter, nothing would really happen to them. Wouldn't shock me if they were sold or given their 'wife' and children as slaves.

Worse yet: Should those men remarry than any children they have with their second, third, etc, spouses would ALSO be declared slaves, as said men are now 'tainted' for having previously had sex with Fauntroy women.

MAYBE someone would be willing to smuggle a few into Canada but given how quickly the public turned on Fauntroy V when they just thought he was black they'd probably not risk it.

South Africa sells slaves to the Confederacy

South Africa is the Confederacy's last friend on the international stage. Assuming apartheid didn't end there (which is probably necessary for a country in Africa to still be on good terms with a white supremacist country that keeps black people as slaves), upper-class South African whites could be selling native South African blacks into slavery in the Confederacy. It might even help to preserve apartheid, reducing the pressure on South African society from inside the nation as agitators are enslaved and shipped overseas to a country where those blacks will be made helpless by the Confederate institution of black slavery, and more importantly to somewhere they can't disrupt South African life or convince other black people to rebel against their second class status. This may even be used as a threat, to further reduce the chance of the native Africans rebelling. It makes money, reduces police costs, improves relations with the last country still talking to South Africa, and keeps two nasty nations going whether the rest of the world likes it or not.

• Apartheid has nothing to do with it, the loss of slavery income is what CAUSED Apartheid, since the natives, who had been selling their own for centuries by that point, couldn't match the income of the businesses established by Europeans which continued to function decently even after the slave trade waned and were marginalized politically. Politics after all is all about the money. When the easy cash source was cut off (selling their rival tribes), they fell to the mercy of those in power who did have money to get their way since bribing key leaders would keep anti-apartheid movement disorganized and weak, as it ultimately did in our time until outside pressure finally persuaded them to cave.

Though it's also possible that the British simply conquered Africa to sell slaves to the Americans once they expanded and became too big to ignore. Sure they might've abolished it leading up to the civil war...but things happen and things change.

The Fauntroy family is inbred

The Fauntroys, more than anyone else, have been obsessed with racial purity, both to support slavery, and to keep themselves from being enslaved. By this point, their descendants have bred with white relatives just to keep it that way.

Human rights are better everywhere outside the CSA

Toward the end of the film, Patricia Johnson discussed the idea of the "human family". It might indicate that while slavery has continued in the Americas, the rest of the world at least is far more peaceful and free, and united against the exploitation of the Confederate States.

The CSA has maybe a few decades left.

The Confederate States of America apparently controls land across the Americas, East Asia, and the Middle East. With that in consideration, the CSA should be a major military power, what with the vast control it wields over one of the largest empires in human history, and all the resources and subjugated populace to work with right?

Then again, if Canada of all nations is starting to militarily outstrip the CSA to the point where it could face it down and even possibly win? That can't mean the CSA is in a good shape. Especially after the crisis that may or may not have just taken down the Fauntroys, the most powerful political family in the CSA, the whole society of the country has to be feeling really shaken up. The economy is apparently weakened by the impact of slavery, they're constantly fighting wars of expansion all around the world, and they're trying to hold down everything else they own at the same time.

If the CSA has any time left, it can be counted in the low two digits, based on pure internal momentum alone.

Alaska was annexed by Canada in this timeline.

No clue if Hawaii would get annexed by the C.S., someone else, or if it would maintain its independence.

• Jossed. An expanded timeline mentions that both Alaska and Hawaii were accepted into the CSA in 1959.

Canada is a much more populous country in this timeline

One of the reasons why Canada might be a serious threat to the CSA is that its population is much larger than in our world. Why? Two reasons:

• 1. African migrants

It is possible that hundreds of thousands of African fugitives have managed to reach the CSA since John McDonald gave them asylum in the 1890s. The flow of refugees must be massive, otherwise the Confederates wouldn't have to build a wall along the border with their southern neighbor, and jam radio signals.

• 2. Immigration

Many of the immigrants who would have gone to America in our timeline would have ended up in Canada, for several reasons.

• Religion: Catholics were only reluctantly considered Christians by the Confederates, and Jews were banned outright (save for a small reservation on Long Island). It is possible the millions of Catholic and Jewish immigrants who went to the America in our world instead chose Canada, which did not discriminate.
• Political climate: While most 19th century Europeans were not racially tolerant, they truly despised slavery. They would not want to immigrate to a nation so openly flaunting such a grotesque system.
• Cultural Freedom: The Confederates stomp on the throat of any culture they don't like. So its possible a lot of artistic talent ended up in Canada as well. Presley himself was an exile to Canada.

A movement against the One Drop Rule has probably started

The fact that John Ambrose Fauntroy had his political career destroyed over the accusation of black ancestry, and later killed himself horribly despite the test results getting "negative", implies that the system is incompetent, corrupt, or both. Whatever the case may be, this system is so obviously pseudo-scientific, many Confederates refuse to heed it anymore, and have refused to declare their identity.

Many Confederates willingly free their own slaves on a daily basis

According to the timeline, by the mid-20th century, most whites were increasingly opposed to slavery. Aside from the moral costs, having to own a person carries with it several costs, like providing food, logging, and security to keep a person in. While in the old days, having a slave to care of your house might have been nice, labor-saving devices making household chores easier would make owning a person superfluous. Considering that the Confederates had to build a huge border wall along the Canadian border, this implies that a lot of whites had become abolitionists and willingly sent their slaves to freedom in Canada. Even though slavery is still prevalent, many white people still smuggle their own slaves to Canada, enough that the government has to check shipping crates to be sure.

Fauntroy genuinely didn't know he had a black ancestor, and his suicide was done out of despair and shame

It is easy to see Fauntroy's behavior at the press conference as the typical denialist behavior of a corrupt politician. But what if he genuinely wasn't aware of his own black ancestry. Perhaps his suicide wasn't done because of the end of his political career or fear of being enslaved but ended his own life because he now believed himself to be an inferior being.

Yeah, he was a nasty guy, but ending your own life because you've internalized your own family's racism is a really nasty way to go. It speaks volumes about how horrible Confederate society is that simply having the "wrong" ancestry is enough to make you subhuman, regardless of your loyalty to the society or not.

America's soil is horribly depleted because of all the cotton farming

Considering America remained a slave plantation society, it means that growing cotton, and other kinds of cash crops, remained the norm. Not just for economic reasons, but because labor-intensive cash crops would be the only way you can justify keeping people in bondage. ^note Cotton sharecropping, the labor system that replaced cotton slavery, lasted in the South into the 1960s.

Growing cash crop monocultures is a recipe for environmental degradation, and considering Confederate America's government is very plutocratic and authoritarian, it is unlikely a grassroots environmental movement has emerged.

There is also another variable: George Washington Carver. While Carver's main claim to fame was peanuts, he sought to promote them and other crops that would restore the Southern soil after decades of cotton farming. There are two possibilities as to his fate.

1. Carver remained a slave.

Carver was among the last people to have been born a slave. Since slavery was not only not abolished, but enforced on the rest of America, he likely remained in bondage for the rest of his life.

2. Carver escaped to Canada, and still became a scientist, but the Confederates rejected his ideas.

Moses Carver, George's white master, is a very complicated man. On the one hand, he was a slaver who owned George. On the other hand, he continued to remain loyal to the Union, and after the war, he raised George as his own son. So it is possible he could've fled to Canada and taken George with him.

Carver grows in Canada and becomes a scientist. Carver was one of the few black men to achieve nationwide fame in the pre-Civil Rights era, so it is possible he could've still become famous in Canada who would love to promote his agricultural methods.

However, the Confederates would likely be incredibly hostile to Carver for being a smart black man. Not only would they call him all kinds of names, but they would also go so far as to reject and outright ban his farming practices out of sheer racial hatred, the way that Nazi scientists rejected certain sciences for being "Jewish physics."

Schoolhouse Rock! was still produced in this timeline, but "America Rock" was replaced with "Confederacy Rock".

Now, the Confederacy clearly hates rock and roll, so the albums are probably called something else, but the basic idea of education through music would still exist. And once they got to teaching history and civics, they would obviously have to alter the catalogue greatly. "No More Kings" and "Fireworks" would instead be replaced with the heroic secessionists fighting against the tyrant Lincoln, and "The Shot Heard Round the World" would simply be about the Civil War instead of the Revolutionary War. "Sufferin' Till Suffrage" obviously wouldn't exist at all, and would likely instead be a song justifying the mistreatment of women and minorities. Since there is much less immigration into the country, "The Great American Melting Pot" would also need to be about a different topic. "Mother Necessity" would probably be changed a little, to eliminate all the inventors mentioned in the song who were immigrants, and "The Preamble", "I'm Just a Bill", and "Three-Ring Government" would be pretty close to how they are, since they are about the country's government instead of history, but would still need subtle changes because the Confederacy and the Union are not the same. That leaves "Elbow Room", which would be the only song on the album to be word-for-word identical in both timelines.