…you can imagine what kind of eggs they lay
The Doclopedia #228
Altered (United) States: Alabama: Better Living Through Chemistry
The year was 1875 and Marcus Green and his brother Argus we inventors in Montgomery, Alabama. On March 17th of that year, Marcus built his first steam powered plowing and seeding machine. It would, he was sure, turn the agricultural world on it’s ear and allow poor farmers who rented the machine to do many days work in a few hours. Surely, such an invention would make him rich!
Except that Marcus was a man of color in the post Civil War south and had invented something that might let black farmers (and even the so called “white trash”) compete with the larger plantations and farms. Somehow, Marcus couldn’t see the Klan or the white politicians allowing that. He tried talking to Argus about it, but all the soft spoken chemist had to say was “I’ll try to think of some way to help you out.”
Frustrated, Marcus decided to go to a conference he had heard about, a gathering of black inventors that was to be held in Mobile. After telling Argus that he would be gone a couple of weeks, he packed his bags and left.
Ten days later, on the last day of the conference, Marcus and the other inventors were surprised to see Argus walk in. Then, in his quiet way, Argus addressed the group, telling them that he thought he might have solved “this whole damned race thing”. He told them that he had perfected a chemical compound from various plant extracts and his own blood and had liberally sprinkled it in every train station and stagecoach stop between Montgomery and Mobile. When asked what it would do, he just told them to wait a day or so.
Twenty four hours later, white folks started turning into black folks. Not just getting darker skin, but actually becoming as negroid looking as any ex slave. Within a week, it was estimated that a third of the states white population had become black. Neighboring states started putting armed patrols on the borders to keep “the Negro plague” out. This actually worked pretty well, although the formerly white Alabamans weren’t too damned happy about it.
After about a month, 68% of the formerly white population was black and the government was in chaos. Federal troops (all black) were sent in to restore order and after another few months, by which time only 1 in 15 Alabamans were still white, things calmed down. Having felt what it was like to be a person of color, many of the former whites changed their racist ways. Many of the ones who didn’t either went crazy or got shot or both. Elections were held and to nobody’s surprise, almost the entire state government was black men. Many old laws were repealed, new ones were passed and Marcus and his inventor friends all got very wealthy off of their inventions.
Today, Alabama is a hotbed of technological innovation and still has an 80% black population. The Tuskegee Institute of Technology is one of the world’s foremost centers of higher learning.
And Argus? Well, he got rich (and advanced civil rights by about a century) by going to all of the other states in the South and offering not to unleash his “Negro plague” upon them. All the states had to do was promote true equality and give minorities a fair chance…and give Argus $200,000.00. He never had to wait more than a couple of days for his money.
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