What's the most successful a US slave revolt could have been?

Taking over an American state (like Kansas or Virginia) and making in the end of the underground railroad. That's at least what John Brown possibly wanted to do.
 
during the 1864 election, one of the major Democratic themes was that the Republicans were encouraging slave rebellion. Republicans strenuously denied it. It would be very sensitive to accept the aid of a slave revolt. Sherman is as likely to suppress it as he is to accept its help.
 
during the 1864 election, one of the major Democratic themes was that the Republicans were encouraging slave rebellion. Republicans strenuously denied it. It would be very sensitive to accept the aid of a slave revolt. Sherman is as likely to suppress it as he is to accept its help.

And would the slaves even be likely to do it?

If they expect Sherman to arrive in the near future, wouldn't they simply wait for him? Why expose themselves to savage reprisals by rising prematurely?
 
OTL? Zero. To have a Slave revolt succeed the Slave population need to be higher than about... two third of the total population. So unless a mass exportation of Slaves from Africa come... ideally enslaved military figures from West Africa. And a PoD in the 18th century when Slave Trade was well a d alive.

They don't need to completely succeed, they just need to leave the South. And that's possible with a lot less than two-thirds of d the population.
 
They don't need to completely succeed, they just need to leave the South. And that's possible with a lot less than two-thirds of d the population.

Trouble is, the great majority of slaves live too deep inside the South to stand much chance of getting away. Most successful escapees, iirc, were from the Border States or Virginia.

Any slave rebels down in places like SC would have to cross several State lines in order to reach the North, which means they would have to run the gauntlet of the militias of all the states through which they passed. And even if by some miracle they got out, they would probably find the militias of the northern states waiting to recapture them.
 
Look at the reaction the Nat Turner revolt caused. Within days there were thousands of militiamen enlisting from as far away as Richmond to put down a rebellion by around 50 slaves which was crushed in a period of 2 days.

There just weren’t any counties/parishes in the US with a high enough population of blacks. Southampton had a slight black majority, and Nat Turner failed miserably. The US wasn’t Haiti, and conditions weren’t right for a successful slave revolt.

The best you can do is escape to Canada, which doesn’t really count as a revolt in my opinion.
 
Look at the reaction the Nat Turner revolt caused. Within days there were thousands of militiamen enlisting from as far away as Richmond to put down a rebellion by around 50 slaves which was crushed in a period of 2 days.

There just weren’t any counties/parishes in the US with a high enough population of blacks. Southampton had a slight black majority, and Nat Turner failed miserably. The US wasn’t Haiti, and conditions weren’t right for a successful slave revolt.
have it during the civil war
 
have it during the civil war
That’s even worse timing really, unless a Union Army is literally hours away from marching into the plantation, it’s not going to go well. The South was absolutely crawling with Homeguard during the war partially for that exact reason.
 
That’s even worse timing really, unless a Union Army is literally hours away from marching into the plantation, it’s not going to go well. The South was absolutely crawling with Homeguard during the war partially for that exact reason.
No if a slave revolt succeed then got weapons from a nearby barracks chain reactions and if the union supplies it successfully with a lot and then finally avoids engagements with confredtrne army and does Fabians tactics in an area where large army can't move around through
 
No if a slave revolt succeed then got weapons from a nearby barracks chain reactions and if the union supplies it successfully with a lot and then finally avoids engagements with confredtrne army and does Fabians tactics in an area where large army can't move around through
Union support for a revolt is pretty much impossible. If it happened, it would look like they were funding a race war in the South, which Franch and British leadership were extremely worried about happening.

Also, you can be damn sure the the state in which the revolt takes place and possibly even the Confederate Federal govt will divert resources to crushing the revolt ASAP.

But...
Now that I think about it, if you consider slaves simply refusing to work and packing up and leaving as soon as a Union Army takes control of the area a revolt, then yes it could would be very successful, since it happened quite a bit in the later stages of the war.
 
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