Without giving technologies to produce at least ammo(not talking about spare parts or even the whole gun itself) these will be just artifacts with limited usage. Giving pump action shotguns will be more useful, since they can use black powder, ammo brass casings and can shoot anything that fits inside the barrel. And are much easier to fix and even produce. The only remaining issue will be teaching how to make reliable and safe primers for ammo.
In a situation of limited ammo, automatic weapons are a bad choice. Semi auto or pump/lever action would still be enough. Like, hell, even having bolt actions rifles would provide a lot of domination for that time.
Without giving technologies to produce at least ammo(not talking about spare parts or even the whole gun itself) these will be just artifacts with limited usage. Giving pump action shotguns will be more useful, since they can use black powder, ammo brass casings and can shoot anything that fits inside the barrel. And are much easier to fix and even produce. The only remaining issue will be teaching how to make reliable and safe primers for ammo.
Well you could give enough ammo for the raid to be successful then use the raided weapons to arm the slaves I think?
I forget the post Harper ferry plan and not sure how far they would get
In a situation of limited ammo, automatic weapons are a bad choice. Semi auto or pump/lever action would still be enough. Like, hell, even having bolt actions rifles would provide a lot of domination for that time.