The United States of America would not consider himself a patient man. But strangely enough, he is calm and level-headed as little Johnny taunts him.
Maybe we need some backstory.
Tensions were rising in the young nation. America, who, for convenience's sake, we will call Alfred, was not pleased about it. While several of his states had abolished slavery, much to his joy, in others still, particularly those in the southern part of his country, it was still a legal and supported enterprise, though the definition of "enterprise" was "a project or undertaking that is especially difficult, complicated, or risky," and those Southern slave owners had slaves to do the difficulties for them.
It made Alfred sick.
Tensions had been mounting for ages, of course. There was all that trouble in Kansas, and then there was a particularly sickening election–literally sickening. Alfred had spent a lot of time trying not to throw up–ending with the election of Abraham Lincoln.
Unfortunately, the southern states took this to signify that they would no longer be allowed to keep slaves, and South Carolina seceded pretty much immediately, followed by several others.
Four slave states. There are four slave states left in the Union. Alfred lives with the constant worry that they will join the others and secede, but for now they are still a part of him. It is relieving.
"It is time to throw off the pretense of preservation of the Union and address what is on the mind of every man, woman, and child in these thirty-six states, Union or Confederate," Lincoln said to Alfred a few weeks before giving the Emancipation Proclamation. "It is time I freed the slaves."
Freeing the slaves is good in theory, but has no real meaning yet. Though the Confederate states were prohibited from leaving the Union, they had, and therefore, as a separate country, had the right to.
It is confusing, as if something were spinning about Alfred's head. Whenever he thinks he can see what it is, it zooms away. When he voiced this thought to Lincoln, his boss laughed and said, "You are very right, my boy."
Alfred does know that this at least means that the Confederate states are not his country anymore, and Johnny only accentuates this.
Johnny is like Alfred, only he is the Confederate States of America. "That was a nice speech your president gave, Big Brother," he says, spitting the last two words with as much contempt as he little mouth can muster. "I liked that it was real short." He laughs. It would probably be more impressive if his body wasn't so small and his laugh so high. "But maybe your stupid brain doesn't know that is doesn't mean anything. You and your president are so wrapped up in making sure what's left of your country doesn't dissipate, you didn't risk freeing the Union slaves, did you? And I'm not you. So my slaves aren't 'emancipated' as your president says."
"I know," Alfred replies calmly.
"You failed at what you wanted to do," Johnny continues. "You're a failure."
"I'm not a failure," Alfred says. "We're not doing so well in the war yet, I'll give you that, so my soldiers are a bit discouraged. Now they remember why they're fighting. It's not to keep the country together. No. It's to preserve one of the basic rights of humanity. Liberty."
Johnny scoffs. "I don't care about your stupid document," he says. "I'm my own country now. I don't need it. Besides, it's not like slaves are people."
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness," Alfred recites. "This extends to all men. Your slaves are equal to you, Johnny, and they have the same basic rights."
Johnny snorts. "As if you really believe that. No, I know your history. You think slaves are three-fifths of a man."
"No," Alfred says. "My people thought that. Don't you care for your citizens, John?"
"Slaves aren't citizens," Johnny says, but he doesn't meet Alfred's eyes.
"If one is born in your country, he is a citizen."
"No! No! Your silly little Declaration! That stupid Emancipation Proclamation! Stop talking to me!" Johnny paces on his little legs, distressed. "You don't–you don't know anything!"
"Yes, Johnny," Alfred whispers, "I do. And I have superior resources, a larger army, more railroads, a better organized government, and I am more level-headed than you are. I was like you once: a little brother with a dream to get away. And I did. You won't. I swear. I won't let a country be formed on the principle of cheap labor."
As Alfred walks away, he can hear Johnny shouting after him. He's saying something about England. Alfred doesn't turn to hear better. He's stronger than England. He can destroy his little brother when England couldn't.
Lincoln may not have freed the slaves today. But Alfred sure as hell will.
Anyone else detecting older brother complexes? I've got some historical stuff to talk about, so here we go.
The Emancipation Proclamation: a speech given by Abraham Lincoln on the first day of 1863. Essentially, it was about freeing the slaves, but as you probably got if you read even a little of the story above, it didn't really.
The document Johnny and Al talk about and Al quotes is the Declaration of Independence, which Thomas Jefferson probably largely copied from other important historical documents, such as the Magna Carta.
The North was vastly better equipped than the South to win the war, but if you read anything on the Civil War, it'll seem like they lose a lot, because they did. They still somehow won, though.
The three-fifths thing Johnny talks about: when our America was a young country, just a few years free of Britain, delegates from every state met to discuss how the legislative branch should be set up. That's the one with the midterm elections, by the way, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Anyway, this really cool dude Roger Sherman came up with a compromise between the large states, which wanted a single house based on population, and the small states, which wanted the number of representatives for each state to be equal. The result of the compromise was a two-house system, one with equal reps and one based on population, which is still in use today. I think this compromise was a cheat, because it just means that the states with a smaller population can't have below three reps, but I guess it worked out okay in the long run because the votes of people in less-populated states count for more. The Electoral College sucks.
So with the legislative branch figured out, they needed to know what to do with the slaves. The southern states, having a lot of slaves, wanted them to count as a citizen, but the north, where there were fewer slaves were all like, "Hey, hypocrites! If they're going to count as citizens make them citizens!" They just wanted the most reps they could get. They didn't really care about abolishing slavery yet. So there was this other compromise made called the Three-Fifths Compromise. Pretty much each slave counted as three-fifths of a person.
Keep in mind that I consider personifications to be at once the same and different from the people of their nations.
Tell me what you think! I know it was more historical than plot driven, but I love reviews! Even if it's just to correct my history, review; I'm always willing to learn something new.
This A/N was like more than half the length of the actual story.