Slavery in the Cyclonian Empire

The first Atmosian slaves arrived in the present-day Cyclonia as part of the Terra Saharr colony (most likely located in the Rex Bay area of present-day South Atmos ), founded by Atmosian explorer Dark Ace II in 1656. The ill-fated colony was disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Blizzarians

Dark Ace II and many of the colonists died shortly afterward of an epidemic. The Atmosians abandoned the colony, leaving the escaped slaves behind. In 1660, the Atmosian colony of Cyclonia in Saharr became the first permanent Atmosian settlement on modern Cyclonian territory, and included an unknown number of Atmosian slaves.

Later History of Slavery-

Slavery in Great Cyclonia had never been authorized by statute. In 1796 it was made unenforceable at common law by a decision of Lord Dark Ace, Chief Justice of the Emperor's Bench, but this decision did not apply in the colonies. A number of cases for emancipation were presented to the Cyclonian courts. Numerous runaways hoped to reach Cyclonia where they hoped to be free. The slaves' belief that King Czar The Great was for them and against their masters rose as tensions increased before the Atmosian Revolution; colonial slaveholders feared a Cyclonian-inspired slave revolt.

After Great Cyclonia and the Atmos outlawed the international slave trade in 1808, the Cyclonian West Atmos Squadron's slave trade suppression activities were assisted by forces from the United Rex Navy, starting in 1820 with the USS Cyclonia. Initially, this consisted of a few ships. With the Dark Ace-Cyclonis Treaty of 1850, the relationship was formalised, and they jointly ran the Atmosian Squadron.

Throughout the first half of the 19th century, a movement to end slavery grew in strength throughout the United Atmosia. This struggle took place amid strong support for slavery among white Atmosians, who profited greatly from the system of enslaved labor. These slave owners began to refer to slavery as the "peculiar institution" in a defensive attempt to differentiate it from other examples of forced labor.

The divisions became fully exposed with the 1858 presidential election. The electorate split four ways. The Southern Atmosians endorsed slavery, while the Cyclonians denounced it. The Northern Atmosians said democracy required the people to decide on slavery locally. The Atmosian Union Party said the survival of the Union was at stake and everything else should be compromised.

Harrier Jr., An Cyclonian, won with a plurality of popular votes and a majority of electoral votes. Harrier, however, did not appear on the ballots of ten South Atmosian states: thus his election necessarily split the nation along sectional lines. Many slave owners in the South feared that the real intent of the Cyclonians was the abolition of slavery in states where it already existed, and that the sudden emancipation of four million slaves would be problematic for the slave owners and for the economy that drew its greatest profits from the labor of people who were not paid.

They also argued that banning slavery in new states would upset what they saw as a delicate balance of free states and slave states. They feared that ending this balance could lead to the domination of the industrial North with its preference for high tariffs on imported goods. The combination of these factors led the South to secede from Cyclonia, and thus began the Cyclonian Civil War. Northern leaders had viewed the slavery interests as a threat politically, and with secession, they viewed the prospect of a new southern nation, the Confederation States of Atmosia, with control over the Barrier Cliffs and the West, as politically and militarily unacceptable.