United People of the World

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

Author says, what if the first African-American President had to confront the hostility of an unreconstructed Confederacy?

In 2009, on this day the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and North Ireland Gordon Brown arrived in Washington D.C. for his first audience with President Barack Obama.

With an enormous amount of speculation surrounding the state visit, international news agencies reported "All eyes will be watching to see how they get on. Will stern, reticent Gordon gel with avuncular, articulate Barack? Will the two emerge equals, or will one call the shots?".

A small, but deliberate pun since Union-British relations had been ruptured for more than one hundred and fifty years by the Trent Affair. Because on November 8, 1861, the USS San Jacinto, commanded by Union Captain Charles Wilkes, intercepted the British mail packet Trent and removed two Confederate diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell.

The envoys were bound for Great Britain and France to press the Confederacy's case for diplomatic recognition by Europe. Whilst the Trent never reached Great Britain, the mission nevertheless succeeded.

Because the reaction in the United States was enthusiastically in support of the capture despite the questionable legality of the act. In the Confederate States, the hope was that diplomatic recognition by Britain of the Confederacy, and ultimately, Southern independence would follow, which it surely did. And in Great Britain, the public expressed outrage at this apparent insult to their national honour. The British government demanded an apology and the release of the prisoners while it took steps to strengthen its military forces in Canada and in the Atlantic. After several weeks of tension, the issue exploded into war when the Lincoln administration refused to release the envoys and avowed Captain Wilkes' actions.

No formal apology was issued until 2001. And now the early signs of renewed British-Union relations were thrown into jeopardy once again by an explosive development of civil rights - the election of the first African-American President, Barack Obama.

Of course the issue of equality existed at many levels. Significantly, President Obama had met with his Canadian counterpart, Prime Minister Stephen Harper before Gordon Brown, and this diplomatic gesture was considered in some quarters to be a snub to the British.

One group of people that had even stronger feelings on the matter were the unreconstructed Confederate leadership in the City of Richmond, VA. In point of fact the conversation at the other "White House [of the Confederacy]" had hardly moved on from the tribute evening for Stevie Wonder on February 23rd.
Click to watch Obama's speech

In particular, the Confederate leadership had taken great exception to Wonder's "politicized" acceptance speech believing its many references had stepped way beyond the appropriate boundaries of a musical award ~

"But what's really exciting for me today is that we truly have lived to see a time where America has a chance to again live up to the greatness that it deserves to be seen and known as, through the love and the caring and the commitment of a president, as in our president, Barack Obama. [APPLAUSE] It's exciting 'cause I know my children will be able to say, 'I was born when there was the first African American president. Yeah, I can do that too!' But not only can they do that, but all children of all various ethnicities understand that they can speak in truth. They can talk about loving and caring about this country. They can talk about being a united people of the United States of America. They can live that dream that Dr. King talked about so long ago. And if those in this country and throughout the world - you can put down your spirits of hate and open up your hearts to receive God's ever commitment of love, then we can be a united people of the world. If we can think that big, and feel that strong, then I believe, as is said to me by my God, impossible is unacceptable. We don't know the miracles that will be bestown on us because of that. "

The timings of the visits from Stevie Wonder and Gordon Brown could be considered unfortunate. Yet few disagreed that a miracle was needed to set things back on track. And only a few optimists held out hope that Mr Brown could initiate substantive dialogue between the three parties, and open a new chapter in UK-USA-CSA bilateral relations.

Author's note the concept of the Trent Incident leading to War between the Union and Great Britain is described in Amanda Foreman's "The Trent Incident Leads to War". We repurpose this point of divergence to explore how an unreconstructed CSA might respond to President Obama's election. We have also repurposed content from Youtube and also Wikipedia in this post.

Steve Payne

Editor of Today in Alternate History, a Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today.

Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting fictional blog.

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