re: #119 Shiplord Kirel

As I noted at the time, that particular claim by Cynbat the Sailor bore some striking similarities to events described in Harry Turtledove’s alternate history, American Empire: The Victorious Opposition. This is part of the lengthy (11 volume) Timeline 191 series, in which the Confederacy wins the Civil War and survives into the 1940s.

The similarities are that the murders are politically motivated, they are committed by the national government (the Confederacy in Turtledove’s case), the victims are black, the number of victims is around 5000 initially, the bodies are dumped in a swamp northwest of New Orleans, the murder instruments are guns rather than, say, gas or explosives, and the massacre quickly becomes the subject of rumors among the black population of New Orleans. The major difference of course is that the Turtledove event in openly fictitious and it occurs in the year 1938.

I tried reading Harry Turtledove. Couldn’t get into it. Can’t remember why —either too many christian references or too much of a guy novel. I usually like guy novels.