Lands of Red and Gold
- Thread starter Jared
- Start date
- Status
Yes, this. And also because the areas of relatively dense surviving indigenous populations (Mesoamerica, the Andes etc) have had more or less continuous exposure to Old World diseases for a century or so. Enough for their adaptive immune systems to become somewhat more effective at dealing with unfamiliar epidemic diseases, which reduces the relative death rates from the new Aururian diseases.
Even in Mesoamerica and the Andes, though, the mortality rate is still going to worse for indigenous peoples than for those of European or African descent.
'Twould indeed. I can confirm that there's not really massive Vietnamese migration to North America ITTL. For Chinese settlement, I'll have to take the fifth for now.
Hmm... Given that I'm about to write a short post about the Congxie (a break from my various other RL writing and events), it's probably not out of place to reveal that this is pretty close to the mark. Although ATL linguists will have endless arguments about exactly what kind of language Congxie is.
Well, there is a reference in post #40 to the California Migration, with the implicit belief that California would be a much emptier place without it. Make of that what you will.
It's safe to say that the metric system doesn't work exactly the same as it does in OTL. The word metre still developed as a unit of length, though; it's a natural choice for many timelines given that it came from an ancient Greek which had a similar meaning.
Probably, although I haven't really defined the point yet.
Lands of Red and Gold #47: Vines and Shoots
Lands of Red and Gold #47: Vines and Shoots
Note: This instalment gives a glimpse much further into the future of LRG. Be warned, though, that all of the usual caveats about biased and potentially unreliable sources apply in spades here.
* * *
“We are about to attack a mountain of gold; the Dutch are about to attack a mountain of iron.”
- Sir Thomas Chambers, Director of the English East India Company, 1642
* * *
Taken from: “Children of Three Worlds”
By Diligence Ledda
Kagana [Tuscaloosa, Alabama]: 1989
The Congxie are the only people on the globe who can trace their heritage to all three worlds: Old, New and Third. Shaped though they were in the New World, their birthright is broader; the mingled blood of many peoples was reformed into the harmony of a new race...
The history of the Congxie begins in what was then the English colony of Cavendia [1], during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Cavendia was founded in 1672 as a private wealth extraction colony by a group of English aristocrats, and named in honour of their patron Charles Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle [2].
From its earliest days, Cavendia was a colony built on the back of forced labour. At first this meant Amerinds [Native Americans/First Nations], captured in war and conscripted into local servitude, or trafficked to European colonies elsewhere in the New World [3]. More and more of the Amerinds died or fled out of the reach of the slave raiders, leading the aristocrats to turn to indentured labour from the Old World.
A few Englishmen and Scotsmen willingly accepted indentured labour for a period of years in exchange for passage to the New World, but most of the labour that worked the plantations of Cavendia did so involuntarily. Some Gaels were bound to servitude for the crime of seeking freedom, but most of Cavendia’s new indentured workers were captured in Africa and subjected to the horrors of the Middle Passage.
The exploitative society created in early Cavendia became one of plantations and indentured labour, forced to work in difficult, disease-ridden conditions for the benefit of mostly absentee landlords. The planters and aristocrats lived in better conditions in New London [Charleston, South Carolina] or in England, while their so-called servants laboured and died for them...
In early Cavendia, rice became by far the most successful crop. Rice plantations were confined to the worst areas: low-lying, marshy and infested by hookworm and malaria-bearing mosquitos. The indentured labourers endured these miserable conditions with some hope of eventual release, for they were yet classed as servants, not slaves. While the servants laboured in the low country, planters lived in the towns, while in the uplands, the Amerinds still survived, resentful of the newcomers but dependent on them for weapons.
To this brewing cauldron, a new ingredient was added in the dying years of the seventeenth century. Rice had provided a bountiful yield, but from the earliest days the planters still sought other crops to add to their already excessive wealth. Entrepreneurs from across the three worlds were keen to bring potential new crops to them, for word of the luxury of Cavendia’s privileged few was already widespread.
Among those venturers who sought to bring new crops to the attention of Cavendia’s aristocrats, the boldest were a few Nuttana merchants who circled the globe in pursuit of profit. The first Nuttana trader visited New London in 1697 with a cargo of eastern spices and seeds to sell, and returned home with a valuable bounty. Inspired by his success, others followed over the next couple of decades...
Among the Nuttana merchant captains who ventured to Cavendia was Barcoo Nyugal. He came to New London in 1704 with a valuable cargo of silk and silkworms, tea leaves and seeds, and lemon verbena leaves and seeds, which like his predecessors he intended to sell for profit. Barcoo never completed the sale of tea, which would be left to later traders to establish as another source of Cavendia’s wealth. Yet he accomplished something far greater: as much as any man, he was responsible for the shaping of the Congxie.
For during Barcoo’s visit to New London, he witnessed an event which would be a defining moment both for the history of the Congxie, and of Cavendia. An indentured African-born woman named Wednesday (believed to be of Soninke descent, although this is uncertain) had appealed to the Cavendia assembly and governor. She had complained that her servitude was unending, and that her new-born son Jonathon would share the same fate. Wednesday asked for a determination that her indenture should have a defined end-date, or at least that her son should be considered to be born free.
On 4 March 1704, a day that would live in infamy, the governor and assembly issued a joint proclamation that declared that African servitude was life-long, and that the condition could be inherited. The institution of slavery, if not yet the name, had been brought to Cavendia.
Barcoo and his crew witnessed this proclamation, and were greatly angered by it. The transformation of the Africans’ fate from servitude to slavery was in gross violation of the laws of harmony, and the institution of multi-generational slavery utterly abhorrent. Barcoo decided that the discord which this would create could not be tolerated, and decided to take proper action...
The risings in New London itself were largely unsuccessful; the aristocrats there were exploiters, not fools, and defended themselves accordingly. In the rice plantations along the Tidewater, however, the indentured workers were numerous and their supervisors few. Around the Santee River delta and the Sea Islands, many indentured workers rose and fled inland, to the relative safety of the uplands. Even here, the majority remained, trapped by fear or by the weapons of the supervisors and planters, but a large number escaped to the hills...
Here, in the sanctuary of the Cavendia upcountry, was born a new people. A people with many forebears, who in their new lives among the hills, were merged into a new race. The majority of their ancestors were of African descent, mostly Soninke, Mandingo, Gude and Mende, and others whose ancestry was unknown after the Middle Passage. With them came many Nuttana, including Barcoo himself who fulfilled his pledge to bring harmony to Cavendia. Gaels came, too, and a few other whites who had fled their undeserved indenture. The original escapees included a handful of enslaved Amerinds, who helped to lead the others to safety in the uplands. More Amerinds joined the escapees once they had reached the uplands, including many Cherokee, and some Creeks and Catawba [4].
These were the forebears of the Congxie, who in their new highland home created a new life for themselves. Formerly of many peoples, they were gradually shaped into one, building a new common heritage out of the best of what they had inherited, building a new language and fostering harmony, balance, and the teachings of the Good Man...
From the Cherokee and Creeks who had lived there before them and many of whom joined them, the Congxie learned the arts of hunting and farming in their new home. The Cherokee men taught them how to hunt the white-tailed deer and other animals of the uplands, both for food and for trade. The Cherokee and Creek women taught them how to farm maize, squash and beans in the manner of the New World. From the Nuttana, they learned how to farm the murnong which had been brought with them in the original uprising, and how to tame and cultivate the cornnarts which had grown wild in Cavendia since they were introduced with the first English settlers. From the Nuttana, too, they learned the divine truth of the Sevenfold Path [Plirism] and the arts of writing. From the Africans who had been conscripted into slavery, they learned the arts of blacksmithing, carpentry, and the works of the artisan...
The original Congxie were few in number, but they prospered and multiplied in the health of the uplands and in the balance they brought to their lives. Their numbers grew steadily, both from their own increase and from those who joined them: fleeing slaves, a few Englishmen who preferred that life [5], children of traders, and some Cherokee, Creeks and Catawba...
In 1722-1726, many of the Amerind peoples rose in noble but futile efforts to destroy the English colonists of Cavendia, in a conflict which would come to be called King George’s War [6]. The Congxie stood aside from those efforts, recognising that such actions would only fail, and gave safe haven to some of the defeated warriors after the war.
After King George’s War and the reprisals which the Cavendians brought afterward, the Congxie became the single largest community in the uplands. The Cherokee and the Creeks were tragically doomed after that war, which only hastened the effects of diseases such as smallpox, measles and Marnitja. Those who survived mostly fled further inland or south out of range of English reprisals, leaving the upcountry to be dominated by the Congxie [7]...
From their upland homes, the Congxie continued the practice of hunting deer which they had learned from their Amerind forebears. Deerskin provided a valuable trading commodity with Cavendia, both for use in the colony itself and for export to Europe. Buckskin provided the English with clothing directly, and for shaping into gloves, bookbinding, and myriad other uses. In exchange, the Congxie received weapons, powder, metal goods and other artifacts which were in short supply in their homeland. Unlike the Amerinds before them, the Congxie refused to practice the slave trade to pay for such weapons.
The deerskin trade required interaction between the Congxie and their former exploiters, but contact would have been inevitable even without that, thanks to the proximity of the two peoples. At first, Congxie often contested to free the slaves who were still being imported from Africa, but in time an unwritten pact developed, a new balance between the two peoples. Congxie would not actively solicit slaves to flee into their lands, while Englishmen would not actively pursue those few slaves who did escape on their own and sought refuge amongst the Congxie.
For a time, peaceful trade endured between the two peoples. The Congxie supplied not just deerskin, but cornnart grain and other foodstuffs that allowed the planters to exploit their land and workers more determinedly in their coastal rice and tea plantations. When the supply of deer started to fail, some Congxie hunters started to search further afield, even across the Alleghenies [8], in pursuit of fresh stock. Other Congxie turned to the cultivation of tobacco which found some value in the lowlands of Cavendia, being cheaper than importing kunduri or tobacco from further afield...
Inevitably, in time the balance was disturbed. The population of both peoples expanded, driven by the high fecundity and hybrid vigour of the Congxie on the one hand [9], and endless wealth from rice and tea encouraging ever more immigrants and slave trafficking on the other. Envious of the Congxie who grew ever more numerous in the uplands, the Cavendians in time began to encroach on their lands.
Some bold Congxie had already ventured west in pursuit of deerskin, with some occasional contacts with New Valois [New Orleans] and Barranca [Pensacola, Florida] to trade with the French and Spanish. With shortages of good land even amongst their own people, some pioneering Congxie pressed further west through the Alleghenies and began to establish settlements in the western uplands [ie upcountry Georgia and Alabama]...
After the treachery of the Cavendians and the massacres of the Lord Protector’s War, the gradual westward migration turned into a flood. Most Congxie went yarra [trek or great journey], preferring to abandon the uncertain fate of their birthlands and press into lands still occupied by Cherokees, Creeks and Choctaws...
* * *
Taken from: “Fundamentals of Linguistics”
Cambridge University Press
Discussion Point: The Congxie Language
The nature of the Congxie language is endless argued. Is it a true multiple-ancestry language [mixed language], or a single language with multiple registers? A heavily modified creole of Nuttana? A well-developed pidgin with variations? In the study of linguistics, it is perhaps the most debated language in the world.
Classification of its vocabulary source languages is relatively straightforward. The single largest portion of its vocabulary comes from Nuttana (approximately 30%), although that feature itself adds to debate since Nuttana is also controversial as to whether it is a mixed-ancestry language or one with a primary language and a very influential substrate. A total of 40% of its vocabulary comes from various African languages; about one-quarter of the Congxie vocabulary comes from Mande languages (Mende, Soninke, Mandingo, and relatives) and about 15% from Gude. About one-fifth of its vocabulary comes from Amerind languages (Cherokee and Creek), while about 5% each derives from English and Gaelic.
Usage of this vocabulary, however, marks a more challenging question. One thing is certain: Congxie has multiple registers, different words with similar meanings which can be used in different contexts. In broad terms, words of Nuttana derivation are the most formal and high-class versions, associated in particular with religion and government, but with some notable exceptions. For many of these words, there are parallel words of the same or similar meaning, which are used in more informal contexts, and where the word roots are recognisably of a different derivation, such as where Mande or Gude word roots are used during everyday interaction.
For some meanings, there are up to four registers available to different people or for different situations, with derivations from recognisably different languages. One of the most noted, and most debated, is that in many situations women use a different vocabulary to men, and that most of the female register is derived from Cherokee or Creek words, with some inclusions from Gude or Gaelic.
In some of these registers, Congxie’s usual grammatical rules also change. Much of the informal, everyday register of Congxie uses tones to convey changes in grammar, which is indicative of the contributions of Mande languages, while tones are almost wholly absent from other aspects of Congxie grammar or its other registers.
Congxie grammar is more complex than has traditionally been ascribed to creole or pidgin languages, which is one contributing factor to the debate about its classification. Its word order is relatively flexible, although not quite as free as some early linguistic studies classified it; the word order often depends both on what register is being used, and on which particular word which the speaker wishes to emphasise most, with the most emphasised word usually being spoken first. It can also have a complex clause structure with dependent clauses, and with verbs retaining different tenses; both features which are rarely found in pidgins or creoles derived from them.
Traces of its ancestral languages remain in its grammar, such as the tones used for the informal register, and the multiple pronoun structure and post-nominal articles of Nuttana which persist in the formal register...
While debate continues without complete resolution, the broadest consensus, supported by the historical record, is that Congxie did not emerge as a true pidgin. It developed from peoples who spoke multiple languages and taught them to their own children, who then learned these multiple registers and developed social codes on when to use them, rather than seeking to develop a common lingua franca.
* * *
The genetic and linguistic heritage of the Congxie is complex, a legacy both of the runaways who founded their society, and the social structure which developed in the uplands. The largest group of initial founders were escaped Africans, largely speakers of various Mande languages from historical Senegal and Sierra Lone, and a smaller group of Gude speakers from the historical Nigeria-Cameroon border. Virtually all of these runaways were still born in Africa, spoke their own disparate languages, and they had varying degrees of familiarity with English.
Accompanying the Africans were smaller numbers of escaping whites, mostly Irish, who spoke a mixture of Gaelic and English. The Nuttana were about as numerous as the whites, and while they were often fluent in English, they preferred their own language except when dealing with Cavendians. The remaining early Congxie were Amerindians (Cherokee, Creeks, Catawba and others), either escaped slaves or others fleeing the early epidemics.
While Africans formed by far the largest initial group, the heritage of the Congxie was rather more mixed. The runaways, Africans in particular, included a larger number of men than women. There were proportionately more women who were Nuttana, white or (especially) Amerindian, leading in turn to a larger proportion of their descendants having that heritage. The Nuttana also occupied higher status positions in the early years (chiefs and priests), and so had their pick of the limited number of women in the crucial first generations.
After the founding generation, the Congxie received a trickle of newcomers from outside, including escaping African slaves, mixed-race children of traders who were left to be raised among the Congxie, and refugee Amerindians. This added to the mixed heritage of the Congxie.
Natural selection also played a role in the progress over generations. Strong selection pressure favoured mixed-race ancestry (African-Aururian or white-Aururian) because this gave the best overall genetic resistance to the mixture of Old World and Aururian diseases. Natural selection also worked partly against those of pure African ancestry, since this involved a higher risk of sickle-cell anaemia. This would have been an advantage in the malarial lowlands, but was a negative factor in the Congxie uplands, and so was selected against.
In short, the Congxie are a very mixed-heritage people.
* * *
[1] At this point, Cavendia is, very approximately, the historical Province of Carolina (ie before the later division into North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia). As happened historically, its borders will change over time.
[2] Charles Cavendish is an allohistorical son of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
[3] A similar trade existed in the early days of the historical Carolina and Georgia colonies, and generally involved some indigenous peoples raiding their neighbours and trafficking the captives to Europeans in exchange for weapons and other trade goods. The captives were then either forced into slavery locally, or traded to plantations in the Caribbean, Virginia, or Louisiana. A similar process, on a smaller scale due to lower population, operated in allohistorical Cavendia.
[4] One of the many things which Ledda glosses over here is that the arrival of the Congxie forefathers brought disaster for the indigenous peoples of the uplands. Not deliberately, for the most part – although there were clashes – but because the runaways included several asymptomatic carriers of diseases such as Marnitja and chickenpox, which swept through the upcountry with disastrous results. The Congxie accepted some of the survivors, particularly women since there was a distinct gender imbalance amongst the runaways, and because the women generally knew more of how to farm maize, squash, beans and other local crops.
[5] Even in historical North America, some of the various Native American peoples had people of mixed or European ancestry, from those Europeans who had fled the colonies for one reason or another and joined them. In allohistorical Cavendia, the Congxie fill that niche.
[6] King George’s War is the closest allohistorical analogue to the historical Tuscarora and Yamasee Wars. Like those wars, it was started due to the encroachment and slave-raiding practices of European colonists. While the indigenous chiefs had some local victories, they were too badly outnumbered and outgunned to win in the end.
[7] The demise of the Cherokee and Creeks was in fact much more due to population pressure from the Congxie than Ledda admits. Disease certainly played a large part, but European reprisals were mostly limited to the first few years after the war. The scattered survivors were often pushed aside by the Congxie, and he also glosses over the raids for women which were a common part of early Congxie life, and the clashes over deer hunting which happened later.
[8] In allohistorical North America, Alleghenies is the generic name for the entire Appalachians ranges. The name Appalachians is reserved for the mountains between historical Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Maryland.
[9] The mixed heritage of the Congxie (African/European and Aururian) means that they are on the whole more resistant to both Old World and Aururian diseases, which is one reason that their population is growing even faster than that of lowland Cavendia. The other main reason for the spectacular growth is that being in the highlands, they are also far away from the main reservoirs of malaria, yellow fever and hookworm which were so devastating to lowland populations.
* * *
Thoughts?
Note: This instalment gives a glimpse much further into the future of LRG. Be warned, though, that all of the usual caveats about biased and potentially unreliable sources apply in spades here.
* * *
“We are about to attack a mountain of gold; the Dutch are about to attack a mountain of iron.”
- Sir Thomas Chambers, Director of the English East India Company, 1642
* * *
Taken from: “Children of Three Worlds”
By Diligence Ledda
Kagana [Tuscaloosa, Alabama]: 1989
The Congxie are the only people on the globe who can trace their heritage to all three worlds: Old, New and Third. Shaped though they were in the New World, their birthright is broader; the mingled blood of many peoples was reformed into the harmony of a new race...
The history of the Congxie begins in what was then the English colony of Cavendia [1], during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Cavendia was founded in 1672 as a private wealth extraction colony by a group of English aristocrats, and named in honour of their patron Charles Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle [2].
From its earliest days, Cavendia was a colony built on the back of forced labour. At first this meant Amerinds [Native Americans/First Nations], captured in war and conscripted into local servitude, or trafficked to European colonies elsewhere in the New World [3]. More and more of the Amerinds died or fled out of the reach of the slave raiders, leading the aristocrats to turn to indentured labour from the Old World.
A few Englishmen and Scotsmen willingly accepted indentured labour for a period of years in exchange for passage to the New World, but most of the labour that worked the plantations of Cavendia did so involuntarily. Some Gaels were bound to servitude for the crime of seeking freedom, but most of Cavendia’s new indentured workers were captured in Africa and subjected to the horrors of the Middle Passage.
The exploitative society created in early Cavendia became one of plantations and indentured labour, forced to work in difficult, disease-ridden conditions for the benefit of mostly absentee landlords. The planters and aristocrats lived in better conditions in New London [Charleston, South Carolina] or in England, while their so-called servants laboured and died for them...
In early Cavendia, rice became by far the most successful crop. Rice plantations were confined to the worst areas: low-lying, marshy and infested by hookworm and malaria-bearing mosquitos. The indentured labourers endured these miserable conditions with some hope of eventual release, for they were yet classed as servants, not slaves. While the servants laboured in the low country, planters lived in the towns, while in the uplands, the Amerinds still survived, resentful of the newcomers but dependent on them for weapons.
To this brewing cauldron, a new ingredient was added in the dying years of the seventeenth century. Rice had provided a bountiful yield, but from the earliest days the planters still sought other crops to add to their already excessive wealth. Entrepreneurs from across the three worlds were keen to bring potential new crops to them, for word of the luxury of Cavendia’s privileged few was already widespread.
Among those venturers who sought to bring new crops to the attention of Cavendia’s aristocrats, the boldest were a few Nuttana merchants who circled the globe in pursuit of profit. The first Nuttana trader visited New London in 1697 with a cargo of eastern spices and seeds to sell, and returned home with a valuable bounty. Inspired by his success, others followed over the next couple of decades...
Among the Nuttana merchant captains who ventured to Cavendia was Barcoo Nyugal. He came to New London in 1704 with a valuable cargo of silk and silkworms, tea leaves and seeds, and lemon verbena leaves and seeds, which like his predecessors he intended to sell for profit. Barcoo never completed the sale of tea, which would be left to later traders to establish as another source of Cavendia’s wealth. Yet he accomplished something far greater: as much as any man, he was responsible for the shaping of the Congxie.
For during Barcoo’s visit to New London, he witnessed an event which would be a defining moment both for the history of the Congxie, and of Cavendia. An indentured African-born woman named Wednesday (believed to be of Soninke descent, although this is uncertain) had appealed to the Cavendia assembly and governor. She had complained that her servitude was unending, and that her new-born son Jonathon would share the same fate. Wednesday asked for a determination that her indenture should have a defined end-date, or at least that her son should be considered to be born free.
On 4 March 1704, a day that would live in infamy, the governor and assembly issued a joint proclamation that declared that African servitude was life-long, and that the condition could be inherited. The institution of slavery, if not yet the name, had been brought to Cavendia.
Barcoo and his crew witnessed this proclamation, and were greatly angered by it. The transformation of the Africans’ fate from servitude to slavery was in gross violation of the laws of harmony, and the institution of multi-generational slavery utterly abhorrent. Barcoo decided that the discord which this would create could not be tolerated, and decided to take proper action...
The risings in New London itself were largely unsuccessful; the aristocrats there were exploiters, not fools, and defended themselves accordingly. In the rice plantations along the Tidewater, however, the indentured workers were numerous and their supervisors few. Around the Santee River delta and the Sea Islands, many indentured workers rose and fled inland, to the relative safety of the uplands. Even here, the majority remained, trapped by fear or by the weapons of the supervisors and planters, but a large number escaped to the hills...
Here, in the sanctuary of the Cavendia upcountry, was born a new people. A people with many forebears, who in their new lives among the hills, were merged into a new race. The majority of their ancestors were of African descent, mostly Soninke, Mandingo, Gude and Mende, and others whose ancestry was unknown after the Middle Passage. With them came many Nuttana, including Barcoo himself who fulfilled his pledge to bring harmony to Cavendia. Gaels came, too, and a few other whites who had fled their undeserved indenture. The original escapees included a handful of enslaved Amerinds, who helped to lead the others to safety in the uplands. More Amerinds joined the escapees once they had reached the uplands, including many Cherokee, and some Creeks and Catawba [4].
These were the forebears of the Congxie, who in their new highland home created a new life for themselves. Formerly of many peoples, they were gradually shaped into one, building a new common heritage out of the best of what they had inherited, building a new language and fostering harmony, balance, and the teachings of the Good Man...
From the Cherokee and Creeks who had lived there before them and many of whom joined them, the Congxie learned the arts of hunting and farming in their new home. The Cherokee men taught them how to hunt the white-tailed deer and other animals of the uplands, both for food and for trade. The Cherokee and Creek women taught them how to farm maize, squash and beans in the manner of the New World. From the Nuttana, they learned how to farm the murnong which had been brought with them in the original uprising, and how to tame and cultivate the cornnarts which had grown wild in Cavendia since they were introduced with the first English settlers. From the Nuttana, too, they learned the divine truth of the Sevenfold Path [Plirism] and the arts of writing. From the Africans who had been conscripted into slavery, they learned the arts of blacksmithing, carpentry, and the works of the artisan...
The original Congxie were few in number, but they prospered and multiplied in the health of the uplands and in the balance they brought to their lives. Their numbers grew steadily, both from their own increase and from those who joined them: fleeing slaves, a few Englishmen who preferred that life [5], children of traders, and some Cherokee, Creeks and Catawba...
In 1722-1726, many of the Amerind peoples rose in noble but futile efforts to destroy the English colonists of Cavendia, in a conflict which would come to be called King George’s War [6]. The Congxie stood aside from those efforts, recognising that such actions would only fail, and gave safe haven to some of the defeated warriors after the war.
After King George’s War and the reprisals which the Cavendians brought afterward, the Congxie became the single largest community in the uplands. The Cherokee and the Creeks were tragically doomed after that war, which only hastened the effects of diseases such as smallpox, measles and Marnitja. Those who survived mostly fled further inland or south out of range of English reprisals, leaving the upcountry to be dominated by the Congxie [7]...
From their upland homes, the Congxie continued the practice of hunting deer which they had learned from their Amerind forebears. Deerskin provided a valuable trading commodity with Cavendia, both for use in the colony itself and for export to Europe. Buckskin provided the English with clothing directly, and for shaping into gloves, bookbinding, and myriad other uses. In exchange, the Congxie received weapons, powder, metal goods and other artifacts which were in short supply in their homeland. Unlike the Amerinds before them, the Congxie refused to practice the slave trade to pay for such weapons.
The deerskin trade required interaction between the Congxie and their former exploiters, but contact would have been inevitable even without that, thanks to the proximity of the two peoples. At first, Congxie often contested to free the slaves who were still being imported from Africa, but in time an unwritten pact developed, a new balance between the two peoples. Congxie would not actively solicit slaves to flee into their lands, while Englishmen would not actively pursue those few slaves who did escape on their own and sought refuge amongst the Congxie.
For a time, peaceful trade endured between the two peoples. The Congxie supplied not just deerskin, but cornnart grain and other foodstuffs that allowed the planters to exploit their land and workers more determinedly in their coastal rice and tea plantations. When the supply of deer started to fail, some Congxie hunters started to search further afield, even across the Alleghenies [8], in pursuit of fresh stock. Other Congxie turned to the cultivation of tobacco which found some value in the lowlands of Cavendia, being cheaper than importing kunduri or tobacco from further afield...
Inevitably, in time the balance was disturbed. The population of both peoples expanded, driven by the high fecundity and hybrid vigour of the Congxie on the one hand [9], and endless wealth from rice and tea encouraging ever more immigrants and slave trafficking on the other. Envious of the Congxie who grew ever more numerous in the uplands, the Cavendians in time began to encroach on their lands.
Some bold Congxie had already ventured west in pursuit of deerskin, with some occasional contacts with New Valois [New Orleans] and Barranca [Pensacola, Florida] to trade with the French and Spanish. With shortages of good land even amongst their own people, some pioneering Congxie pressed further west through the Alleghenies and began to establish settlements in the western uplands [ie upcountry Georgia and Alabama]...
After the treachery of the Cavendians and the massacres of the Lord Protector’s War, the gradual westward migration turned into a flood. Most Congxie went yarra [trek or great journey], preferring to abandon the uncertain fate of their birthlands and press into lands still occupied by Cherokees, Creeks and Choctaws...
* * *
Taken from: “Fundamentals of Linguistics”
Cambridge University Press
Discussion Point: The Congxie Language
The nature of the Congxie language is endless argued. Is it a true multiple-ancestry language [mixed language], or a single language with multiple registers? A heavily modified creole of Nuttana? A well-developed pidgin with variations? In the study of linguistics, it is perhaps the most debated language in the world.
Classification of its vocabulary source languages is relatively straightforward. The single largest portion of its vocabulary comes from Nuttana (approximately 30%), although that feature itself adds to debate since Nuttana is also controversial as to whether it is a mixed-ancestry language or one with a primary language and a very influential substrate. A total of 40% of its vocabulary comes from various African languages; about one-quarter of the Congxie vocabulary comes from Mande languages (Mende, Soninke, Mandingo, and relatives) and about 15% from Gude. About one-fifth of its vocabulary comes from Amerind languages (Cherokee and Creek), while about 5% each derives from English and Gaelic.
Usage of this vocabulary, however, marks a more challenging question. One thing is certain: Congxie has multiple registers, different words with similar meanings which can be used in different contexts. In broad terms, words of Nuttana derivation are the most formal and high-class versions, associated in particular with religion and government, but with some notable exceptions. For many of these words, there are parallel words of the same or similar meaning, which are used in more informal contexts, and where the word roots are recognisably of a different derivation, such as where Mande or Gude word roots are used during everyday interaction.
For some meanings, there are up to four registers available to different people or for different situations, with derivations from recognisably different languages. One of the most noted, and most debated, is that in many situations women use a different vocabulary to men, and that most of the female register is derived from Cherokee or Creek words, with some inclusions from Gude or Gaelic.
In some of these registers, Congxie’s usual grammatical rules also change. Much of the informal, everyday register of Congxie uses tones to convey changes in grammar, which is indicative of the contributions of Mande languages, while tones are almost wholly absent from other aspects of Congxie grammar or its other registers.
Congxie grammar is more complex than has traditionally been ascribed to creole or pidgin languages, which is one contributing factor to the debate about its classification. Its word order is relatively flexible, although not quite as free as some early linguistic studies classified it; the word order often depends both on what register is being used, and on which particular word which the speaker wishes to emphasise most, with the most emphasised word usually being spoken first. It can also have a complex clause structure with dependent clauses, and with verbs retaining different tenses; both features which are rarely found in pidgins or creoles derived from them.
Traces of its ancestral languages remain in its grammar, such as the tones used for the informal register, and the multiple pronoun structure and post-nominal articles of Nuttana which persist in the formal register...
While debate continues without complete resolution, the broadest consensus, supported by the historical record, is that Congxie did not emerge as a true pidgin. It developed from peoples who spoke multiple languages and taught them to their own children, who then learned these multiple registers and developed social codes on when to use them, rather than seeking to develop a common lingua franca.
* * *
The genetic and linguistic heritage of the Congxie is complex, a legacy both of the runaways who founded their society, and the social structure which developed in the uplands. The largest group of initial founders were escaped Africans, largely speakers of various Mande languages from historical Senegal and Sierra Lone, and a smaller group of Gude speakers from the historical Nigeria-Cameroon border. Virtually all of these runaways were still born in Africa, spoke their own disparate languages, and they had varying degrees of familiarity with English.
Accompanying the Africans were smaller numbers of escaping whites, mostly Irish, who spoke a mixture of Gaelic and English. The Nuttana were about as numerous as the whites, and while they were often fluent in English, they preferred their own language except when dealing with Cavendians. The remaining early Congxie were Amerindians (Cherokee, Creeks, Catawba and others), either escaped slaves or others fleeing the early epidemics.
While Africans formed by far the largest initial group, the heritage of the Congxie was rather more mixed. The runaways, Africans in particular, included a larger number of men than women. There were proportionately more women who were Nuttana, white or (especially) Amerindian, leading in turn to a larger proportion of their descendants having that heritage. The Nuttana also occupied higher status positions in the early years (chiefs and priests), and so had their pick of the limited number of women in the crucial first generations.
After the founding generation, the Congxie received a trickle of newcomers from outside, including escaping African slaves, mixed-race children of traders who were left to be raised among the Congxie, and refugee Amerindians. This added to the mixed heritage of the Congxie.
Natural selection also played a role in the progress over generations. Strong selection pressure favoured mixed-race ancestry (African-Aururian or white-Aururian) because this gave the best overall genetic resistance to the mixture of Old World and Aururian diseases. Natural selection also worked partly against those of pure African ancestry, since this involved a higher risk of sickle-cell anaemia. This would have been an advantage in the malarial lowlands, but was a negative factor in the Congxie uplands, and so was selected against.
In short, the Congxie are a very mixed-heritage people.
* * *
[1] At this point, Cavendia is, very approximately, the historical Province of Carolina (ie before the later division into North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia). As happened historically, its borders will change over time.
[2] Charles Cavendish is an allohistorical son of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
[3] A similar trade existed in the early days of the historical Carolina and Georgia colonies, and generally involved some indigenous peoples raiding their neighbours and trafficking the captives to Europeans in exchange for weapons and other trade goods. The captives were then either forced into slavery locally, or traded to plantations in the Caribbean, Virginia, or Louisiana. A similar process, on a smaller scale due to lower population, operated in allohistorical Cavendia.
[4] One of the many things which Ledda glosses over here is that the arrival of the Congxie forefathers brought disaster for the indigenous peoples of the uplands. Not deliberately, for the most part – although there were clashes – but because the runaways included several asymptomatic carriers of diseases such as Marnitja and chickenpox, which swept through the upcountry with disastrous results. The Congxie accepted some of the survivors, particularly women since there was a distinct gender imbalance amongst the runaways, and because the women generally knew more of how to farm maize, squash, beans and other local crops.
[5] Even in historical North America, some of the various Native American peoples had people of mixed or European ancestry, from those Europeans who had fled the colonies for one reason or another and joined them. In allohistorical Cavendia, the Congxie fill that niche.
[6] King George’s War is the closest allohistorical analogue to the historical Tuscarora and Yamasee Wars. Like those wars, it was started due to the encroachment and slave-raiding practices of European colonists. While the indigenous chiefs had some local victories, they were too badly outnumbered and outgunned to win in the end.
[7] The demise of the Cherokee and Creeks was in fact much more due to population pressure from the Congxie than Ledda admits. Disease certainly played a large part, but European reprisals were mostly limited to the first few years after the war. The scattered survivors were often pushed aside by the Congxie, and he also glosses over the raids for women which were a common part of early Congxie life, and the clashes over deer hunting which happened later.
[8] In allohistorical North America, Alleghenies is the generic name for the entire Appalachians ranges. The name Appalachians is reserved for the mountains between historical Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Maryland.
[9] The mixed heritage of the Congxie (African/European and Aururian) means that they are on the whole more resistant to both Old World and Aururian diseases, which is one reason that their population is growing even faster than that of lowland Cavendia. The other main reason for the spectacular growth is that being in the highlands, they are also far away from the main reservoirs of malaria, yellow fever and hookworm which were so devastating to lowland populations.
* * *
Thoughts?
Thande
Donor
Good to see this back. I have a few comments/nitpicks, although most of them can be justified without too much handwaving--
(see OTL: Catalans, Corsicans et al)
Probably a hint about wacky hijinx coming up in Ireland in the 17th century, but probably going to be rather different from OTL due to the English Civil War having been prevented/transformed beyond all recognition by the disease epidemics.
This isn't an impossible name, but it rings a little iffy to me. Colonies were more normally named after nobles' Christian names or their titles rather than their surnames. I suppose 'Newcastle' could be the capital of Cavendia? I can see why you wouldn't want to use his Christian name as then it would be exactly the same name as OTL, Carolina, which is a bit boring.
The use of "Amerind" to describe the natives looks convergent at first glance but it makes sense when you think about it, as it's going to be a pretty obvious parallel evolution to truncate "American Indian" and that name was already well established. I'm guessing from the way it's used here that "Amerind" is a more popular and widely accepted term in OTL? Or is it just this author and his people who prefer it?
Good to see that not even ancient Australian PODs can stop pro-Irish propaganda being written by other peoples who got dealt the crappier cards in life
(see OTL: Catalans, Corsicans et al)Probably a hint about wacky hijinx coming up in Ireland in the 17th century, but probably going to be rather different from OTL due to the English Civil War having been prevented/transformed beyond all recognition by the disease epidemics.
This isn't an impossible name, but it rings a little iffy to me. Colonies were more normally named after nobles' Christian names or their titles rather than their surnames. I suppose 'Newcastle' could be the capital of Cavendia? I can see why you wouldn't want to use his Christian name as then it would be exactly the same name as OTL, Carolina, which is a bit boring.
Yep, the bias of the author is obvious here...the name of the war is appropriate given the OTL American wars in this period called King X's War, but this may provide a hint about the future. George is not a traditional English (or Scottish) regnal name. This implies that, like OTL, England is going to end up importing royalty from Germany (Georg)--though not necessarily Hanover like OTL, as George could have entered the royal name-vocabulary from one of the other German states. Or I suppose it could be from other sources like France (Georges).
The use of "Amerind" to describe the natives looks convergent at first glance but it makes sense when you think about it, as it's going to be a pretty obvious parallel evolution to truncate "American Indian" and that name was already well established. I'm guessing from the way it's used here that "Amerind" is a more popular and widely accepted term in OTL? Or is it just this author and his people who prefer it?
While this may just be the state of opinion ITTL, I do feel the need to clarify exactly how genetics played a role in post-Columbian Exchange epidemics. On an individual level, Native Americans are no more susceptible to Old World diseases than Europeans or Africans are (with the exception of anti-malarial traits like sickle-cell). What was distinct about the Native Americans was the lack of genetic diversity within their populations, at least with regards to those genes that determine the immune system. For some immunological traits, New World populations had only 1/64th the allele variation of Old World populations. The more genetically diverse a population it is, the less virulent the diseases that afflict it will be, because bacteria/virus has to constantly adapt itself to target novel immune systems. You can find an article about this here. (Basically, something like this was the subject of a final research paper I wrote this past semester and so I feel like an amateur expert on the topic and felt the need to share.)
I'm not so sure. Pennsylvania and Delaware had both been named after surnames of their founders, minor-league nobles, while colonies that had been named after Christian names (Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and Maryland), titles (New York) or marital status (Virginia), all have their names referring to some person of royal blood.
The reasons were, I think, that, firstly, highest royals have no legal surnames-as-we-know-it (see, e.g., Flying Officer William Wales, not Windsor, in the RAF), and secondly, the founders of 'royal-named' colonies recognized that naming another colony to honour some royal would be very likely to occur under future monarchs of the same house, too, so it seemed to them unreasonable to 'capture' name of the dynasty for any one colony.
At the same time, any non-royal family naming colony after their own surname couldn't reasonably hope to have two or more colonies named after them. Or was it even 'uppity' to name the colony after the founder's Christian name, as if he was a royal?
As the Cavendishes ITTL are very powerful noble family, yet not royal one, there is no reason why 'their' colony should be named after the Christian name of the founder.
Well, the Nuttana are obviously some sort of the Nangu, but who are the Gude? Are they some African people that emerged ITTL, as there is no trace of them in the OTL's Net?
You've just described something very similar to the Late High Ottoman Turkish. That language had some 60% of its vocabulary borrowed from Persian, another 20% from Arabic, and just 20% was originally Turkish. It had two or three words, belonging to different registers (and different ancestor languages), for almost everything, with grammar rules mutating, depending on what register was used by the speaker at the moment.
Of course, modern English has Latin and French-influenced higher register and more strongly Germanic lower register, too. This phenomenon is quite widespread - Russians have some Slavonic (Old Bulgarian, more or less) words and even entire expressions (with odd grammar and all that) in high register.
However, Congxie goes beyond even late Ottoman levels of complexity, as its gender-based variations in vocabulary remind me Japanese. Combined effect of all these oddities must make Congxie really hard to learn for non-native speakers...
The Nutwho now?
The people who have not previously been mentioned in this timeline.
Irritatingly but understandably, ATL authors who refer to them don't bother to explain who they were, any more than OTL authors feel the need to explain who the British or the French are.
Seriously, though, I doubt it's yet possible to work out exactly who the Nuttana are, although there's various indirect hints scattered in the post.
No, not as such. Nuttana is the name of a distinct society/people, depending on how you classify them.
There's certainly a strong Nangu element to their behaviour (Plirism! Long-distance merchant venturers!) but there's more going on than that.
Good to see that not even ancient Australian PODs can stop pro-Irish propaganda being written by other peoples who got dealt the crappier cards in life
Heh. Some things are unavoidable across timelines.
Facetiousness aside, though, with an "effective" PoD of 1619 (outside of *Australia), I figured that Ireland was unfortunately already a long way down the path to unhappiness. The details are going to be quite different, of course, but the underlying trends were already in place, eg the plantation system was already developing, and anti-Catholic measures were already in place.
Yes, the English Civil War as we known it has been butterflied away. How the dynamics play out ITTL is going to be complicated, but it's safe to say that the Duke Regent (William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne) is a staunch royalist and devoted C of E man, and his views will be firmly impressed upon the future Charles II during TTL's Regency era (December 1631-May 1648, in law, and in practice extending a while longer).
As to what this means for TTL's Ireland, well, that will be covered in due course, but it's safe to say that in *Ireland it's not a good thing to be Gaelic and Catholic.
Is it? As far as I know (and as sahaidak also mentioned), the use of first names to derive colonial titles was reserved for royalty. Everyone else seems to have gone by surname or noble title, rather than based on first name.
Looking through British colonies of this era, there's plenty of first name titles based on royalty: Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Prince Edward Island in North America, Victoria in Australia. I can't find nary a one based on the first name of nobles, though; those colonies which were named after nobles used either surname (Pennsylvania) or title (Norfolk Island, New York, Delaware).
What I had in mind was that Newcastle would indeed be the capital of Cavendia - they picked the location of OTL Georgetown, South Carolina, and that became the official capital for a while (although New London (*Charleston) would grow into a bigger port due to the better harbour). Cavendia would become the name of the colony (after the surname), mostly because Newcastle being a city as well as a title, it wouldn't sound as appropriate as the name of a region, but works well as a city.
Oh, yes, bias reeks here. The existence of the war is something of a hint about future relations between colonists and natives, but it isn't directly a hint about the fate of the British monarchy. It simply reflects the European name adopted by the leader of the indigenous forces, much as in OTL's King Philip's War, Philip was simply the Euro name adopted by Metacomet, which led to the colonists calling him King Philip.
Yes, I thought about what other ATL names might be developed to refer to the indigenous peoples, but all of the ones I came up with sounded either contrived or convergent on OTL. I settled on this one (Amerind or, sometimes, Amerindian) because it makes sense that it would develop in an ATL, and doesn't sound quite like the most common term in OTL, although it is used a bit even in OTL.
Amerind or Amerindian is a widespread polite term; in the English-speaking parts of North America, it's more or less the equivalent of Native American in OTL. It's not universal, though. The use of Indian alone, or Red Indian, is highly frowned upon, but there are other terms.
Something like a mixture of West African, Australian Aboriginal, and Cherokee, diluted slightly with Northern European.
They are pretty variable in their appearance, given their mixed ancestry, but in general their skin tone is about the same as an Australian Aboriginal. There are occasional Congxie with quite dark skin (equivalent to West Africans) or with relatively light skin (a bit like, say, Colin Powell), but the norm is about as I described.
Their eyes are likewise quite dark brown, with only occasional throwbacks. Hair is pretty much inevitably black, and almost always curly - curly hair is genetically dominant, and they do have a rather large African heritage. Only a few have straight hair.
Facial features are more mixed, since there's no clear genetic dominance here. But if you mentally superimpose a West African (say, Nigerian or Senegalese) on an Australian Aboriginal on a Cherokee, you will have either:
(a) a good mental picture of a Congxie, or;
(b) a headache.
Is this true for all diseases? Granted, I haven't read much recently on this topic, but I thought that in at least some diseases, Old Worlders had evolved some genetic resistance which made them less susceptible.
Unfortunately, I could only read the first page of that article (don't have easy access to a paying subscription). It gives the example of how that worked for measles, but did it work in the same way for things like smallpox?
Delaware was actually based on a title, I believe, but yes, the rest sound about right. Only royals got first name treatment for colonies. As you also mentioned, that might be due to royals often not having last names, or royals alone being referred to by their first names (Prince George is one thing, but a noble would be known as Duke Newcastle rather than Duke Henry), and also not wanting to monopolise potential names for colonies.
Quite. The Cavendishes are, for a time, Britain's most powerful noble family, but that doesnt mean that they expect multiple colonies named for them. They expect only one, and so the only real choice is whether they want family name or title to be so honoured. In the end, I figured that they picked both, family name for colony and title for capital of colony.
The Nuttana are certainly Nangu-influenced, although that's not the full story.
Gude is a real African language, just not a very populous one. (See here.) It's an Afro-Asiatic language, spoken near the headwaters of the Benue River (one of the tributaries of the Niger) along the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
I figured that it was reasonable enough for a group of them to have been raided and then traded as slaves down the Benue and Niger, and then to Europeans to be shipped to the New World.
Hmm, wasn't aware of Late High Ottoman Turkish, although I did have in mind various mixed languages in OTL which also developed different registers.
I did have Japanese vaguely in mind, but the main inspiration for gender-based variations of vocabulary came from a combination of certain Aboriginal Australian language features, and the fact that so many of the early Congxie women would speak a different language (Cherokee or Creek, mostly) to the men.
Many Australian aboriginal languages have forms of avoidance speech often called "mother in law" languages, which require a different register when interacting with certain relatives. I figured that a similar style of speech would appear in ATL Aururian languages, too. (Similar forms of avoidance speech may also appear in North American languages, too, although I have only the Genocide's word on that; haven't been able to find any independent confirmation.)
Amongst the Congxie, with women already speaking a different language, this evolved into the tradition of using a different register for women in some settings. The words in question came from the women's main first languages, ie Cherokee and Creek.
Oh, yes, very much so. Although I haven't gone into the details, I expect that most non-native speakers simply learn one register, probably the formal register. (A bit like how Japanese is often taught in OTL.)
Thande
Donor
Ah, I should have realised that! I was thinking of King William's War (War of the Grand Alliance), Queen Anne's War (War of the Spanish Succession) which were named after English monarchs, rather than King Philip's War.
Interesting update.
Further to the Cavendia debate, is the reason why it isn't Newcastle Colony with a Newcastle City (Newcastle-upon-[River name]) to distinguish from the New York Colony vs City thing?
Further to the Cavendia debate, is the reason why it isn't Newcastle Colony with a Newcastle City (Newcastle-upon-[River name]
) to distinguish from the New York Colony vs City thing?
Thande
Donor
Interesting update.
Further to the Cavendia debate, is the reason why it isn't Newcastle Colony with a Newcastle City (Newcastle-upon-[River name]
I think New York is more a case of badly filed paperwork, as originally it was Nieuw Amsterdam in Nieuw Nederland colony (yes, Nederland singular, don't know why). The city was renamed after the Duke of York (the future James II) and it seems the colony also received the name just out of official laziness or confusion. A more logical formation would have been to call it New Yorkshire, although New York is named after a person rather than the city of York.
New Yorkshire would have been amusing. Especially if it'd been exclusively settled by Yorkshiremen.
Just imagine that accent
Just imagine that accent
New Yorkshire would have been amusing. Especially if it'd been exclusively settled by Yorkshiremen.
Just imagine that accent
Imagine if it had been settled by Lancashiremen
.Interesting update.
Further to the Cavendia debate, is the reason why it isn't Newcastle Colony with a Newcastle City (Newcastle-upon-[River name]
I think Jared has said there is no New York (as we know it) ITTL. Instead, there is a nation called Tigeria in between New England and Virginia. This is, IIRC, an outgrowth of the New Amsterdam colony, and thus culturally, if not ethnically, Dutch.
The name is a bit odd, but I'm assuming it's after the Tijger, which was the ship whose crew built the first settlement in 1613. If relations became strained with the mother country, I would see something more neutral than "New Netherlands" being wanted.
One also wonders how long the feudal system of Patroonship will last ITTL. IOTL, it not only survived conquest by the English, but American independence, and didn't phase out in the Hudson valley until the 1840s. It would be quite odd, but interesting, to see this practice continue longer.
I also wonder what sort of ethnic makeup the state would have. The Dutch were never known to be good at settling virgin territory, and IOTL the New Netherlands had a lot of Huguenots, Scandinavians, Germans, English, South Americans (after the Dutch lost Recife), and African slaves. Given how mixed up this world is compared to OTL, I'd expect even more diversity.
Thande
Donor
New Yorkshire would have been amusing. Especially if it'd been exclusively settled by Yorkshiremen.
Just imagine that accent
There was a part of southern Ontario that was settled (almost) exclusively by Yorkshiremen and has a lot of Yorkshire names--but sadly the accent has not survived.
- Status