Whether it is the richest versus the poorest or survival of the fittest; importance and power have always been based off physical possessions and prowess. The 18th century was no exception. Poor colonists of the time had little control over their own lives in government. The rich, plantation owning members of local government constructed all of the parameters of daily life in the Chesapeake Bay Colony. These parameters were set up according to the plantation owner’s needs. They did not take one moment to consider the needs of their fellow, poorer colonists. A few poor colonists felt that at least one of their needs was too great to be ignored, the need for land. The problem with this land is that it belonged to fierce, warring Indians with which the wealthy government officials had already made pacts promising to not touch it. This was a problem since these pacts were made without the poor farming colonist’s consent. The poor farmers in Chesapeake Bay were less able to get land due to the power and privilege of the upper classed government elite.
The lack of sympathy for the need of poor farmers for land was the prevailing issue as wealthy land owners controlled colonial government. This fact is expressed by a poor farmer named 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.”(Roark 88) Wealthy land owning government officials had made several treaties with Indians to not take their land to prevent war and fighting between the natives and the colonists. This action taken to help the colonial town was actually solely helping the wealthy land owners who made it, and not the lower classed former servants who it affected the most. The evil was not in the making of the treaty itself, but making it without the consent of the majority of the colonists was. The Indians attacking a local farmer's land and Governor Berkeley not taking any action would be another example of the apathetic view taken by the government of the poor's needs. When the colonist’s realized Berkeley had no intention of defending them, they took their own action and fought back against the Indians.
This need for land originated as the indentured servants of Chesapeake Bay began fulfilling their promised years of service to their masters and came into a great need for their own land on which to farm and live. This need put the lower classed, newly freed colonists’ patience on edge. To push it off Indians attacked a local farmer’s land supposedly because the farmer failed to owe them for certain favors the Indians paid him. The impotent farmers’ worries about obtaining land and freedom revealed themselves in the fury of attacks by both Indians and colonists that followed. 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” (www.pbs.org). In this quote Bacon tells the colonists that they want land from Indians whom he hates and he has the power to give it to them.
Bacon himself had his own aggravations to bring against Berkeley. Nathaniel Bacon was born wealthy in England and moved to America when his cousin did so and married the governor of Massachusetts. Bacon, a wealthy plantation owner, saw opportunity to get back at the Indians who trespassed and caused problems on his plantation. What really upset Bacon however was Berkeley denying him a commission of soldiers, Berkeley obviously knowing Bacon's intent was to attack the Indians. It was well known that Berkeley frowned upon making war with local Indians who were presently allied with the colony for that might put "all the Indians against us" as he put it (www.pbs.org ). This in itself cannot not be looked down on, however the fact that Berkeley decided against a war with the natives without the consent of the largest part of his colony was a mistake. He took advantage of his control as the wealthy, plantation owning governor and made a decision that he thought right. Though his decision might not have been wrong, he made it wrongly without allowing the seemingly unimportant farmers to have a say. The problems that followed were easily predictable.
Bacon, seeing and even empathizing with many of the colonist’s complaints, led the colonists in their discontent against Berkeley and the Natives surrounding Chesapeake Bay. Upon receiving information of Bacon’s exploits Berkeley tried his best to take control of the colony. When Bacon fled with his men into the forest after his first attack on 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 (www.nps.gov ). He then proceeded to remove Bacon from his seat on the counsel which Berkeley had given him a year earlier. The counsel was a group of men equivalent to the congress of present day America. Bacon however, in rebellion of Berkeley’s unfair decisions, did not listen to Berkeley and attacked the Occaneecheee tribe. In July of 1676 Bacon wrote up a declaration forcing all men of the colony to swear loyalty to himself in whatever way necessary. Though many colonists would have been quick to do so in view of the lands that they were attaining under Bacon's rebellious leadership, this was not enough to stop Berkeley and his upper class supporters from taking back control of the colony.
Another ill-made decision by the wealthy government officials was the decree by Governor William Berkeley that prevented many less influential 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. The colonist’s had a major point. If Berkeley was going to outlaw trading, he should have outlawed all trading, and not allow a select few to do the trading while banning all who were not quite as prosperous. This all gave incentive to Nathaniel Bacon since he himself traded often with the Indians.
What was unique about this rebellion was the white and black comradeship. Poor black and white farmers alike fought the upper classed colonists to obtain the land they wanted making no distinguishment between white and black skin. When wealthy plantation owners came to this realization, they realized they needed to make common ground with the white lower classed farmers so that their authority would never again be challenged in such a way. Slavery was the answer. After the rebellion slavery began to take hold in the colony and white men, whether poor or not, slowly became equal in superiority over black skinned farmers.
In the end twenty three dissenters were hanged for their part in the rebellion and King Charles II retired Berkeley from office, appointing an English governor more suited to his interests. This was the first step taken by the king to remove 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 in which the impotent American’s fought for their freedom from the ruling English.
Today people with more power constantly out rule those with less power and set up parameters and guidelines often according to their own desires. At the church that hosts the youth group I attend there is a youth room upstairs where we met 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. That was the first time that I ever considered that worshiping 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. The worst part was that we kids, the reason the youth group even exists, had no say in the matter. They were worried solely about their own property and needs and paid no attention to the needs of those they hosted in their church building.
The class and position of a member of a society was seen in Bacon's Rebellion to also determine their consequent influence on the community. In Bacon’s rebellion, the case of class influenced whether or not the lower classed inferior colonists would get the land they needed from the sometimes vicious Indians. The authority they needed to sway the governmental powers in the colony to war against the Indians was not in their hands though they were the majority. Maybe the poor farmers 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 they are rich or poor. The rebels of Bacon’s rebellion also proved this fact as they made themselves important so that the governing elite could no longer ignore them. They fought hard to make their voices heard in a government run by the influential upper class.
Bibliography
www.pbs.org
"Africans in American/Part 1/Bacon's Rebellion." Pbs.Org. Pbs. 12 Dec. 2007
www.nps.org
McCulley, Susan. "Bacon's Rebellion." Nps.Gov. June 1987. 12 Dec. 2007
Roark
The American Promise, by James L. Roark, Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson, Susan M. Hartmann, 2005
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