What Was The Role Of Colonial Virginia In 1670

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, …show more content…
Contempt for the governorship included accusations that Sir Berkeley “raised unjust Taxes, upon the Commonaltie, For advancing of Private Favourites. And other sinister Ends, but noe visible Effect, in any Measure adequate.” Virginians in the 1670s faced economic hardship with declining tobacco prices and increased tax mandates. Civilians assumed that the rise in taxes would yield an abundance of townships and fortifications to secure the colony’s foothold in the region and develop the frontier. To the dismay of the colonists, these sites were never established and the protection they would have provided the frontiersmen, let alone the central regions of the colony as well, never came into fruition. The alleged mismanagement of funds by government officials caused widespread distain throughout the colony and laid the ground work for increased animosity of Sir Berkeley and his constituents on the eve of Bacon’s