Historians sometimes engage in counterfactual speculations, thinking in terms of “what ifs.” Counterfactuals allow us to consider essential and nonessential causes of historical developments. Counterfactuals also suggest that history could have turned out differently. Based on this premise, consider how modern American history could have turned out if the Revolution had freed the slaves. What would have needed to occur for that to happen? Why did it not occur? What happened instead? What would have been the consequences of a freeing of the slaves after independence?
