Alternative History:Caste USA

Slavery in the U.S. is non-racial, and evolves into something more similar to a caste system.

Two major PODs: Minor PODs include: As a result of POD1, Caribbean and American plantation owners need to bring in indentured servants from Ireland and elsewhere. They encourage the indentured (who soon lose any rights and become simply slaves) to intermarry with Africans, hoping that the African's immunity to Malaria will be inherited by the offspring. Before long, the vast majority of slaves are of Euro-African descent.
 * 1) Due to events in West Africa, relatively few Africans are taken into the slave trade.
 * 2) The industrial revolution starts a little earlier.
 * 1) The Netherlands retains rights in OTL Northern Manhattan, Bronx, Westchester.  The final split between New Amsterdam and the home country occurs when American Colonies declare independence from Britain.  The independent Free State of Haarlem declares neutrality in the American Revolution, but British troops occupy it nonetheless for most of the war.  New York, in lower Manhattan, burns to the ground and is not rebuilt, its location becomes a military base first for the British, then American military as "Fort Clinton".
 * 2) Connecticut and Massachusetts militia achieve a major victory in the Revolutionary War by attacking British-occupied Brooklyn through Long Island.  This solidifies Connecticut's claim to jurisdiction over the entirety of Long Island.  It also continues to claim territory in OTL Ohio.

As a result of POD2, it is advantageous to own large numbers of slaves that can be put to work in factories.

Some outcomes include:
 * 1) The Constitutional Convention results in a schism.  New England (everything east of the Hudson River, including Long Island) establishes itself as the Federated States of America, with a Constitution that reduces the rights of states, increases the rights of individuals, and prohibits slavery.  The rest of the US agrees to a "Covenant" which guarantees to individuals the right to own "non-related dependents".
 * 2) Over time, slavery in the USA becomes ubiquitous and any permanent resident of the country is required to be either a slave or a slave-owner.  Only persons who own 3 or more slaves have rights of citizenship.
 * 3) Eventually, strict protocols are put into place in the USA governing the degree of control that citizens have over their "dependents", and they are divided into classes.  A Class V dependent, for example, must work wherever his Citizen assigns him, while a Class I dependent can seek work wherever he likes, although his Citizen can veto certain jobs.
 * 4) There are in the USA virtually no voices for abolition of slavery, but with increasing national wealth come increasing demands for certain "fundamental rights" of all people, as well as levels of rights for different classes of dependents.  Eventually, this produces a system which is very much like a caste system, with Citizens at the pinnacle, Class V dependents at the bottom.
 * 5) The USA and FSA dispute rights to land in the general area of OTL Ohio, which is claimed by Connecticut but has been occupied by the USA.  In the end, the FSA waives rights to that area, and the USA gives up its claims to the areas east of the Hudson that had once been part of New York.
 * 6) Haarlem becomes a financial center, benefiting from its neutrality and relations with both USA and FSA.  The USA is an industrial dynamo.  The FSA is a center for technology, as well as higher education.
 * 7) Maine separates from Massachusetts.  Long Island separates from Connecticut, the west becoming the State of Brucklyn; the west becoming the State of Islandia.

MORE TO COME....