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This Brothers No More article is out of date with the current lore of the timeline and may seem inconsistent with other recently revised articles. It will be rewritten in the near future. |
The Line refers to various historical international borders between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America, as well as its successor states. While its exact geographical positioning has changed along with the borders of the nations it divides, it has long been a culturally significant marking point as the area of transition between two culturally opposed societies. It was also considered important in the enslaved African-American community in the Confederacy, as the place they strived to reach, earning their freedom as they stepped out of their oppressive former home. Conversely, it has been an area of emphasis for the Confederate government which aimed to prevent its claimed property from leaving its borders, and, in modern times, the smuggling of illegal items and persons across the border.
Usage of the term "The Line" to refer to the border first entered popular use in the 1870's, as the constant pouring of fugitive slaves over the border became a widely publicized issue in the Confederacy. While there is no certain single source for the term, it is thought to have derived from the name of the Mason-Dixon line, also known as the Missouri Compromise line, considered the border between the old North and South before the Confederate States seceded from their original union. Though the international border has never exactly followed this line, its status as the cultural barrier between the two major regions carried on in popular sentiment past the end of the war and likely contributed to this later evolution of the term.
History[]
As a popular concept, The Line started not as an international border, but as a geographical cultural boundary between the Northern and Southern regions within the United States. It was more clearly defined in the Compromise of 1850, which established the border between free and slave states in the leadup to the American Civil War. This division would never cease to exist from that point forward, eventually becoming an official international border upon the Confederacy's victory in its war of independence.
Though it claimed most territory up to the border described in the Compromise of 1850 during the war, the Confederate States failed to win control of the slave states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. Additionally, the western counties of the state of Virginia seceded during the course of the conflict, organizing the Union-controlled state of West Virginia. The Confederacy let this new state, as well as the other uncontrolled states, go in the Treaty of Alexandria, which ended the war and secured the nation's independence. This treaty also stipulated that the border would be completely open to trade until 1880, and open to immigration between the two nations until the year 1900. These terms were included to lessen the chaos of the transition between an internal boundary and an international border, as for at least twenty years it would continue to function essentially as it had in the past before the separation of the Southern states into their own nation. Both American governments at the time of signing had a general expectation that they would later make some amends with the opposing side and most likely extend these treaty terms enforcing an open border sometime before their expiration, though this would not turn out to be the case.
Before and during the war, the Missouri Compromise line had been the point escaped slaves hoped to reach to secure their freedom in the non-slaveholding states of the Union. This situation continued after the war, the situation essentially unchanged by the change of status of the border. Crossing the international border did not necessarily mean safety, as fugitive slaves would still find themselves in Union slave states, but it did represent a major landmark for anyone who managed to get that far. As slavery went out of fashion in the US after the war, slavecatchers in the remaining US slave states became much more lax, so getting out of the Confederacy was still a great boost to a slave's chances of freedom.
The Confederacy, of course, did not appreciate its slaves constantly escaping over the border. Both state governments and the federal government made great efforts to defend the boundary, setting up militia patrols and secret surveillance of the area. However, many factors worked against them. First, the border was massive and nearly completely unfortified, due to its previous status as only an unofficial internal boundary. After the war, the federal government of the Confederacy simply did not have the manpower to guard the entire length of the border at all times, and such an undertaking would have been a massive drain of resources even if they were capable of it. Gaps between patrols at a single location on the border could sometimes last days, and conductors of the Underground Railroad and other allies to slaves became very adept at timing escapes against standardized patrol schedules. Groups of civilian patrollers, often enticed by bounties put out by the state and federal governments, did not help the situation much. At the same time, the Confederacy had to strike a delicate balancing act, as cracking down too much on the defense of the border could lead to accusations that they were breaking the treaty terms of free trade and movement. Many traders from the North became allied to the Underground Railroad and similar organizations, helping to smuggle slaves across the border in trade caravans or on actual railroads. No matter what the Confederates tried, it seemed as if there was simply no stopping the hordes of escapees, and the number of escaped slaves grew every year until the practice was finally abolished.
As the issue of escaped slaves continued to grow and eventually dominate political discussion in the Confederacy, many grand proposals were made about how to stop it. These ranged from negotiating with the US government to declaring war on them in order to force more stringent border controls on their end. President Stonewall Jackson made this the main pursuit of his term in office, choosing to go with the diplomatic route as he had no desire for more violent conflicts with the United States. President George Pendleton of the United States was open to such a proposal, as he believed that getting the Confederacy back on good terms with the US would be a great diplomatic coup, fully healing the wounds the old Republican administration caused. Over the course of almost two years, the two leaders secretly corresponded and struck a deal- the United States would pass a new, stronger fugitive slave law to help return escaped slaves to the South, while President Jackson would publicly appear with President Pendleton in Washington, DC for the centennial of American independence in 1876. This deal may seem lopsided in favor of the Confederacy, but Pendleton, his confidence high after two easy election victories, naively believed that his people wouldn't care much about the status of escaped slaves from the Confederacy and might, in fact, welcome their removal from their home country. Both presidents underestimated the remaining animosity citizens of the two nations still held for each other, and so the deal was widely panned in the Union and Confederacy alike when it was publicly announced. Though it did help slightly reduce the number of successful slave escapes for a few years, public resistance to the law in the US meant that it was barely enforced by local officials, slave state or not.
Pendleton and Jackson had planned to continue their positive relationship by signing a new treaty to extend free trade a few more decades, as well as other provisions to bring the nations closer together, but this possibility died when it became clear just how rabidly people in both countries opposed cooperation with each other. By 1880, there were new presidents in both nations, who both proceeded to summarily ignore the other. The free trade provision of the Treaty of Alexandria expired on January 1st of that year, marking the first real departure of the border from what it had been before the war. Both nations suffered economically from this, but neither had the desire to reestablish free trade, and by the start of the 1890s they had each imposed tariffs on the other.
This status quo continued until 1892, which saw a spike in tension between the US and CS. As Presidents Carlisle and Morgan publicly feuded, the nations prepared for the possibility of another war, and the border saw a major militarization on both sides. For several months, the armies stared each other down, one wrong move having the potential to incite the entire border into an explosively destructive conflict. The conflict was eventually settled as Carlisle lost reelection and war was not declared, the border eventually returning to its former status. In 1900, the free movement of people clause of the Treaty of Alexandria expired with no attempts ever made at extension. There was a small spike in immigration over the border in the last few months leading up to this, but for the most part people were already settled where they wanted to be. After 1900, anyone wanting to move to the other country would have to go through the immigration process like anyone from any other nation. It was at this point that The Line became a true international border like all others.
It would operate like this, though still poorly regulated due to its long length, up until the outbreak of World War I. President Henry Cabot Lodge entered the United States into the war in early 1915, desiring to establish his country as a power on the world stage. This alarmed the Confederacy, its leaders not comprehending why the US would ever want to enter a European war and suspecting that this was merely a cover for the Union to fully mobilize its army and launch a surprise invasion of their nation. Not wanting to be caught unprepared in any case, President Overman began to prepare his own military, encouraging young men to sign up in service for their glorious country.
As the Confederacy became more prepared for war, the United States began to become suspicious themselves, thinking that perhaps the CS planned to launch a surprise invasion while most of their troops were fighting in Europe. President Lodge halted the deployment of soldiers to Europe and instead positioned them on the border in a deliberate show of force. This only ramped up tensions as the border became militarized once again. In 1916, a report leaked to the press that the Lodge cabinet had discussed preemptively declaring war on the Confederacy. Enraged, their suspicions seemingly confirmed, the CS quickly declared war and stormed across the border. They were soon pushed back to their side, however, and by 1917 the original border was firmly behind the US front. Massive numbers of slaves were freed as Confederate territory came under US control.
The Confederacy continued to be largely pushed back until 1919, when the war ended in Europe and their German allies could arrive to assist them. Fighting neared the original border again in 1920, and in 1921 the war ended with a virtual stalemate as far as territory goes. The only territorial change on The Line was the Eastern Shore of Virginia being ceded to the United States. A bigger change was the outlaw of slavery, as demanded by the US in the peace treaty. On the last day of 1923, slavery was made illegal in the Confederacy, and the flow of fugitive slaves finally stopped. This did not mean the movement of people was ended- they simply weren't called slaves anymore. Black people and others continued to move across the border legally and illegally in attempts to find a better life in the more racially tolerant United States.
Meanwhile, the US was going through massive societal changes, as a socialist revolution broke out in 1925. The outbreak of violence forced the Confederacy to position troops on the border once more, attempting to limit the amount of fighting that spilled into their territory. For the first time, the flow of people over the border largely reversed as thousands of refugees from the revolution fled into the CSA. This included people who opposed the revolution fleeing as their homes came under socialist control, as well as those who simply wanted nothing to do with the violence and destruction. The Confederacy was not usually the first choice of destination for these people forced to flee, but for most it was the only option if they wanted to leave the United States. It is estimated that over 70% of the refugees that entered the Confederacy eventually moved on elsewhere, to the newly formed Western States of America, Mexico, back to the North after the violence was over, or somewhere else internationally.
In 1926, President Glass of the Confederacy decided to intervene in the war, sending Confederate troops over the border to "maintain order" in Missouri and Kentucky. Though he promised to give the states back to US control if they maintained control of their country, this did not happen, and the two states were instead admitted as full Confederate states in 1928. This pushed The Line up to the northern border of these states, reaching the Ohio River. The nation on the other side had also changed- now the United Socialist Commonwealth of America, the USCA, laid across the border. The two nations, naturally, did not have good relations. Those opposed to the new socialist government continued to cross the border to the CSA, while socialist sympathizers and African-Americans crossed the other way to the USCA. A portion of the Confederacy now also bordered the new Western States of America, though the western portion of the border from Oklahoma is not generally considered to be part of "The Line" in a traditional sense.
The USCA continued to claim Missouri and Kentucky after the revolution, saying that they were under "illegal occupation" by the CS. The Confederacy did not generally respond to these provocations. Starting in 1939, a new hardline Stalinist government takeover in the USCA and the ensuing "Blue Revolution" spurred another wave of refugees to cross the border South.
Border Disputes[]
Despite the general dislike between the US and CS, the border was fairly well defined as part of state borders that had existed for decades before the South's war of independence. The only major border dispute from 1865 to 1928 was over the Neutral Strip, later known as the Oklahoma Panhandle. The Treaty of Alexandria stipulated that the United States would hand the "Indian Territory" over to the Confederacy. The CS interpreted this to include the Neutral Strip, while the US did not. Though a strict interpretation of the treaty would indicate that the land did rightfully belong to the United States, eager and patriotic Confederate settlers would pour into the area soon after the war, effectively claiming it for their country. The US continued to contest the claim for many decades, but never took military action as they did not think it was worth it to risk war over the small and economically unimportant strip of land. The dispute was settled at the end of World War I, as the peace treaty between the CS and US clarified that the territory belonged to the Confederacy and had since the previous treaty. While the US had the upper hand in negotiations, they felt that this was an acceptable concession to make in exchange for making the CS more willing to accept other terms.
The border was settled for only seven years after that, as the rise of the new socialist government of the USCA left things unclear once again. The USCA claimed Missouri and Kentucky as the legal successor to the old US government, while the Confederacy considered that government to be completely gone with no legal successor, and thus the land was theirs to take and keep. This dispute would continue until the end of World War II extensively changed the borders again.
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