The Guns of Old John Brown

Radical Reconstruction found their capabilities greatly expanded when the time came for the raid on Harper's Ferry. Through increased numbers the initial raid was a greater success than they could have imagined, inflicting a sharp defeat on the first band of soldiers, marines, and militia who attacked them and then counter-attacking to seize the surrounding plantations, burning bales of cotton and recruiting slaves.

It was not an army that marched into the Appalachians, then, but a people, a great mass of hundreds - men and women, children and elders. They sought safety and shelter in the harsh mountains, and found some of each, if not enough, as the sheer size of the column forced them to split it up into many groups and they marched slowly.

Many groups struggled to secure enough food, even with gold and guns both loosening the hands of those they sought aid from. Fortunately, there was a fairly easy source of supplies just down the mountains. A source they were committed to using.

The first follow-up raids began less than a day after the Harper's Ferry attack. Some raids were careful, disciplined attacks. The heads of overseers and militia exploded before they even realized they were under attack, blockade detachments wheeled seized the roads outside the plantations, and the plantation was systematically looted and its enslaved workers freed. Others were desperate attacks by freedmen hungry for food and vengeance, using superior firepower and sheer rage to overpower any defenses they encountered.

Regardless of the approach, a vast strip of land was soon freed from slavery and an army was sent forth to fix that error. Troops were pulled back from the frontier, planters raised militias, and noises were made about the federal government organizing a call for volunteers to help increase the number of men available to suppress the servile insurrection.

This was all exceedingly popular in the South, but proved dramatically less so elsewhere. The frontier settlers were terrified of retaliation from the First Nations without the protection of the military, the far western states and territories were much the same. But in the North, especially New England and the Midwest where abolitionist settlement was strongest, the idea of fighting to slaughter the enslaved was unconscionable, even if many were also disturbed by the rumors they were hearing...

And so a coalition of abolitionist Senators stood and filibustered for weeks on end, bringing the government to a halt to prevent any attempt at Congress declaring war or a state of emergency. Militias were raised by governors, by prominent citizens, by preachers, even by communities. Riots started in Washington DC after an attempted massacre of the slaves being sold bare blocks from the White House, forcing the President to flee to Baltimore. Thomas Hicks, governor of Maryland, marched troops into the capital of the nation and sought to restore order at the point of the bayonet. In this he succeeded, but at a cost beyond any he expected - several Congressmen had been killed by the pro-slavery militias he had called up. And they had publicized their grisly deeds.

The outrage was terrible, made worse by the three defeats the so-called "Grand Army of the Republic" had suffered at the hands of the "Freedmen's Army."

With the largest immediate threat dealt with, columns of black soldiers and their allies swept south and east and west, bringing liberation and song with them, tearing down the institutions of slavery everywhere they marched. The Grand Army scattered and shattered, some components turning into simple banditry, some abandoned the fight, some continued it.

Winter came and froze the disintegration of the nation under a blanket of cold and hunger, but while the fighting mostly stopped, some of it just changed.

Workers in Troy met and agreed to cease fighting for slavery in parts so foreign they scarcely considered them part of the same country. Irish communities in Boston and New York were reached out to, promising aid for their home country. Emissaries were sent to the tribes of Indian Territory and the Great Plains.

Meanwhile, deals were signed in the half-burned White House, fresh armies with soldiers as young as 12 were raised, slave rebellions were suppressed. British and French funds flowed into the country.

The second phase of the Wars of Liberation were beginning. As the first warm days of 1860 came, the first sparks were lit. Workers in a Troy arms factory seized their workplace and announced their refusal to make arms for slavers. They were joined in solidarity by other industrial workers who made the same pledge and demanded their "slave-driving, slavery-loving bosses" turn the factories over to be the property of the 'lovers of freedom and labor." Railroads and telegraphs were taken, armed bands of workers attacked the local government, and a hastily-raised middle-class militia was suppressed. Settlers were attacked across the Great Plains and railroad tracks were torn up. Five Freedmen's Armies lunged from their territory, aiming to secure more plantations and free more slaves before they could be deported. Some attacks succeeded, others stalled as they fought through scorched earth and heavy fortifications, and one was forced to turn back to deal with a planter uprising.

The American nation was disintegrating, and warlords crawled out of it like maggots from a corpse. They seized towns and cities, raised their own armies, and fought amongst themselves. Loose coalitions, many claiming connections to prior governments, rose up and took hold of swathes of territory. War, bloody and costly and terrible, raged, and the aftershocks swept across the globe. An attempted British intervention in New England failed in the face of determined popular resistance and the painful price tag, while interventions in New Orleans and the Far West went much more smoothly. The Emperor of Mexico, seeking to wield nationalism to his own ends, launched a reconquest of lost territory, seizing undefended lands in the southwest through the simple act of changing out a few flags and pushing Texan warlords from the Rio Grande to the Nuece before making an alliance with the Texan Freiearmee who secured the rest of the state.

After six years of bruising and painful conflict, six years that saw countless dead from the battlefield and even more from disease and hunger and deprivation, something like peace settled across the wounded continent. New nations had risen from the ashes. These nations include:

The Worker's Republic of America - Formed from an alliance of workers up and down the Hudson and a wide variety of anti-British factions, the Worker's Republic controls the northeast of the former United States of America, from Maine to central Pennsylvania. The constitution and basic laws of the new state are long and complicated, as it was forced to appease many different groups ranging from warlords to religious communes to revolutionary anarchists to immigrant organizations, but the dominant Worker's Party faction was able to ensure the basic tenants of democracy, labor and self-defense were a priority. Governed from Albany, the vast and chaotic Worker's Parliament has focused on sponsoring new cooperatives, immigration, and centralization. They are aligned with the Freedmen's Republic and staunchly oppose the British Empire, working to construct a worthy navy and making contacts with Irish and Quebecois resistance organizations, as well as other groups further afield.

The Freedmen's Republic - Spreading from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, the banner of freedom has been washed in the waters of Lake Michigan and the Atlantic Ocean. Formed first from a massive slave rebellion, later joined by Appalachian farmers and abolitionist groups, they secured their territory through a careful mix of reward and terror, breaking up plantations and distributing them to slaves, transferring property from rich whites to the poor, and ruthlessly breaking up pro-slavery organizations no matter how peacefully they presented themselves. Much of the land they control, especially in the south, has been badly damaged by scorched earth campaigns, and they are still finding mass graves of slaughtered slaves. Unflinchingly secular despite a strong political Christianity movement, the government has enshrined the principles of freedom and equity in its constitution. Aligned with the Texan Free State, the Council of Many Fires, and the Worker's Republic of America, they have also reached out to Haiti and to the oppressed and exploited across the globe.

The New Orleans Governate - After the failed British intervention in New England, lessons were learned and something smaller and less economically disruptive was done. Contact was made through the local consulate, soldiers were moved in, and the British navy anchored in port. A series of short, sharp raids and attacks seized a small hinterland around the city, enough to force the Freedmen's Republic back, and then a peace treaty and trade agreement was signed, forcing the new Republic to pay painful tariffs if they wanted to use the port. Attempts at opening their market have been flatly refused, and the Empire is not currently strong enough to make the attempt...

The Texan Free State - Founded by August Wilich and exiles from the revolutions of 1848, they are determinedly implementing their vision of radical, revolutionary liberalism, unapologetically individual and protective of rights, to the degree many describe them as becoming anarchists. They are facing a resistance movement determined to "drive out the Hun and Mexican and reclaim Texas's rightful territory" and struggling to rebuild their economy, but recent discoveries of some interesting and industrially useful fluids might be enough to turn things around...

The Council of Many Fires - As American troops were pulled back, the settlers soon followed, often being forced to leave some of their property behind. Railroads, telegraph networks, and forts were seized or destroyed by various Native American tribes, who suddenly found themselves relatively untroubled by attempts at colonization. Leaders of a number of tribes gathered to form an alliance that would keep them safe from further attempts. This alliance negotiated with the Mormons, fended off attacks from Mexico and Pacifica, and gradually began accruing real internal power. Over several years it became a loose confederation of many tribes who held uncontested sway over the interior of the continent, standing with the Texan Free State and the Freedmen's Republic against any who might threaten them.

The Dominion of Pacifica - It was a simple deal with the state governments that Britain made, reorganizing them into a federated dominion, receiving aid from the broader empire to keep them safe from any threats that might approach and ensuring that the British have some useful naval bases stretching south from Canada, as well as another source of troops. The new dominion is extremely revanchist, hoping to eventually reunify the United States of America and "restore order" to the various "servile revolts" and "savage insurrections" that currently control the continent. As part of that, they are working to push east, but the Council of Many Fires is determinedly fending them off.

The United States of America (Great Lakes) - A remnant formed from governors of several Midwestern states and generals retreating from lost battles, this government clings to parts of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, acting more as a band of pirates than as a proper nation. Cliques dominate the governance and frequently backstage each other, there are several different military branches that actively hate each other, and only the barest lip service is paid to democracy or legitimacy.

The United States of America (DC Government) - Founded by General Sherman who ended up in Washington, DC after a series of lost battles and skillful escapes, he locked himself in a room for a day then came out, shot President Buchanan, and announced he was taking control of the American government for the duration of the emergency. Surrounded by loyal soldiers, the remainder of Congress that was still in the city agreed. With official power in his hands, he acted swiftly, beginning a mass levy, promoting loyal bureaucrats, and organizing a defense against the Freedmen's Republic. Fighting with skill and desperation, and taking advantage of his status as a secondary threat compared to the White Pact, he was able to seize a small pocket of territory reaching up to Philadelphia and down to Alexandria, then sign a peace treaty. Though the "Supreme Protector of the American Constitution" has managed his position ably for many years, he has become increasingly erratic and interested in the temperance movement recently, and there is no defined method of succession for his position.

Omake, Wikipedia-esque Entry--The Washington Affair of 1874

The Washington Affair of 1874 was a strident debate and argument by the The Freedman's Republic and the Worker's Republic of America over the division of the former United States of America District of Columbia Rump State after the death of Supreme Protector of the American Constitution William Tecumseh Sherman, and the failure of his son William Tecumsah Jr, then only nineteen, to hold together the Empire.

Frustrations between the two republics had been increasing for several years, and the collapse of the USA and the conquest of it by joint forces of both countries started a debate that raged for an entire year before it was divided between them, which...

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Aftermath

...strained relations between both Republics continued for several years... reconciliation began in earnest after the 1879 election in the Freedman's Republic of the "soft red" Peter H. Clark, who repaired relations between the two Republics to a large degree.