While there have been many slave revolts in history including in the US, Haiti remains the only successful slave revolt in history. The challenge is to have a slave rebellion succeed in the US, it does not have to overtake the entire south as that would be impossible it simply has entail a group of slaves successfully breaking away from the Union and remaining independent.
AHC: Have a Successful slave revolt in the US
- Thread starter Billy the Goat
- Start date
chankljp
Donor
Now that I think more about it... The only requirement here is for them to not be a part of the Union, not that it needs to have international recognition. Perhaps this nation formed by freed slaves can be independent the same way that say... Sealand or the Principality of Seborga is: As an unrecognised micronation that the post-Civil War Union simply never bothered to put down due to just how insignificant they are? Going with the Seborga route, the micronation might even keep paying taxes with the Federal government despite claiming to be 'independent'.
But even in that case, I have a hard time imagining the state government or even just racist whites will not target and try to destroy the place purely out of principle. If they were willing to lynch black people for trying to vote, or burning down Black Wall Street, it will be hard to imagine them not wanting to destroying a black micronation for daring to 'rise above their station'.
The easiest way is to have a sugar island join the revolution. Economically it is madness but people do some weird things.
Then we get something like Haiti, all the planters get massacred, the fledgling republic has more important things to worry about and the RN is more worried about the French. Everybody agrees to leave the exslaves alone and we get a poor isolated state. Of course the chances of surviving the French revolutionary wars depends on playing very nice with the British……,
Then we get something like Haiti, all the planters get massacred, the fledgling republic has more important things to worry about and the RN is more worried about the French. Everybody agrees to leave the exslaves alone and we get a poor isolated state. Of course the chances of surviving the French revolutionary wars depends on playing very nice with the British……,
unprincipled peter
Donor
During the War of Jenkin's Ear, Spain succeeds in capturing Georgia. There were widespread fears of slave revolution, but Spain didn't make any headway in Georgia, and nothing developed. Here, slaves rebel and create havoc. Most likely they merely flee to Spanish Florida/Georgia, but there's a possibility the revolts and numbers get large enough that a free black settlement could be set up. OTL, there was a small such settlement in the Jacksonville area. Perhaps here it is large enough to qualify the AHC
The British Empire promised freedom to any American slaves that fought for them. If the British arm and lead a huge slave rebellion in the southern states, this could lead to Georgia or South Carolina being an English protectorate of free Blacks.
Spain captures Georgia, from the British, which was a small, new settlement did not have any slaves. But seeing the British beaten on the south side of the river, inspires the numerous slaves on the north side of the river in South Carolina to rebel? They likely escape in addition to rebelling, settling in captured Georgia or Spanish Florida?
Or, having conquered Georgia, the Spanish keep going, crossing into South Carolina, and their direct presence or arming of captured plantation workforces sparks the slave rebellion?
unprincipled peter
Donor
OTL, the Spanish promoted slave escape, promising freedom and land to those who made it across the border. A small number took up this challenge. They formed a small community in the vicinity of present day Jacksonville, Florida. They either fled, or were dispersed when Britain took Florida after the 7YW. Georgia did not have much, if any, slave presence at the time, so the slaves must have come from further north. There was widespread concern/panic that the movement could pick up steam and the east coast would be in trouble.
My thought is that, seeing Spanish success in Georgia, slaves in the Carolinas, or even further north, rise up in larger numbers. You could write a scenario where Spain decides to concentrate on the colonial War of Jenkin's Ear, instead of switching theaters to Italy. I don't think such a scenario is likely, but, presto, magic hand wavium, it is so. Britain's navy was pretty battered from tropical rot/disease, so there is a window of opportunity for Spain to send resources to the New World. IF the slave uprising is disruptive enough, maybe Spain crosses the border into South Carolina. Expecting some far reaching expedition north is asking a bit much, but, hey, maybe the winds of war can fan the flames of slave rebellion up the seaboard. As noted, this was a fear, OTL.
I recall there was a bit in Malê Rising where some of the Gullah communities in the Sea Islands pull off this sort of thing during that timeline's version of the American Civil War. Upon reflection, there were plenty of places in the American South where there existed relatively coherent communities that, given the opportunity, could have made some sort of distinct polity -- not that the tendency was completely absent IOTL, albeit hampered by a certain amount of Union bureaucratic feet-dragging. Hm.
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I have a persistent sort of thought about creating a timeline where Nat Turner and his followers manage to fight their way out and make their way to the Great Dismal Swamp and to the maroon communities there -- what effect that would have on the national mood right before the Civil War -- maybe they'd inspire other risings! -- but I don't have anything coherent and if someone who already has the knowledge is willing to take a shot before I'm ready, they're welcome to it.
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I have a persistent sort of thought about creating a timeline where Nat Turner and his followers manage to fight their way out and make their way to the Great Dismal Swamp and to the maroon communities there -- what effect that would have on the national mood right before the Civil War -- maybe they'd inspire other risings! -- but I don't have anything coherent and if someone who already has the knowledge is willing to take a shot before I'm ready, they're welcome to it.
It wouldn't be a mass slave revolt, or one that succeeds in creating a new nation as such, but an idea I had was for a series of slave revolts where the rebels succeed in surviving at all, establishing maroon communities in the less hospitable areas of the slave states and harrying slave catchers until the Civil War, where they act as a Unionist fifth column and as a reward are given a status broadly similar to Reservations during Reconstruction. Alternatively, a major fear of the planter class was for Cuba to undergo a Haitian-style revolution, since it would be practically impossible to prevent escaped slaves from getting there somehow. That was actually a major driver for fanatical attempts to annex the island OTL. If you had a Cuban slave revolt TL where they get bolstered by repeated waves of escaping American slaves it could create a really interesting creole culture right offshore.