Essay Rough Draft

The richest, the poorest, the strongest and the weakest; survival of the fittest. Mankind has always based importance and power off of physical possessions and prowess. The 18th century was no exception. Poor colonists of the time had little control over their own lives in government while the rich, plantation owning members of local government constructed each parameter of daily life in the colony. These parameters were set up according to the plantation owners own needs. They did not taking one moment to consider the needs of their fellow, poorer colonists. A few poor colonists felt that their needs were too great to be ignored, especially their need for land. However because this land colonists wanted belonged to fierce, warring the wealthy government officials made pacts with local Indians promising to not touch it. With more colonist’s arriving in the colony every year, action to take more land was inevitable. And if the government didn’t take it, the colonists would.

Three quarters of the way through the 17^th century indentured servants began fulfilling their years of service and land for them to dwell was much needed. This along with storms, wars and economic problems across the ocean in England put the lower classed colonists’ patience on edge. To push it off Indians attacked a local farmers land supposedly because the farmer failed to owe them for certain favors the Indians paid him. This began a fury of attacks by both Indians and colonists that revealed the colonists’ cares about land and freedom. To guide this vigilante behavior Nathaniel Bacon led this band of rebels with his famous declaration “We must defend ourselves against all Indians in general, for that they were all enemies.” Bacon, though a wealthy plantation owner, saw opportunity to get back at his cousin by marriage for withholding his commission of soldiers. Playing on the colonist’s desire for land Bacon lead his own band of land hungry colonist’s in numerous attacks on the Indians.

Bacon realized that because of the colonists’ lower place in society that they had very little sway on what the government of Virginia did and said. He himself was mad at Berkeley for denying him his commission of soldiers. The colonist’s anger however raged against the wealthy land owners who ran colonial government. This fact is expressed by colonist William Tyler “Nether the governor nor counsel could or would doe any poore men right, but that they would shew favor to great men and wronge the poore.”(Book pg 88) Wealthy land owning government officials had made several treaties with Indians to not take their land so as to prevent war and fighting between the natives and the colonists. This action taken to help the colonial town was actually helping only the wealthy land owners who made it, and not the lower class former servants who it affected the most. Another example of the colonist’s lack of sway in the government would be when the Indians attacked the local farmers land and Berkeley didn’t take any action. When the colonist’s realized Berkeley had no intention of doing anything they took their own action and fought back against the Indians.

Another ill-made decision by the wealthy government officials was the decree by Governor William Berkeley that prevented many colonists from trading with local Indian tribes. The purpose of this decree was so colonists would not trade arms with Indians so as to encourage peace. Lower class colonists however accused Berkeley of being corrupt in making this decision because he allowed many of his wealthy land owning friends to still continue to trade with the Indians. This Bacon also saw as unfair. Since he himself was a trader as well, the law upset him even more. Another occurrence that upset Mr. Bacon happened when one of the surrounding Indian tribes had trespassed onto his plantation and murdered one of his own servants. This encouraged him all the more to take initiative and lead a band of discontented colonists against the so called savages.

Bacon, seeing this issue was at the heart of many of the colonist’s complaints, lead the colonists in taking their passions and bringing them into fulfillment. The first attack he made was on the Pamunkey tribe, forcing them out of their nearby residence. After this Berkeley tried to take Bacon by force but Bacon only fled to the wood with 200 plus men with him to plan their next attack. This attack involved Bacon peacefully visiting the Occaneecheee’s, convincing them to capture a few enemy warriors from a neighboring tribe, and then opening fire on them all and killing most of the tribe.

Upon receiving information about all of Bacon’s exploits Berkeley tried his best to take control over the colony. When Bacon fled with his men into the forest after attacking the Pamunkey tribe, Berkeley sent out a petition declaring Bacon to be a rebel. He also declared that his men would be pardoned if they would give up and stop following Bacon. He then proceeded to removed him from his seat on the counsel which Berkeley had given Bacon a year earlier out of pure brotherly kindness. The counsel was a group of men equivalent to the congress of present day America. Bacon however, true to his rebellious ways, did not listen to Berkeley and went out and attacked the Occaneecheee’s. In order to halt any further disorder Berkeley agreed to pardon Bacon and send him to the king to be tried before him if he turned himself in. The house of burgesses denied this request however and voted instead to force Bacon to publicly ask for forgiveness from Berkeley. This was decided around the time of election for the house of burgesses when the colonist’s elected Bacon to the house of burgesses. By doing this the poorer colonists unknowingly tricked Bacon into falling right into Berkeley’s hands by attending his first meeting as a house of burgesses member. As soon as he arrived Berkeley’s government men captured Bacon and took him before Berkeley.

As soon as Bacon had apologized to Berkeley he allow him to take his spot in the house of burgesses. Bacon however ran out in the middle of the meeting and brought back hundreds of former servants to demand that he be given the right to control all military forces in the colony to eliminate the natives. After several heated moments of debate and a few murderous threats uttered by Bacon and his gang, Berkeley was practically forced to hand over all military control to Bacon.

Berkeley’s authority had officially been overwritten to his embarrassment. After this Bacon immediately took control over Jamestown for the next two months as the lower class colonists supported him. Supporters of Berkeley fled with him from the town, overtaken and bewildered. Raids of surrounding Indian tribes began taking place by the land needy colonists lead by Bacon. In July of 1676 Bacon wrote up a declaration forcing all men of the colony to swear loyalty in whatever way necessary. Though many colonists would have been quick to do so in view of the lands that they were attaining, even this was not enough to stop Berkeley and his upper class supporters from taking back control of the colony.

What was unique about this rebellion for its time was the white and black comradeship. Poor colonists made no distinguishment between white and black skin and they worked equally with each other to attain their goals. When wealthy plantation owners came to this realization, they saw the need to have some common ground with the white colonists, and slavery was the answer. After the rebellion slavery began to take hold, and white men; whether poor or not, began to become equal in superiority.

In the end twenty three dissenters were hanged for their part in the rebellion and King Charles II retired Berkeley from office and appointed an English governor more suited to his interests. This was the first step taken by the king that began removing the liberties that many colonists had come to the new world to enjoy. The king wanted a tighter grip on his new settlement that he felt was getting out of his control. However the steps he took soon incited the American revolution where the lower class American’s fought for their freedom from the ruling English.

Today people of more importance constantly out rule those of lower influence and set up parameters and guidelines often according to their own needs. At the church that hosts the youth group I go to there is this youth room that we met in when I first started attending the youth group. I had the most fun there that I had ever had at any church and I later became a Christian, largely in part because in that youth room we were able to have so much fun and that was the first time that I ever considered that worshipping God could be fun. Later the church decided that they didn’t want the youth meeting up in the room because they were worried about things getting stolen or broken. What they didn’t realize was that kid’s lives, like my own, were changed in that room, and isn’t that what church is all about? They were worried solely about their own property and needs and not about the needs of those they hosted in their church building.

The question of your class and position in society has throughout the centuries also determined your consequent influence on your community. In Bacon’s rebellion, the case of class influenced whether or not the not so wealthy colonists would get the land they need from the sometimes vicious Indians. The authority they needed to sway the government powers in the colony to war against the Indians was not in their hands though they were the majority. Maybe the colonist’s were corrupt in wanting land that belonged to someone else, but the government was also corrupt for catering to their own personal interests above those of the colony at large. Those that have gained an importance will sway the laws, whether the be rich or poor. The rebels of Bacon’s rebellion showed that anyone could take control if they really wanted to. They also showed that control didn’t always make things work out the way the leaders wanted them to.