What if?

Sometimes I wonder how history would have turned out had certain events happened differently.

For example,  would Haiti have developed into a more stable and economically viable country had Napoleon not vindictively killed Toussaint L'Overture?   Had he been allowed to implement his plans as opposed to Dessalines simply slaughtering his enemies.

Who knows what reconstruction would have looked like had Lincoln not been killed?   Does that mean that reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the institutional racism of southern Democrats was Boothe's fault and responsibility?

The one that has me thinking recently is what would have happened had the founding period of the US happened differently.

Had the delegates to the constitutional congress actually abolished slavery, and the southern colonies not joined the US, how would North America have developed differently?

Had Great Britain won, would the colonies have been allowed to develop in a way that would have allowed the US to have (among other things) led in the defeat of the Axis in WW2?

I'm sure there are multiple other questions, but I think the slavery one is the most interesting.  

The fact that there was a realization that the founding of the US was so important that the compromise on slavery was considered worthwhile by those opposed to slavery, and that they built in a mechanism to limit the expansion of slavery as the country expanded.   Think about how radical this compromise was in a world where slavery was virtually the norm.  

Obviously, this exercise is kind of pointless and futile.  Things happened and we're stuck with the results.   But maybe it'll give some of us pause to contemplate the ramifications or our current actions on future generations.