Bacon's Rebellion Essay

What exactly is the best way to get something you advocate for? Well, there are many different ways but it mostly depends on the situation. Throughout history people have either protested, bargained, or rebelled against certain authority in order for changes to take place. An important example of this is Bacon’s Rebellion. Nathaniel Bacon led the rebellion, hence the name Bacon’s Rebellion. It all started because Bacon and Virginia inhabitants wanted change and solutions to problems. Of course, the governor of Virginia a.k.a William Berkeley did not want to provide aid for these situations. This angered the settlers and resulted in the revolt. These problems included native american raids on the western frontier, raised taxes that affected

As said from part of Virginia Colonial National History Park, “Feeling that it would make his triumph complete, Bacon issued his "Declaration of the People" on July 30, 1676 which stated that Berkeley was corrupt, played favorites and protected the Indians for his own selfish purposes.” Settlers did agree that Berkeley was indeed corrupt but their judgement still would not matter because Berkeley knew he still had contol over them. All that mattered to Berkeley was himself and the wealthy. When he imposed taxes, poor settlers just couldn’t afford them but that didn’t affect Berkeley because he was still rich. He did not help the poor but instead made them suffer even more with the lowering tobacco prices. In Nathaniel Bacon — First American Rebel By Inez Nellie Canfield McFee it says, “To add to their troubles, the Indians began to attack the settlers along the frontier. Their fields were laid waste, their servants killed, and their stock driven off and slaughtered; but the Governor would not lift a hand to protect them, not wanting to lose his profitable fur trade.” So to add to Berkeley’s selfishness, he did not care about settler’s safety either because he knew it would affect his wealth based on the fur trade. This is why he did not retaliate against the Natives. This is not something a governor should do against his people. It is why it should be understandable why Bacon’s Rebellion was created, because

An article states “Bacon's Rebellion demonstrated that poor whites and poor blacks could be united in a cause. This was a great fear of the ruling class -- what would prevent the poor from uniting to fight them? This fear hastened the transition to racial slavery.” The Rebellion was composed of poor farmers, slaves, and indentured servants. This made the wealth uneasy because it went against the hierchy they followed. This hierachy was created in order for a group to feel more superior than the other and stop from people working together in order to rebel but it failed against the Virginia settlers who wanted to overthow Berkeley. This shows Bacon’s Rebellion as a fair movement because it helped connect whites and blacks at a time where slavery was popular in order to defeat a group of people with wrong greedy