by John Brant

Created on: March 06, 2010   Last Updated: April 25, 2010

Looking into the past to see what would have happened if events had turned out differently can be almost as difficult as predicting the future.  If the South had won the Civil War, the entire history of the United States would have changed.  The twists that history might have taken cannot be proven, but they are interesting to contemplate.

Slavery would have lasted past the 1866 date in which it finally ended, but how long slavery could last remains a mystery.  Although the South had plans to expand their manufacturing base, as well as their banking and shipping potential, they would have remained a largely agricultural economy that relied on cheap labor. 

Before the Civil War, Southern Congressmen had actually proposed reopening the African slave trade, so more than likely slavery would have lasted for a long time.  Oddly, this nation that claimed to secede to preserve its liberty may have kept slavery into the twentieth century, making it the last Western country to abolish it. 

A logical assumption would include the belief that with no Northern Congressmen pushing for civil rights for freed slaves, the rights of African Americans would have taken longer to become a reality.  However, the reverse is likely. 

With Southern racial prejudice firmly entrenched and no outside Federal government to interfere with Southern traditions, the African Americans would likely have turned to a violent revolution, perhaps supported by Northerners, to free themselves from slavery and obtain equality.  Although prejudice would remain until the present, the gains of the Civil Rights movement may actually have come sooner and faster than they did by peaceful means. 

Assuming that African Americans would achieve freedom and equality at some point, many changes to the United States may have not reached the South at all.  The Progressive Movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was largely an urban, working class movement that took place because of heavy industrialization.  The reforms of this movement would have made their way into the South much slower, if at all. 

The New Deal of the 1930s also would have not affected the South, so Social security and electricity in rural houses may still be waiting to happen today.  Policies that saved small farmers and protected the workers class may instead have never occurred and the rich plantation class that controlled politics in the 1850s would have an even firmer grip on politics and the economy today. 

In short, while an end to slavery and the incorporation of the freed slaves into Southern society appear inevitable, the South would otherwise remain as an island of nineteenth century thought and social progress.

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