Rough Draft: Bacon's Rebellion

Class was a predominate issue in Bacon's Rebellion of 1676. The rebellion brought about many changes in Virginia having to do with both class and status. Bacon's rebellion was brought on largely because of the way the colonial settlers were being treated by their own government. The rebellion was an example of how class, racism, and the desire for land and wealth threatened England's society.

Around 1675-1676 the colonists started to expand further west. They began to fight with the Indians for the land that they both believed was theirs. I think this was unfair for the Indians. They were there first, therefore should be entitled to this land. The government tried to erase tensions between both groups. Nathanial Bacon, along with many others of different races and quite a few lower class citizens were extremely frustrated with the idea of the Indians being allowed to keep all of the land to themselves and being protected by the colonial government. I believe that in order to not cause conflict between the two groups, they should have tried to come to an agreement to allot the land between them. This could have had a huge impact on the colony, and Bacon's rebellion possibly wouldn't have even happened had this kind of agreement been discussed. Bacon eventually had had enough, and and went to governor William Berkeley to discuss the matter of trying to get rights to encroach on native lands and attack. Berkeley said no, which led to Bacon's retaliation. He and his supporters went to war against the Indians.

Before the war began, William Berkeley, the Governor of Virginia on and off for about 20 years, was very involved in creating treaties with many Indian tribes guaranteeing lands north of the York River to belong to the Powhatan tribe. This in my opinion, was a pretty intelligent thing to do. If establishing peace with the Natives helped the Virginian colony it was a great move on his part. Then again, as mentioned later, many colonists believed he was just doing it for personal financial and status gain. His initial motive for creating such peace treaties was to avoid further uprisings such as ones in the early 1600's. Although I believe this was only part of the reason why he created them. The last uprising before 30 years of peace was in 1646. The order that came after this time allowed for economic prosperity because of trade with surrounding Indian tribes.

Many Virginians believed that this trade only benefited Governor Berkeley and his crew. Both sides of the class divide were getting upset at Berkeley's ways. These classes included the people who ran the governmental affairs, and the small farmer group.

Nathanial Bacon believed that because he was of a higher class than most, he deserved more land. Many people who were poor, recently freed servants came to his aid hoping to get land for themselves. Bacon said, "our design is not only to ruin and extirpate all Indians in general but all manner of trade and commerce with them."¹ I think this definately just goes to show how greedy and power hungry Bacon was. I believe that his motives for the rebellion were extreme. He could have somehow formed a better plan that would allow him to gain more land, in a more fair way than he did.

At first, Bacon and Berkeley were civil acquaintances. That is until Bacon decided that Berkeley and some other members of the current government of Virginia did not act as a traditional government should. Bacon basically believed that those running the government were trying to gain status by collecting money from the public by way of unfair taxes, and he did not particularly like the "new" way of government. I find it great that Bacon stood up to the government, but I do believe he could have gone about it in a very different way than he did.

The subconcious beginnings of the rebellion started when riffs between Indians and colonists first began to arise again in 1675. It sparked when a group of Doeg Indians entered the property of Thomas Mathew and clamed that he did not pay them for goods they had traded earlier on. In retaliation, the Natives attempted to steal a number of Mathew's hogs. Thomas Mathew then killed quite a few of the Indian group. The killings went back and forth between the two tribes until eventually gov Berkeley wanted to start a war against the Indians. He later decided to instead opt for a defensive policy. The Indians made another attack in the winter of that same year which lead to several servants of Bacon's and others' being killed.

Bacon then asked Berkeley for adequate funding to allow him to start an army of volunteers (mostly lowly planters and farmers) to lead against the Indians in the region. I think Bacon knew that the lower class citizens would be most likely to join forces with him, because they hoped to gain land for themselves in the process. At first, Gov. Berkeley turned town Bacon's request.

In June of the next year Bacon finally got his grant after holding the governor at gunpoint. He was also given permission to enslave all Indians captured in battle. The rebellion lasted throughout the summer with Bacon and his low class followers seemingly at the high end of the rebellion. They eventually drove out the governor and his followers. Jamestown was burned in September on 1676. There was no more English authority in the colony after this event took place.

After Bacon's death in October, many of his followers turned to alleigance with England and became followers of the King and the governor. Still trying to gain freedom from their lower class lifestyle were 20 english servants and 80 black slaves. They eventualy gave up the hope of maybe becoming something bigger than a poor lower class citizen. Well after the rebellion ended, there was still constant fear among the elite power that those of lower class would retaliate as Bacon and his followers did.