Stray Butterflies

My latest discovery on the alternative history front is a well written and very dark essay entitled Decades of Darkness. The premise for this one is that Thomas Jefferson dies while in office in January of 1809. Because of the turmoil involved with the transition to Madison (who is president-elect), the Embargo Act is not repealed. This was an act aimed at trying to punish British shipping for the impressments of American sailors but instead devastated the economies of New England seaports. As a result, New England secedes from the Union along with New York, New Jersey, and the Michigan territory. New England actually did threaten this and that was one of the reason Jefferson backed down right before his term expired.

In this new history, the United States is dominated by the slave holding states who expand the process, extending it in their conquest across North America. Meanwhile, New England forms a confederation government and become a powerful naval power, closely allied with Canada and Britain. Where I am now, is the mid 1860’s. Abraham Lincoln has just finished his term as the 13th president of New England while Mexican radicals in response to an intervention in Vericruz assassinate US President Jefferson Davis. The racial subjection that the United States descends to is rather appalling from a future perspective, but plausible at the same time.

The only problem I have with it is something that tends to plague all alternative history scenarios: the amount of unrelated “butterflies.” The principle point of any alternate history is to create alternatives based on your Point of Departure (PoD). However, many writers have specific things they want to have happen, so they postulate that some things happened a little differently that are completely unrelated to your original premise. Two of the biggest examples of that in Decades of Darkness involve Napoleon and Queen Victoria. In this scenario, Napoleon takes a different route in his retreat from Russia, causing him to lose fewer men. As such, he has a stronger army and actually defeats Wellington at the battle of Waterloo; although the arrival of Prussian reinforcements still force him to withdraw from the field and later abdicate the throne. This only creates small ripples and could easily be overlooked. The other one though is very significant. The author postulates that in the scenario, the monarch who is becomes Queen Victoria, is actually born a man and comes to the throne as Edward VII. He also changes the temperament of the king, making him more hands on and involved as opposed to Victoria who left nearly all governance to her Prime Ministers. To me, this creates a very large change that is completely unrelated to the events causing New England to break away from the United States. I understand some changes need to be made to make a compelling story, but if you change too many factors, the fun of the exercise of seeing down one juncture in history is taken away.

Still, it’s a good story and I look forward to seeing how it ends.