What If the American Revolution Had Fizzled Out?

Between the Dodge Challenger ad mentioned in yesterday's post ("There's a coupla things America got right. Cars -- and freedom") and Michele Bachmann's statements in Iowa on January 21, it occurred to me to ask the question, "What if the American Revolution had just fizzled out?" And: "How would things be different now if it had?"

But first, Bachmann's claims (as reported in numerous outlets, and available in video form on the internet): "How unique in all of the world, that one nation was the resting point from people groups [sic] all across the world. It didn't matter the color of their skin, it didn't matter their language, it didn't matter their economic status. . . Once you got here, we were all the same. Isn't that remarkable?" Bachmann characterized slavery as an "evil," but then claimed "we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States."  Presumably, Waterloo, Iowa native Bachmann hopes to become the next president of the United States.

In response to the Dodge Challenger ad, is freedom one of the things "America got right"?  

During the American Revolution, rebel-owned slaves who joined the British-Loyalist side were offered freedom; and indeed, many who sided with the British and Loyalists were relocated to Canada, the West Indies and other places after the war, as free people. Most slaves linked with the Patriots/rebels remained slaves after the war. 

The British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act in 1807, outlawing the transportation of slaves throughout the empire and eventually treating it as piracy. In 1833, the British Crown assented to the Slavery Abolition Act, which was then phased in by 1840. By contrast, the United States did not abolish slavery nationally until 1865, at the end of a bloody civil war.  It also did little to help those emancipated, and it took another hundred years to pass major civil rights legislation.  Who "got [it] right" more, the Americans, or the British?   

As for Bachmann's statements, she is just flat out historically wrong. Like Sarah Palin, she might want to read more and speak less. I seriously doubt she would ever be fit to be president of anything, let alone a country. 

In the USA, the American Revolution is treated like a sacred cow.  What if the areas now known as Canada and the United States were part of a great British Commonwealth, maybe called the Commonwealth of North America? Would that be a terrible thing for the world? 

What if: no War of 1812, no American Civil War, and an earlier transition away from slavery?  

And a million other matters such as, how about the American Bison?  What if there had been a massive Crown Preserve set aside for ritualized small scale royal hunting expeditions, thus preventing their near-extermination in the 1800s?  What if the people of the Comancheria had been charged as guardians of the Bison, and largely left alone except for annual royal hunts?

In all seriousness for those now residing in the USA, do you think your life would be that different living in the British Commonwealth of North America? Is there anything that really makes the USA exceptional in the world? 

Today's Rune: Harvest.