The Guns of Old John Brown

As August began, so too did a war. Gunfire cracked across Harper's Ferry, swift and deadly, slaughtering the scattered guards before they even realized they were under attack. The armory was looted, then burned, and plantations around it were raided. Rifles and muskets went into the hands of hundreds of slaves, along with promises of freedom. A half-dozen militias formed up to suppress the insurrection, and were picked apart within hours.

Despite enthusiasm at the easy, and nearly bloodless victory, the Freedmen's Army withdrew and made their way into the mountains, raiding plantations and towns along their line of march, attacking railroads and telegraph lines, freeing slaves, and seizing whatever movable wealth, weaponry, or supplies they could find. At Brown's insistence, harsh discipline was enforced, and the army advanced rapidly despite its ungainly nature.

Into the high peaks of the Appalachians, they disappeared, and then they dispersed, into dozens of armed camps, kept in coordination by judicious use of radios and relay networks. In the mountains, they found allies, perhaps unwilling to fight by their side but happy to let them pass through.

In the lowlands, the news of an armed attack upon slavery echoed across the nation, and then the world. Across the slaveholding states, fresh militias were raised, new overseers were hired, and preparations were made for even more desperate measures. In the free states, matters were more divided. The fiery rhetoric of Brown's allies, who delivered speeches condemning the government's support of the slave power and stopping inches shy of calling for its total overthrow, inspired many, but just as many thought his widely published proposals and manifestos were too radical, his methods and goals too extreme.

And some chose to support slavery, out of a desire to protect their privileged position or to maintain a nebulous sense of stability. This division extended from the highest ranks to the low. As radical abolitionist organizations and firebrand slavery advocates sought support, as Brown's men spread throughout their new mountain base, the government was left paralyzed and ineffectual for crucial weeks. Buchanan cowered in the White House, cabinet members executed contradictory plans, and Congress saw several brawls, some of which ended only in death.
Despite the chaos, despite the violence spreading across America, no one was truly prepared for what was coming. From the mountains, Brown's armies swept south, defeating every force they faced in battle. Slave revolts began, shattering the supply lines of organized resistance, while others acted as spies and saboteurs.

Many slave owners tried to send their "property" further south, and the necessities of conquest slowed Brown's army enough that some succeeded. Every town they took needed to be garrisoned, land needed to be redistributed to the slaves and to poor whites, and new governments needed to be formed.

And the attempted terror attacks upon "escapees" and "collaborators" needed to be dealt with.

All this, combined with devastation, disease, and hunger did slow the Freedmen's Army. But nothing could stop them. Newly-made nostrums of startling effectiveness were applied. Fresh, fast-growing crops were planted, while everything from simple weeds to wild animals were used as stopgaps to fill hungry bellies. A variety of new facilities and factories were planned out, to produce everything from paper to rifles. And all the while, armies marched.

Within a month, armies were being raised by governors in the north, without any coordination or request from the federal government. Many armies were not even going to be on the same side, although none intended to fight with John Brown. And when some recruiting officers visited towns and cities in strongholds of abolition and radicalism, they found themselves tarred and feathered or ridden out of town on a rail.

And then they raised their own armies.

Meanwhile, across the Great Plains and isolated reservations, the scattered, defeated, and yet defiant tribes of Turtle Island rose up once more, this time better equipped, and with their enemies distracted. Victory after victory was won in a series of stunning battles that left them with effective control of a vast swathe of the continent.

An alliance was immediately signed with the Freedmen's Republic, which controlled its own swathe and was rapidly expanding it. Washington, DC was besieged and then taken, the library of congress packed away for the new nation's capital and the rest ignored but for a small garrison force. Meanwhile, the remainder of the army was pushing in every direction they could Weather and logistics did more to slow their advance than any enemy army, as numerical, technological, and tactical superiority saw enemy officers and messengers shot down, enemy formations eviscerated with powerful explosives, and enemy soldiers sent running or surrendering in a panic. Only extensive financial support from Britain and France kept the decapitated government of the United States alive. Their navy provided support, their fleets transported troops and supplies, their trade provided crucial hard currency. All in exchange for some...minor concessions.

Concessions they never truly got to enjoy. An attempted reclamation of some Texan territory by Mexico was turned back by a temporary alliance of exiled 48ers and American militias, while the Turtle Island Nation aided a number of uprisings in western Canada that threatened to divide the colony in two. The various radical groups in the north were coalescing into a formal alliance, the Freedmen's Republic to the south was advancing, and the two empires chose to cut their losses and harden what they already controlled.

And so after five bloody, terrible years, the guns fell silent on this tortured continent.

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. Despite this, expert medical care, new crop packages, and impressive technological development have made them the power of the continent. Aside from the incredible benefits to mortality rates and quality of life, the government has also wielded its advantages for the sake of soft power, establishing schools that even British doctors come to visit, despite the chilly relations between the governments. Meanwhile, they are undergoing a series of programs to develop infrastructure, create industry, and modernize agriculture. 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 Worker's Republic of America - The old northeast and sections of the midwest of America now stand as a single state, unified only by contradictions. It is highly federal and volatile, with an ever-present fear of a British-backed revolt. Stabilized by concessions to numerous groups and support from their allies, the governing alliance is a broad front of anarchist groups, anti-British and anti-French immigrant groups, political machines, semi-feudal warlord alliances that transitioned into legitimate governments, communes of various stripes, worker's organizations, and more, they act in unison with the Army of Workers and Farmers to ensure politico-economic democracy, the protection of basic rights, and economic development, if in a haphazard and chaotic manner. It is a lively nation, full of vigor, and moving steadily into a bright future.

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 point that many describe themselves as anarchists. Faced with a Mexican invasion, they allied with various American groups and used support from the Freedmen's Republic to become dominant. Suppressed dissidents from former allies have now begun forming resistance movements, but they are faltering in the face of a steady rise in standards of living built off their allies' prosperity and recent discoveries of some interesting and industrially useful fluids.

The Turtle Island Federation - As American troops were pulled back, the various tribes they had been assaulting rose up. Well-armed and organized and acting with eerie coordination, settlers were driven out or forced to accept the loss of their petty hegemonies. The land they had stolen was reclaimed, while their economically valuable property was seized as compensation for the initial thefts. Railroads, telegraph networks, and forts were seized 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. Some in the alliance began advocating for a democratic federation of many tribes, while others demurred. Despite the hesitation of some, the success of the alliance and new developments saw it negotiate with the Mormons, fend off attacks from Mexico and America, and accrue real internal power. The alliance was even able to organize and support uprisings in Canada that were successful enough to drive the British out of several stretches of territory. Over a few years, it became a loose but unified 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 America - It was a simple deal with the state governments of California and Oregon 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. They made many such deals, but were forced to abandon most of them in the face of rapid advances and embarrassing defeats of their proxies. The far western states and a few stretches of territory they seized before being defeated by a combined Mormon-Federation army is the only one that survived, although the intital, incredibly revanchist government was overthrown with British support. Though there is a strong revanchist and violent streak to the dominion's politics, the current government simply hopes for stability. And perhaps a new gold rush, they really could use it.



A/N: Wow, that was a close vote! Anyway, Winterfest has opened, do nominate your favorites!

The Continential Accord (1868)

The Continental Accord was an agreement between the Turtle Island Federation, Texas Free State, Freedman's Republic and Worker's Republic of America, signed and ratified on July 4th, 1868 and formalizing the already unspoken rule of mutual aid and political alliance. Its most notable and influential tenet was to first confirm a total lack of revanchism between all governments, setting the boundary lines between all four groups as involiable, and second to confirm that all major foreign policy decisions would be made by consensus.

If any one of the four nations or groupings--for some eschewed the idea of the 'state'--did not want to go to war, then none of them did. And if any did not wish to enter a serious alliance for more than minor trade or resolving fishing disputes, then none would. This made the process of diplomacy with what had once been the growing United States complicated, but Prussia, seeking allies against the French, reached out in 1869, trying to promise the ability to liberate (or puppet) Mexico, still an unstable French Puppet under Emperor Maximillian, in exchange for material and economic support in case of France launching an offensive war.

This began a very spirited debate, and one that would define the nature of 'America's' foreign policy for a decade to come...