Examples Of Bacon's Rebellion Essay

Superior Essays
Bacon’s Rebellion: Dissecting the Inscriptions of the Oppressed
“The poverty of the country is such that all the power and sway has got into the hands of the rich, who by extortious advantages, having the common in their debt, have always curbed and oppressed them in all manner ways." The events of the Late Rebellion in the Virginia Colony provides the substance to this quote, as it is told to be the infamous words of colonist Nathaniel Bacon. What transpired during this time is well-recorded by historians, but interpretations of the events are scattered aimlessly throughout our modern learning system. What is known for a fact is that Bacon was disgruntled with the state of the colony for several reasons; including for the murders of indentured
…show more content…
His death brought discouragement amongst his followers, which lead to them surrendering from their efforts soon after. Their efforts, however, would not go completely wasted, as it is explained in “A True Narrative of the Late Rebellion in Virginia, by the Royal Commissioners.” The document would go onto explain what would soon follow in the Virginia colony, which would include the decrease in taxation and the assemblance of a democratic governing body, with an election of officials taking place every two years. The events of the rebellion would also turn out be a predecessor to the American Revolution, as this was the first event in which a group of lower-class individuals would demonstrate resistance amongst higher authority in the Americas. This resistance would show a clear pathway to the African slave trade as well, as following the events of Nathaniel Bacon, the indentured servants would find freedom from ownership of the affluent of their society. Their failure as a group would cease to unite these individuals for common causes from then onwards, rather for their own individual

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Hopi Tribe Case Study

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon. It was all against the rule of Governor William Berkeley because he failed to address their needs and comply with their demands. Basically they all tie together because of King Philip and his selfish negligence led to Bacon’s Rebellion, which was just one of the many scores of backlashes against the…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Then, Bacon’s men killed the Occaneechees and took their fur, including the people held captive. When Bacon was arrested, he escaped and headed towards Jamestown, where he burned it. Then, Bacon died unexpectedly from dysentery. John Culpeper was a Congressional Representative and led the Culpeper’s Rebellion in 1677, which was caused by the Navigation Acts. The Proprietors, who became governors, didn’t do much for the people, like defending them and making sure they’re safe, from Indians and pirates.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bacon’s Revolt on Jamestown, Va. And the Virginia Governor Bacon's revolt which started in 1676 didn’t actually start with Bacon, but rather in a planter and merchant along the Potomac River in Virginia named Thomas Mathew in 1675. Mathew and a local Doeg Indian tribe had a trading dispute which triggered a chain of events that would cause havoc among the early colonialist. In an article written by James Douglas Rice for the Encyclopedia Virginia, Rice points out that the events along the Potomac River not only started an eventual revolt but also started two different wars as well. A war against both enemy and ally Native Americans as well as a civil war against the loyalists of the Governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Indians retaliated back and killing 300 whites on the outlying plantations. The settlers dismissed as a military plot to impose higher taxes and have it all to themselves. Berkeley had Bacon arrested but Bacons army had compelled the Governor to release Bacon. Which led to the change in the structure of the colony’s government, which also restored voting rights to landless freeman. Tobacco prices dropped, corruption in politics, competition had grown in Maryland, and a strict English Market as prices rose from the English manufactured goods.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Bacon's Rebellion Analysis

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages

    When Wilcolmb E. Washburn formulated his thesis regarding Bacon’s Rebellion in The Governor and the Rebel: A History of Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia, he did so as a direct response to and criticism of the widely accepted views held on the subject by most historians for the century prior. These views were epitomized in Torchbearer of the Revolution: The Story of Bacon’s Rebellion and Its Leader, written by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, which lauded Nathaniel Bacon’s rebellion as a precursor to the revolutionary fervor and ideology of the American Revolution a century later. The accounts written by Washburn and Wertenbaker differ in their interpretation of common sources, ascribing contradictory motives to the main players, chiefly Bacon and…

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Dbq 10 Precolumbian-1700

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Precolumbian-1700 Test Corrections: #7: For planters, a slave labor system had important advantages over a servant labor system because slaves: A(cost less than indentured servants) B(could be controlled politically) The answer is B, as slaves could not rebel like Nathaniel Bacon and other Yeoman Farmers and indentured servants for a variety of reasons mainly, small population or the population being spread out across colonies, as well as no access to the ability to vote(originally black landowning males could vote, but this liberty was soon rescinded when slavery became quite common among plantations). Foner explains this in Give Me Liberty, “Virginia’s shift from white indentured servants to African slaves as the main plantation labor force was accelerated by Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676... Which frightened Virginia's ruling elite, who took dramatic steps to consolidate their power… To avertt the further rise of a rebellious population of landless former indentured servants, Virginia's authorities accelerated the shift to slaves on the tobacco…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Just as Brown put forth, I conquer that Bacon used rhetoric such as “but if there bee as sure there is, a just God to appeal too, if Religion and Justice be a sanctuary here, If to plead y[e] cause of the oppresse, If sincerely to aime at his Mat [ites] Honor and the Publikc good…,” specifically to rally up both traditional Englishmen and new colonial men, who viewed divine justification from God as the most noble reason to do anything. Bacon continues on that “to indeavor to save the remaynders bee Treason God Almighty Judge and let guilty dye,” furthering building upon the religious platform, which still held a commanding prominence in colonial times (Bacon, 1676 & Brown, 1996). As Brown points out, Bacon drew upon the divide between Berkley and the elite and the lower class, who thought that they were not receiving adequate protection from attacks; as well as the division between the elite class over what qualified one to be a true leader (Brown, 1996). In Nathaniel Bacon’s Manifesto Concerning the Present Troubles in Virginia he uses the old English and new colonial patriarchal themes to incite the people to revolt against the governor and his inner circle.…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 17th century, many events caused tension in colonial society. Many of the events resulted in revolt, protest, and even execution. Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 reflected the underlying tensions in colonial society at that time, mainly including economic inequality, the gap between the blacks and the whites, social differences, the wealth between the lower class and the high class, and religious influence, how the Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 wasn’t influenced by religion, but how the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 was. The Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 reflected the economic inequality of the colonial era through methods of scapegoating and large scale rebellions.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1670s, the leaders of Virginia struggled to develop a unified plan to manage the economic, social, and political arrangements that governed the colony. Expansion of the colonial frontier in search of cultivatable land to create a diversified economy centered around the tobacco industry led to increased tensions with Indian tribes throughout the region. While the gentry sought to preserve Indian peace as a vital component of trade, frontiersmen had to subject themselves to unmitigated tribal raids with no organized retaliation from the colonial powers. It was this lack of military engagement the ultimately compelled Nathaniel Bacon to rebel against the governing body in which he had recently ascended to Council member; spurring a civil war which resulted in the militaristic pursuit of Indian villages, the sacking of Jamestown,…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Bacon's Rebellion was about a group of slaves that gained there freedom by working for slavery for 5 to 7 years and when they were free they seek land, however they were unable to because of the Indian's would not allow them to share the land, therefore when the issue was addressed they were rejected due to the Governor Berkley had a secret trade agreement with the Indians. However these events caused a rebellion against the Indians, because once again this was another fight for the American land, however in these events it was the slaves wanted a piece of the American dream in which was created by the Crusades which came over and took the land from the Indians. Now the question is was this justified or Power Grab. I believe this was…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1600-1763 Slavery Changes

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This uprising taught the ruling class of colonists that complete control was needed for their sources of labor. So, landowners looked to slavery. Because slavery was still developing, these events applied to regions of the colonies…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pathos and Ethos "Rebel against Rebel: Enslaved Virginians and the Coming of the American Revolution" by Woody Holton discusses how slavery influenced the American Revolution.1 The essay mostly focuses on Virginia's last governor John Murray, the royal earl of Dunmore. He started governing on 1771. In 1774 the Virginians were angry at the British for many things. First, for British placing the intolerable act on the colonies. Second, they were afraid that the British would invade Virginia since they have invaded Massachusetts already.…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Richard Frethorne, the author of An Indentured Servant 's Letter Home. Richard was a young male, who wrote his letter exclusively to his loving father and mother in 1623. Richard was an indentured servant that lived in Virginia, who originally came from England. In his letter, Richard Frethorne mentions all the hardships and struggles of living in a Virginia colony. Which included a lack of sufficient food, “A mouthful of bread for a penny loaf must serve for four men which is most pitiful”…

    • 1366 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Bacon's Rebellion

    • 1457 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Moreover, towards the end of the 1670’s Bacon’s Rebellion plays a pivotal role in this transition to the America’s that many individuals were under-going.…

    • 1457 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After Indians and slaves, tobacco growers are the next people class that Holton studies. They were angry at the passage of the Navigation Acts, which mandated that tobacco could only be exported to England. Thus the British merchants were able to get the prices down, which then forced tobacco growers into huge debt with the merchants of the mother country. Consequently, the mounting depression of the tobacco market led to protests and rebellions such as the Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, which was the most prominent uprising in the history of Virginia (48). The tobacco growers, Holton argues, were a powerful force that was united by their debts and their dependency of British merchants.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays