Steam Pirates
By 1779, it was obvious that the American Revolution was failing. General Arnold, via a network of trusted spies and via appointing people loyal to him to key positions, arranged for multiple simultaneous stand-downs throughout the Colonies, turning key forts and cities over to British troops and Tory loyalists among the colonials, sometmes combined with ambush assassinations of officers still loyal to Washington. Only luck and rapid riding by messengers kept the ringleaders of the revolution, such as Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, from being captured.
While the French had not formally allied with the rebelling colonies, Franklin had many contacts and supporters among them, and the fleeing Continentals found momentary respite in Haiti. This is when things started to get weird, from the point of view of Baseline historians.
Franklin, seeking distraction from contemplating the failed revolution, turned to engineering and experimentation. Inspiration and luck seem to have combined to allow him to kick steam engines ahead by several decades in a few years, producing the Franklin Engine, roughly equivalent to the best engines of 1860 or so. He had originally been thinking of ways to improve his new home's crop processing, but Isaac Doolittle, another Continental refugee, realized that these could be combined with his primitive propeller design, which Franklin also improved. A French corsair, badly damaged in a raid on Spanish shipping, gave them a testbed, and the first steam powered warship, Declaration, was launched from Haiti in 1783.
The first few raids on Spanish and British shipping were a success, and soon, a fleet of pirate...er... retribution ships were saiing steaming the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and as far north as the Carolinas. With their speed, maneuverability, and disregard for the wind, they could easily escape traps and pick their fights.
1787 Revolt
In 1787, the crew -- mostly Haitian slaves -- of the ironically-named Independance mutinied. The ship was retaken swiftly, but Franklin, long an abolitionist and by this point a trusted leader whose control of the Steam Fleet gave him considerable leverage with their French hosts, demanded the death penalty be annulled and proposed an end to slavery on the island. The French balked. Franklin and Jefferson and their allies made several points: First, the rebellion would spread, and hanging the mutineers (who of course had families all across the island) would enrage, not quell, the workers. Second, that Franklin's steam inventions were transforming the economy, with manual labor needed less and smiths and mechanics needed more. Third, if France proper had banned slavery, why should it still be practiced in France's colonies? Counter-arguments, noting Jefferson and many of the others were slaveholders before the failure of the revolution, were hand-wavingly dismissed by Jefferson's insistence that all slaves were going to be freed, as Franklin had advocated, once the colonies had achieved independance. As with most such things, the Haiti Compact was a compromise which left the former slaves with a less than perfect outcome; they were given freedom, but also an obligation to repay their "worth" to their former masters. This had the effect of greatly encouraging workers to join pirate... er... corsair... crews, as they were entitled to significant shares of loot... er... war reparations.
France and England
Meanwhile, back in France, the failure of the Colonial Rebellion had fractured the social forces which would have led to the French Revolution. The rightness of revolution was not questioned, but the practicality was under debate. Meanwhile, in England, the cost of colonial victory was coming due; considerable resources and manpower had been dedicated to suppressing a far-away rebellion, and the costs of maintaining the Empire were passed to those who benefitted the least from it, as is usually the case. The continual raids by Haitian ships also undermined the ability to successfully extract wealth back from the colonies.
The Cuban Conquest
In 1790, Franklin died, but had trained enough apprentices in his techniques and theories that the technological revolution he had begun would succeed even though the political one had failed. A few such trainees were able to be subverted by Spain, and in 1792, a shipyard in Havana had begun secretly building the first of what would be a fleet of steamships. This could be a significant threat to the Haitian operation.
In 1793, before the first Cuban ships were complete, a massive assault on Cuba took place: A steam flotilla bearing new breech-loading cannon (roughly equal to 1840s designs), and a sail armada bearing thousands of soldiers from New Orleans, armed with Prelat cartridge rifles. The fighting was brutal, but by the time Spain had received word and sent in a relief force, the island had been secured. Fast steam interceptors, using (relatively) light, but rapid-firing, cannons patrolled the routes to the islands to prevent large fleets from assembling, striking quickly at range and leaving before a response could be mustered, whittling away at any encroaching armada.
Franklin Republic
With Cuba secured, the former Colonials felt they had a new home, theirs because they killed people for it, which is how nations typically start. France was fairly happy to have the Yankees off Haiti, too, no matter how much pillage they had secured in the meantime. The newly-minted Franklin Republic was established, and while liberating the colonies from British rule was still a goal, so was strengthening the island's independence.
Second Rebellion
Without Franklin's nagging and posturing, the French felt free to tear up the Haitian Compact and return to slavery. This did not end well for them. Outnumbered and outgunned, the French government and the plantation owners were dealt with in short order, and the government of Franklin decreed that it would continue to recognize the rights of all who had been freed (a moral stance at least partially driven by the fact most of the crewmen of Franklin's navy, and the workers in its yards, were former slaves). The newly-freed island, with some debate, became part of the Franklin Republic, with guarantees of equal representation.
Today
The current year is 1799. A new century dawns. France, England, and Spain all have reason to hate the Franklin Republic, but they also hate each other, and playing them off is keeping the Republic alive. Raids on British shipping continue to provide wealth and undermine the Empire, but the Republic's technological edge is slipping as information leaks and the creativity of other nations is unleashed. General Washington's eyes are on Florida; reclaiming it would provide a base to retake the rest of the colonies. Jefferson, meanwhile, is more and more convinced that forming a new nation as a federation of the Caribbean Islands and becoming an equal power to the great states of Europe, encouraging revolution in the colonies and funding it as possible, but not making it a goal.
Both France and England face bubbling revolution, with the nobility wavering between harshly crushing such sentiments and trying to suppress them with minor concessions and small compromises. Things could go either way.
Engineers in the Franklin Republic continue to improve their steam technology, which is generally at 1860 to 1880 levels. Research into the "electric fluid", based on Franklin's notes and diaries, is proceeding rapidly, but it is not yet clear if similar paradigm-shifting breakthroughs will occur ahead of schedule.
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