bacons rebellion
In 1676 an uprising known as Bacon's Rebellion occurred in Virginia. The leader of this rebellion was Nathaniel Bacon, a colonial leader who was born in England. He was sent to Virginia by his father in hopes for him to mature and lead a better life. The opposed during this uprising was Governor Sir William Berkeley and the local Indians that were living around the Virginia area. Governor Berkeley was a veteran of the English Civil Wars, along with being a frontier Indian fighter, playwright and scholar. There are multiple explanations as to what caused the rebellion to take place. Tobacco prices were sinking very low in the colony; the struggle for political reform against the oppressive rule of the governor, and the disagreement over Indian policies in regard to how they were handled. The rebellion all started when Governor Berkeley did not grant permission to Nathaniel Bacon to create a party to carry out attacks against all Indians living near the colony. Even though he did not have consent from Governor Berkeley, Bacon rounded up hundreds of men and started attacking the Indians. After some success, Bacon became a popular figure and more people started to join in on his command. Bacon then
Early settlers were in competition for political and social power. This made the people of the area extremely irritant as times began to get progressively worse. A prosperous economy might have counteracted unstable political and social conditions. “Chronic overproduction of an inferior quality of tobacco, aggravated by restrictive features of the Navigation Acts, drove the price of tobacco down. Expensive experimentation with methods of diversifying the economy and the need for defense measures against the Dutch and the Indians resulted in high taxes.” (Galenet.com) With the farmers who owned large plantations growing tobacco, it was extremely frustrating to only get small amounts of money for producing large amounts of crops. This left them with nothing to do but receive small payments for the tobacco and slowly build up frustration towards the mother country of England. The reasons for Bacon’s Rebellion cannot be specifically determined due to the wide scale of evidence and different interpretations. Although, it can be seen that many things came out of the rebellion helping out the colonies. The English government was not a powerful figure in the colonies and that is how the people wanted it to stay. “Yet amid the melancholy confusion of the times, important changes for the better were taking place. Never again was an English Governor to exercise the despotic power that had been Sir William Berkeley’s.” (p. 223, Shaping) Nathaniel Bacon fought for what he believed in and that is what the American people like to see. If he lived past the rebellion he would have been a great leader for the colonies. Bacon's Rebellion has become the most significant episode leading towards democracy in colonial America. All the sources that have previously been mentioned have all pointed fingers at Governor Berkeley or the Indians for the cause of the rebellion. However, there is a source that shows that an unpaid debt to an Indian tribe was the result of them attacking the people of the colony. If this is the case then the reason for the rebellion all started over a man in the colony not paying Indian tribes for items they gave him. “Several of the Doegs were killed in the raid, which began in a dispute over the nonpayment of some items Mathews had apparently obtained from the tribe. The situation became criti
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Approximate Word count = 1581
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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