Ben's

Bacon’s Rebellion is an interesting, yet confusing event.  Bacon’s rebellion actually happened in the Tidewater region of Virginia, but it was over events that were happening in the Blue Ridge Mountains area. The entire rebellion went down in one year, 1676. Exactly one year before the Revolution started.  When people first started to settle in Virginia, the Aristocrats had people working for them called indentured servants. They would come over with the Aristocrats and promise to work for them for an average of seven years, and then they would be set free to go off and start a new life. This is a great way for people to come over to the New World even if they could not afford it in the first place. The problem was what would these people do after they are done? Where will they go? Many of the former servants moved inland to the Blue Ridge area so they can farm. The only problem with this is that the Indians were not a big fan of this. They would attack the farmers or vice versa.  A man by the name of Nathaniel Bacon, who was related to the Governor by marriage, had had enough and he gathered up all of his followers and went to the big house a.k.a. The Burgesses (the first form of Government in Virginia) and demanded to the Governor, Sir William Berkley, that he do something about the Indians.  If the governor doesn’t do anything about it then he will start burning down buildings.  Predictably, Bacon starts burning down buildings in Jamestown and surrounding areas. After all of the chaos he and his followers ended up burring down multiple buildings and then going back to where they came from.  Little did they know that the Governor had an agreement with the Indians so they can trade back and forth.  It was somewhat a clandestine agreement, but none the less they were not happy about it. In retaliation he started attacking the good Indians and making all the rest of the Indians hate. This started a small skirmish that lasted for a few months.  Ironically Bacon dies suddenly from a unknown illness that same year.  Soon after he died the Aristocrats started to wonder what they were going to do with all of their servants. They were leaving after their seven years and they would leave and go raise hell in someplace else.  The unintended consequences for this rebellion were that it started to kick off the African Slave trade. In the coming years after all of this happened the slave trade exploded. This isn’t the only reason that the trade took off, but it could be considered one of them.  The Aristocrats were very weary of letting people go, so they wanted a work force that they didn’t have to let go. This conflict is a good way to contribute to the American identity because it shows this sense of rebellious pride toward the British government. If it wasn’t for this train of thought, then the Revolution very well could not have happened.