Black people
From Turtledove
Black people or blacks is a racial, political, sociological or cultural classification of people. No people are literally black, but many people who have dark skin color are considered black. A variety of sociopolitical and biological factors are used to define categories of black people.
Some assert that only people of relatively recent African descent are black, while others argue that black may refer to individuals with dark skin color regardless of ethnic origin.
Through to the institution of slavery, over the course of centuries, blacks were taken from Africa and brought to the Americas, including North and South America and the Carribbean, where they were used as unskilled and disposable manpower for menial work.
In the United States, the institution of slavery proved to be a substantial wedge in the country, as the northern states gradually outlawed slavery, while many states in the south fought for its continued existence. The conflict eventually left the political arena and became a factor in the armed conflict that began in 1861.
As a consequence of the American Civil War, slavery was ended and blacks became American citizens. However, the process painful, and the rights of citizenship were not equally extended and uniformly enforced.
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[edit] Black people in Atlantis
Blacks, along with North Terranovan copperskins, were the unfortunate victims of European chattel slavery from the sixteenth century onward in Atlantis. The economies of French and Spanish Atlantis were particularly dependent on slave-based agriculture. In spite of this, blacks and copperskins rebelled at almost any available opportunity; one black slave, Blaise, escaped from French Atlantis and became a trusted advisor to Victor Radcliff. Black uprisings remained a constant fear for European colonists in Atlantis. A particularly brutal slave uprising in Spanish Atlantis paralyzed the already feeble Spanish effort against Britain during the Seven Years' War.
[edit] Black people in The Guns of the South
The white-supremacist Afrikanerweerstandsbeweging of South Africa sought a restoration of apartheid, and so traveled back in time to alter the course of the American Civil War, allowing the Confederacy to win.
However, the Confederacy became uncomfortable with slavery, and grew angered by the time-traveller's insistence in meddling in the country's destiny. After a bloody conflict in which the time-travelers were defeated and expelled or captured, the CSA began legislation to end slavery.
[edit] Black people in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
As part of the racist ideologies of the Nazi-dominated Greater German Reich, blacks along with Jews, Slavs and Arabs were considered "untermensch". Following the Axis victory in Second World War, the Reich and its ally the Italian Empire launched a genocide against blacks in Africa as part of the Holocaust with the surviving populations being used as slave labor.
During the Third World War between the Reich and Japan against the United States (which had remained neutral in the Second World War), blacks and Jews in the United States were subjected to racial genocide. In the Aryan-dominated Union of South Africa which was an independent ally of the Reich, blacks along with other non-Aryans were exposed to "no more" than continuing Apartheid, rather than out-and-out genocide.
As of 2010, what little remained of the black population hoped that the reforms instituted by the fourth Fuhrer Heinz Buckliger to the German Reich would eventually reach them and other persecuted groups including the Jews, Slavs and Arabs.
[edit] Black people in Southern Victory
The War of Secession was fought from 1861-62 between the United States and the Confederate States. The Confederate States sought to preserve the institution of slavery and the oppression of blacks in North America. The Confederate States won the war and were free to continue their practice of slavery.
Slavery was continued in the Confederate States through the Second Mexican War. In 1881, President James Longstreet promised to introduce and support a constitutional amendment banning slavery after the war's successful conclusion. As a result, Britain and France entered an alliance with the Confederate States and helped knock the United States out of the war.
While slaves were technically free, they were not able to become citizens since the Confederate States was founded on racist policies including the preservation of slavery. Though they composed a third of the population of the Confederate States, blacks suffered severe discrimination in society including doing the most menial and unskilled of work, being forced to carry passbooks and were segregated from the richer whites. However, citizenship was granted to a few blacks who had served with distinction in the Confederate States Army.
These tensions between blacks and whites in the Deep South would continue into the twentieth century. Many blacks also became influenced by the socialism advocated by Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln. During the Great War (1914-1917), the Confederate States joined the Entente which consisted of Britain, France and Russia while the United States along with Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire formed the Central Powers.
With the Confederate's manpower concentrated against the United States, several blacks seized this as the chance to free themselves from their white oppressors. During the ensuing Red Rebellion (1915-16), black socialists revolted against the Confederate government and attempted to form several socialist republics in the South including the Congaree Socialist Republic. With the help of the US, the rebellion became a major problem, diverting precious Confederate manpower and resources, including units from the frontlines, to the crush the fledging republics.
By 1917, the CS as with most other members of the Entente had been weakened during the war and called for a ceasefire with the Central Powers. The Central Powers particularly the United States and Germany forced the Entente to pay harsh war reparations and to cede territory over. The United States would annex Kentucky and Sequoyah as well as the western portion of Texas (called the State of Houston by the US), northern Virginia to the Rappahannock, a strip of Arkansas added to Missouri, and a chunk of Sonora added to New Mexico. This resulted in longstanding animosity between the United States and Confederate States.
Only 10% of the 10 million blacks in the Confederacy were actually involved, but post-war, especially after the rise to power of the Freedom Party, blacks generally were blamed for the rebellion and the Confederacy's defeat during the Great War. The small amount of liberalization that the Blacks had gained post-War of Secession was lost after this rebellion.
The post-war hate toward blacks led to the rise of Jake Featherston's Freedom Party during the 1934 General Elections. The Freedom Party's policies included the "population reduction" of all blacks within the borders of the CS. Several concentration camps including Camp Determination, Camp Undecided and Camp Humble were established to kill large amounts of people in a short period of time including gas chambers. Indeed, even as the Second Great War was going poorly for the C.S. by 1943, Featherston insisted on allocating precious resources to continue genocide.
As this process began many blacks began to take arms once again, usually attacking in small raids and using guerrilla warfare. This fighting continued into the Second Great War. With the capture of Camp Determination by US Army general Abner Dowling in 1943 and the discovery of mass graves and other atrocities, more people became aware of the Black Holocaust. While much of the world including the US was indifferent to the plight of black people, knowledge of the Confederate's Holocaust led to stirrings of outrage.
By the time the Confederate States fell, somewhere between six and 10 million blacks had been killed in the camps. Various survivors (guerillas who'd fought back, families who'd fled, or were hidden by honorable whites) joined up with the US Army. The fighters became auxiliaries for the US Army (one of whom, Cassius, killed Jake Featherston), and the United States began a process of integration to insure the safety of the survivors.
[edit] Black Names
The severe social division and gap between whites and blacks in the Confederacy was emphasized by their being called by very different kinds of names.
While the custom of calling Blacks by the names of famous (white) people from classical antiquity is attested from earlier periods of slavery [1], it was apparently during the last two decades of slavery (1862-1882) that it became very predominant among blacks in the Confederacy - especially among men - to the point that there were hardy any of them called by ordinary English names (as there had been among earlier Black generations, for example the famous Frederick Douglass). Moreover, while in earlier generations some blacks had family names - even if those were often derived from their master's name - the terms of their being freed from slavery included their having no family names whatsoever.
Also after being freed from slavery, Blacks continued to use the names of such famous individuals and bestow them on their children, in effect adopting them as part of their own culture. Even if no law existed forbidding Blacks to use ordinary English names, there was clearly a very strong social barrier against doing so. To some degree, this system was helpful to the blacks - since there was only a limited number of names in use among millions of people, and no family names at all, a hunted black person could sometimes take the identity of another who had the same name.
Most Blacks, having only an elementary education, knew little of who the ancient people were for whom they were called. They often changed and shortened such names - "Scipio", for examples, being shortened to "Kip". However, those who did gain some knowledge of ancient history and who were inclined to rebel against the prevailing oppression often took the names of ancient rebels, such as that of Spartacus, leader of a famous slave revolt in Roman times, or of the Gracchus Brothers - two radical Roman social reformers.
In contrast, the small number of blacks who managed to get US citizenship and become (more or less) integrated in the society north of the border did take ordinary English names. In the wake of the Confederacy defeat and long-term occupation by US troops, this example could be expected to be taken by surviving Confederate Blacks.
[edit] Black People in The Two Georges
The British Empire ended slavery in 1834, and black people were integrated into British society, often taking positions in civil service. By the late 20th century, a black man named Martin Luther King was the Governor-General of the North American Union, a very critical and prestigious position.
Most blacks were staunch Torys, feelig a strong sake in the existing social and political system of British Empire which had given them all they achieved.
The social suscces of the Blacks aroused envy and hatred among many of the far less succesful Irish Americans.
[edit] Black people in Worldwar
During the Race's Conquest Fleet's invasion of Earth, the whole of Africa was conquered along with much of Asia, Latin America and Australia. Many black people became subjects to the Race. In some places, like South Africa, the black population eagerly sided with the Race, who found human classification based on skin color to be arbitrary. Indeed, many of the Race were more comfortable with darker skinned people of Earth.
In the United States, the Race armed black Americans with the hope that they would fight on the Race's behalf in the hope of receiving equitable treatment if the United States lost. While some did fight fiercely on the Race's behalf, most aligned themselves with the human race, however poorly their position in society would be.
After the war prominent leaders such as Martin Luther King strove for equality of blacks in American society.
