Now I don't want to get off on a rant here...

I'm glad the North won too. Although I can see why it would be hard for someone to get past the issue of slavery to see the other implications of a Confederacy victory. To be honest, given my lack of historical knowledge, that's about all I would think about too, and if I were black, I'm sure that focus would be all the more intensified.

Are there any other what-if movies out there that do a better job of showing all of the implications of such a victory? Maybe I should educate myself.

p.s. I don't see Maryland as a Southern state in the least. I don't really think Florida is either though....

I'm not much of a historian myself, but I do know that that wars are never as simple as a singular issue like that. And if I were to make a movie about it, then I would expect my research to go beyond that of Joe Schmo's opinion on the street (white or black).

I don't really know of any other "what if" movies...I guess I foolishly thought this might be one. I do know that HBO made a Civil War 2 movie about 10 years ago that was mildly interesting.

Maryland, by most accounts is a northern state to Southerners and a southern state to Northerners. That's why I love the Mid-Atlantic :-)

being a southerner who now resides in maryland, i see maryland as a northern state. at least i feel that way in baltimore. there are probably areas in maryland that feel more southern but for the most part having spent all my life in the south, there is definately a northern feel to maryland. its also one of the bluest states in the union.
Speaking of...the civil war is not the best term for it. more like the war between the states. usually a civil war is two or more sides fighting for control of the entire country, seeking governmental control. the south did not seek that, rather they sought the right of self determination, which has become an internationally accepted right, for better or worse. Example, the right for Israel to exist, and now the Palestinian states right for self determination. But I digress.

Don't know of any movies, but there have been books postulating a Southern win. Off the top of my head there's 'The Guns of the South'. I can't recall the author. Interestingly enough, in that book, the strong implication is made that the South would soon free her slaves after victory. Not sure if that really would've happened, of course.

It's been said that, had they known that they would not be able to secede w/o a fight, most of the states would not have signed on to the original Articles of Confederation. Goodness knows that, if they had wanted to, the Northern states could have said something like this: You can secede from the Union, but you can't hold citizens of the US in durance vile, and we hereby declare all humans born or brought to the US against their will to be citizens (or some such verbiage). We will fight you if necessary to get you to free them.

All sorts of things could have been done short of invasion: blockade, arming bands of blacks in guerilla fashion, truly cutting off commerce, w/o fighting a war on the principle of forcing states to stay in the Union, the legacy of which is the overwheening Federal gov't we now suffer under. One begins to have some sympathy for JWB...

The thing that a lot of modern-day Confederate sympathizers don't understand -- or refuse to admit -- is that the South never could have survived without the industrialized North. If the South had won, the North could've marched back in ten years later and taken 'em.

Guns of the South was written by Harry Turtledove. It's a sci-fi novel: white supremacists from apartheid South Africa travel back in time to equip the South with AK-47s.

Malnurted Snay...your assertion that the south wouldnt have survived economically is flatly false.
Economically the south was the cash cow for the US at the time due to their exports, most notably cotton. The north put tariffs on southern exports in order to rake in major profits from southern products. This was a huge reason the north went to war; over the economy.
The south was hurt by these large tariffs and were more than glad to get out from underneath their burden. If the south would have been allowed to freely secede then the North would have been out of a huge flow of money, not to mention the very products they needed for their industries. No doubt the south would have favored sending their goods to Britian and France over sending them North.
The south also would have had sole access to the major ports at the time, Charleston and New Orleans..and eventually their new nation would have stretched from sea to sea...capturing the major ports on both sides of the continent.
The north needed the south's economy to stay economicable viable.

I saw this topic and thought "Jordan is going to have a lot to say about this one!"

And I was right, because I am a genius.

Btw, I agree that the timeline they propose is ridiculous. For most of it, they just replaced "USA" with "CSA". I doubt 1/2 of those events would have even occurred if the South had won the war. It also looks like they built the movie on the assumption that slavery would exist until the present day. The fact that other nations were outlawing it seperately from the US makes me think that even the CSA would have had to do the same eventually.

Let’s not keep any delusions of grandeur for the North or the South. The fact of the matter is that this country as it exists today was only possible through the union staying in tact. Both sides benefited from the other and were aided by this Union, and I think we are best served by remembering that. While Doc may believe that we are suffering under the present Federal government, it is this strong centralized government that has enabled us to stay united and prosper into the world’s lone super power.

Larry, I agree that slavery would have become a thing of the past no matter who won, but certainly under a different set of circumstances. By the way, I knew Jordan would have more than his 2 cents to throw into this discussion as well.

i refrained from throwing anything more than a penny in. : ) i could definately throw in more. but i simply wanted to respond to the error in thinking the south was not economically viable.

Jeff,

Yeah, the circumstances leading to the end of slavery in the CSA would certainly have been much different than how it happened. In fact, I'm sure the CSA would be at least 50+ years behind in granting civil rights to African Americans simply because the initial granting of freedom would have come later and because the public sentiment would have been different.

That kind of drives home what bothers me about their timeline. If you're going to do a story like this, then you should really rewrite the entire course of history to do it correctly. Of course I'm saying this as a computer geek/Star Trek fan who knows way too much about rifts in the space/time continuum. :D

Since were talking hypotheticals here...if the south had won the war...how long would slavery had lasted? I can probably bet that Robert E Lee would have been the 2nd president of the CSA and here are his sentiments on slavery. This is an excerpt taken from a letter he wrote.
“In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil”
He understood that slavery was evil...he probably wasnt as enlightened as us today, who would call for its abolishment right away, but it would have ended....and probably sooner than anyone thinks. Definately sooner than Spike Lee's delirium filled hypothetical.

That's interesting. I had never heard that quote before from Robert E. Lee. A CSA victory may have led to faster abolishment of slavery than I thought.

But, there's only one way to really be sure. I'm going to use my "Fly so fast I reverse time itself" gadget on my utility belt and change the outcome of the Civil War!!! MWAHAHAHA.

If you don't get my joke about the utility belt, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TkEud1mK9U