The Timeline for Restive Souls
By: Charles Bastille
Tags: Restive Souls, Alternate History, Fiction, Alternative History, Novel

This is the timeline for the Restive Souls trilogy. It is a work in progress and is subject to change as the novel and/or series develops. Let’s see if you history buffs can notice when the changes begin!

Book One of the trilogy is centered around John Honeyman and the Battle of Trenton, the Battle for Charleston (Charles Town in the novel), and the Savannah Wars of the 1820s.

April 19, 1775

British defeated at Concord.

March 1776

American rebels besiege Boston, forcing the British to withdraw.

June 28, 1776

British take Charles Town in the Battle of Fort Sullivan.

August 1776

British take New York.

December 14, 1776

Hessians arrive at Trenton.

December 18, 1776

Carl von Donop, Johann Rahl’s Hessian commander, arrives in Trenton with reinforcements.

December 21, 1776

Betsy Ross flees Mount Holly, NJ to Philadelphia after Guillaume Diderot warns her of a fictional impending Indian raid on the area. Ross sends word to von Donop that they should rendezvous there instead of their original plan to meet in Mount Holly, but von Donop sends a letter by messenger back to her saying he is too occupied to go to Philadelphia.

December 24, 1776

John Honeyman reports falsely to George Washington that the plan to use Betsy Ross to keep von Donop occupied in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and keep Trenton Hessian defenses weak has succeeded.

December 26, 1776

Hessian and British troops rout Washington as he tries to cross the Delaware “as if they anticipated our every move”, Washington writes from Paris a few years later.

January 1777

Vermont declares Independence and Neutrality in the Colonial War of Rebellion and becomes the Vermont Republic and a safe haven for slaves.

February 12, 1777

British retake Boston with the help of 750 troops from the Narragansett African Militia, which had been secretly recruited from Rhode Island slave farms and freed slaves from Providence, Bristol, and Newport, Rhode Island.

March 11, 1777

George Washington, Ben Franklin, and others flee to Paris, France.

July 4, 1777

Slave revolt in Rhode Island results in thousands of acres of Rhode Island farmland razed by fire.

September 12, 1777

Staten Island Peace Treaty is signed ending the war.

British promise to review and repeal many taxes and provide autonomous government status to the American colonies. A colonial capital is established in Charles Town, South Carolina.

January 1778

General Charles Cornwallis named governor of the American colonies. He institutes the Cornwallis Code, which includes full emancipation of slavery as a reward for slaves who joined the effort against the colonies. The code also includes full religious freedom, a major relaxation of taxes, a “free trade contract” with Britain, and essentially grants full autonomy to the Colonial government (with the stipulation that emancipation is honored).

Cornwallis’ free trade contract also formally rescinded the Iron Act of 1750 and other restrictive industrial laws imposed by Britain on the colonies and Canada.

The colonies are re-named The North American Union. Use of the name United States of America is banned by a King’s decree.

Three general administrative regions are formed: The Carolinas, formally called The Carolina Union, consisting of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia, along with territorial rights to Florida; The New England Federation, consisting of the New England provinces north of the Carolinas, and the Iroquois Confederacy, consisting of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Ontario (with the Ohio River as a southern boundary), and parts of New York (headed by Joseph Brant — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Brant aka Thayendanegea).

Cornwallis insists on unencumbered “property transfer rights” for British subjects within the Iroquois Confederacy but renounces all British territorial and landowner claims there. Iroquois leader Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) takes a permissive view towards European land ownership within the confederacy but many tribes interpret Cornwallis’s land agreements as sufficient cause for forcibly removing Europeans from their settlements, resulting in a significant number of skirmishes.

February 1779

Vermont Republic joins New England Federation

September 1, 1784

Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) founded in Baltimore.

September 9, 1784

Benjamin Marston declares the Free State of Shelburne in a small Nova Scotia hamlet as a place Marston says “There will not be a welcomed African visitor”. Britain does not act due to resource limitations and the remoteness of the territory.

Black Loyalists are forced out of their homes in town and into the lands and overcrowded settlement of Birchtown.

1785–90

Black Loyalists in the Shelburne environs join with The Mi’kmaq nation for a march on Halifax, taking the seaboard and establishing a deep harbor port. The alliance calls itself The Jipugtug Mi’kmaq Alliance and claims territorial sovereignty over all of Nova Scotia.

1786

The United Indian Nations declares itself an independent nation, consisting of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Western Confederacy, and approximately 35 other Indian nations.

1787

Militia from The Jipugtug Mi’kmaq Alliance razes Shelburne to the ground.

1790

Smallpox outbreak devastates the southern portions of the United Indian Nations. Abi Mo, a physician from the North American Union with the Methodist Episcopal Congregation, successfully introduces a vaccine throughout the United Indian Nations.

1791

The Western Confederacy Congregation and Great Lakes Indian Congregation are formed in the Great Lakes Region of the United Indian Nations, which is still not recognized as a sovereign nation by Great Britain or The North American Union.

1792

United Indian Nations renamed Iroquois Confederacy.

1794

Haitian Revolution ends, Empire of Haitian Peoples established by Toussaint Louverture.

1794

Richard Allen founds the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Congregation in Philadelphia.

1794

Cuban revolution under Nicolás Morales succeeds with assistance from British Naval blockade of Havana.

October 1796

The second General Conference of MEC is held in Baltimore. It reduces the number of annual conferences to six and, for the first time, gives them geographical boundaries. With the drawing of definite borders, it becomes understood that clerics belong to a specific annual conference. This begins the expansion and spread of Congregations, which become religious, governmental, and economic units. The General Conference also requires that local church property be held in trust for the Methodist Episcopal Church.

March 1797

The Jipugtug Mi’kmaq Alliance joins the Iroquois Confederacy.

September 30, 1798

MEC becomes the first congregation to win Congregational status per the newly developed but as yet unofficial Carolina Union Constitution.

July 14, 1799

The Methodist Magazine, the largest circulation magazine in the Union, proposes a revised constitution whereby the Carolina Union government is specifically run as a representative government on behalf of congregations, who will choose members of a “Synod” to run the government’s affairs.

October 25, 1799

State of Muskogee in Florida is declared by William Augustus Bowles, who is killed by Seminoles shortly after declaring himself “Director General and Commander-In-Chief of the Muskogee Nation”

1800

Population of African Americans in Province of South Carolina reaches 450,000 as mass migration from West Indies and Africa peaks.

1801

Carolina Union of the Queen is formed out of North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia, with Queen of England as Head of State and several initial “Congregations”. The new nation has a majority Black population of approximately 70%. It is granted full autonomy by Britain, including foreign policy matters.

1802

Carolina Constitution is formally ratified by Carolina Union, establishing Christian Synods as the official legislative branch, the Supreme Ecclesiastical Court as the highest judicial arbiter, and an Ecclesiastical Tribune of the Synod as its chief executive.

1803

Sephardic Order of Charles Town becomes first Jewish Congregation to be recognized by Synod Ecclesiastical Administrative Tribunal (SEAT).

1803

Muskogee renamed Seminole Nation, expands to all of Florida, Louisiana, and most of what is typically known as Louisiana territory after a brief war with the French; subsequently, conflicts arise as circuit riders from Carolina Union lead migrations into northwestern territories of the Seminole Nation.

1804

Delaware joins the Carolina Union.

1809

The Egyptian Gospels are discovered near Luxor, Egypt, by Antonomy Mkubuku. The newly discovered gospels are quickly disavowed by the Catholic Church, but are declared canonical by Ecclesiastical Tribune Shyllandrus Zulu in 1841.

1812

Philadelphia joins the Carolina Union.

1814

Baltimore joins the Carolina Union.

1818

New Jersey joins the Carolina Union.

1820

Seminole Nation sends 5 naval gunships to Haiti in show of force

1821

Seminole Nation and Haitian Empire sign the Treaty of Friendship in Port-au-Prince

1820–23

The Savannah Wars — the setting for Part II of Restive Souls. It is a period of white/black strife, beginning with the Seminole Nation’s attack on Savannah and Elliot Fae’s illegal slave holdings, and defines the character of the Carolina Union.

1822

Haitian Empire conquers most of the Caribbean.

1822

New York City joins the Carolina Union, renames itself Christchurch.

1837

Iroquois Confederacy joins Carolina Union, largely as a result of prior work by circuit riders whose missionary work converts a large number of Indian nations. The growth of congregations in the Great Lakes region following Abi Mo’s smallpox inoculation program, as well as the relationship between the first Synod and Joseph and Molly Brant also plays a large role.

1839

Portugal abolishes the slave trade.

1840

Shyllandrus Zulu elected the Ecclesiastical Tribune of the Synod of the Carolina Union, becoming the first woman to be head of state of the Carolina Union.

1840

Henrique III Mpanzu a Nsindi a Nimi a Lukeni of the Kinlaza House becomes king of the Kingdom of Kongo.

He begins to expand the empire as trade between the Carolina Union and Kongo expands exponentially.

1840

Comancheria and Seminole Nation agree on establishment of Comanche Trail Protected Zone, a series of trails from the Seminole Nation to the West Coast.

1841–44

Comanche — Mexican war results in Texas and California independent states

1835–45

Seminole-Comanche Wars

1848

Seminole Nation joins Carolina Union

1851

Texas is annexed by Mexico, California joins the Carolina Union

1852

The Philadelphia Citadel, a towering superstructure of worship and regional governance, is built by the African Methodist Episcopal Congregation of Philadelphia.

1850–55

Comanche Wars end with the Comancheria Free Zone, splitting Texas in half.

1853

The Kinlaza House of Kongo formally establishes its domain over most of southeast and central Africa, including the African gold coast, renames its empire Kinlaza House.

1861

Zachariah Plains and the California Esteemed Disciples of Christ Congregation announce the world’s first automobile in San Francisco.

1874

Quanah Parker’s Comanche Native American Christian Congregation is accepted into the Carolina Union, leading to Comancheria’s implicit entry into the Carolina Union, which is formalized in 1876. Because of some of the peculiarities of the Congregation (including the use of mysticism and peyote), the overall effect of this is that Comancheria remains largely governed by Comanches.

1888

Nehemiah Roosevelt and the California Esteemed Disciples of Christ Congregation announce a wireless electric network to power vehicles and transmit data

1889

Joshua Estaban flies the world’s first airplane.

1890

Methodist Ewha Congregation of Seoul, Korea, declares an “Unbreakable Solidarity and Union with the Carolina Union” in response to rising conflict between China and Japan.

1891

Ezekiel’s Temple is built in Kitiwaha (Chicago in our world),

1892

The State of New Israel is formed in the Great Lakes area of Carolina Union, with Kitiwaha as its capital. The state declares and receives autonomous status and becomes a major center for Jewish and Muslim immigrants.

1914–17

World War One breaks out between Christian nations of Europe, Africa, and North America and Muslim nations in North Africa and the Middle East. The war concludes indecisively with a treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Christian nations. The Ottoman Empire agrees to allow Christian Congregational governance in some cities in Asia Minor and agrees to the renaming of the city of Alaşehir to Philadelphia. As Asia Minor congregations grow in power, other Asia Minor cities such as Ephesus and Smyrna, later reclaim Christian names.

The Confederacy of Israel and Palestine is established.

1915–22

The Kinlaza House expands its African empire to include the entire continent south of the 20th north parallel, with the exception of the Zulu nations of Southern Africa. Its modern economy and military are eclipsed in the world only by its close ally, the Carolina Union.

1918

Korea attacks Japan. The Korean-Japanese War lasts for two years, resulting in a stalemate.

1920

The Tokyo-Seoul Kirisutokyō Congregation is formed in Tokyo and Seoul as a means for promoting peace between the two nations after diplomatic intervention by Ecclesiastical Tribune Hezekiah Comfort.

1921

Carolina Union Ecclesiastical Tribune Hezekiah Comfort wins Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic efforts in helping to resolve the Korean-Japanese conflict.

1925

Korea and Japan unite to become the Gidoggyo-Kirisutokyō Union of Peace and Prosperity (generally referred to as the GKU).

1927

The Beijing Congregation of Authoritative Truth is formed in Beijing, China

1936

“Gone with the Wind” by Emmet Bolo published by All Saints Congregation Publishing.

1936–38

The Chinese Civil War results in 7 million dead. The victors, 真理的权威 (Zhēnlǐ de quánwēi), aka the Authority of Truth, begin a pogrom against Christians throughout China, killing an unknown number of Christians.

1939

GKU declares war on China.

1940

David O. Selznick releases “Gone with the Wind”, which establishes and maintains its status as the biggest box office success in history for 80 years. The movie epic, based on the book by Emmet Bolo, describes the fate of slavery in the early Carolina Union as “Gone with the Wind”, along with the early victories of the British over George Washington, specifically the battle for Trenton.

1940–1943

The European War devastates Europe and results in genocide against Jewish people. After the war, Carolina Union Ecclesiastical Tribune Rebecca of Heart orders all history books and maps to rename Europe Akeldama, a reference to the Bible’s Field of Blood.

The Carolina Union facilitates Jewish migrations to the State of New Israel in the Carolina Union and to The Confederacy of Israel and Palestine, and imposes an Economic Curfew against European nations that ultimately ends the war.

1945

Nuclear bombs from China destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki

1945

The Carolina Union and The Kinlaza House launch a massive ICBM attack on the Chinese mainland. The ICBMs are armed with non-lethal EMP weapons that disable most of the Chinese electrical grid.

1946

The GKU invades China, quickly taking Shenyang, Changchun, and Harbin. GKU announces “Resettlement program” that sees a displacement of Chinese Han from Jilin and Liaoning provinces and a mass migration of Japanese “settlers” in the northern parts of each province and Koreans to the South.

1947

The GKU takes Fuxin in heavy fighting.

1947

The GKU announces the annexation of Jilin and Liaoning provinces.

1947

The World Peace Congregation celebrates its 5 millionth member by nominating Chastain Tiburon as Ecclesiastical Tribune of the Carolina Union. She wins easily.

1948

After an intense diplomatic effort led by Chastain Tiburon, The World Order of Nations is formed consisting of the world’s Christian nations. Islamic nations and The Confederacy of Israel and Palestine are invited, but all refuse to join.

1948

Mexico renamed the Congregational Union of Central America (CUCA) after Emperor Maximillian launches a successful blitzkrieg against Central American nations.

1949

Chastain Tiburon summit meeting with Maximillian to resolve a number of conflicts between The Carolina Union and the CUCA is unsuccessful. Maximillian attacks East Texas but is routed by Comancheria and Carolina Union forces in heavy fighting.

January 12, 1950

Chastain Tiburon announces the existence of a weapon that will disable targeted electronics remotely, rendering military activities impossible. The announcement is thought to be directed at Mexico’s Maximillian, who responds by attacking Columbia from bases in southern CUCA.

January 15, 1950

Fighting between the CUCA and Columbia ceases. Maximillian lodges a formal Treatise of Complaint with The World Order of Nations after claiming his military has been disabled by what he calls the Tiburon Device.