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The Novel That Predicted The Civil War 25 Years Before It Happened
Life imitates art
There were numerous signs that the United States was careening toward a breakup during the first half of the 19th century. The vicious debate over slavery was just one factor that would eventually divide North and South. While many people at the time knew that the country was in bad shape, one person seemed to see the future more clearly than any of his peers. An author by the name of Nathaniel Beverley Tucker penned a book that turned out to be eerily true. In his work, Tucker describes a United States in which the South Secedes and wages war on the North. Most incredibly, the book was published in 1836, a full quarter century before the outbreak of the actual Civil War.
In his book, Tucker correctly predicts a number of beats that would come true in the real civil war to follow. Tucker’s book describes a world in which South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida would all secede and form their own southern confederacy.
Interestingly enough, Tucker died in 1851, a decade before the Civil War broke out. He would never see how accurate his fictional tale would turn out to be.
The book is called the The Partisan Leader; A Tale of The Future and curious readers can still find…