The first known rebellion of the English Colonies was an uprising called Bacon's Rebellion of 1676. This rebellion all began when Virginians disagreed over the Indian policy in Virginia. Many colonists weren't satisfied with how the Indians were handled so they decided to do something about it. Nathaniel Bacon was the leader who stepped up to the job when no one else would even though "he probably cared more about fighting Indians than about helping the poor"(37, Zinn). First, he went with the formal way of getting things done and went to the government for help. He asked Governor Berkeley to provide commission for a frontier army that Bacon would lead against the Indians. When Berkeley discovered this army would be used to drive the Indians away, he immediately refused to provide for Bacon and his soldiers. So, with Bacon's idea rejected by the government, he went with the next way of getting things done which seemed like the only way to get this particular job done the way Bacon wanted it done. Soon after the plan was rejected by the governor, Bacon started to round up his army to be ready to start the rebellion against the Indians. Many of the men who decided to work with Bacon in the rebellion were poor colonists who were tired of the Indians taking more and more of what little land they had. Once Bacon had his men, he "was ready to send armed militias, or armed groups of citizens, to fight the Indians" (37, Zinn). The rebellion didn't last long because Bacon died of an illness, unknown specifically of what it was, and when he died the army basically fell apart.
After the rebellion, a ship was sent from England to restore order in Virginia. The captain of the ship, Thomas Grantham, who "found four hundred armed whites and blacks- freemen, servents, and slaves"(38, Zinn) who "he promised to pardon them and to free [them]"(38, Zinn), but instead his ships attacked them. After that, "twenty-three rebel leaders were hanged" (38, Zinn) just for rebelling. Many of the other rebels were extremely upset with this and the fact that "the whole colony, rich and poor, was being used by England" (39, Zinn). Once the colonists realized they were being controlled by England they wanted "to take control out of the king's hands and into their own" (39, Zinn).
Many people were bound for America, little did they know what they were getting into. Most of them "came to North America as servants"(41, Zinn), and were coming because they heard life in America was better than in England for poorer people. Their decision to come America turned out to be a bad one because they "signed an agreement called an indenture that said that they would [have to] repay the cost of their journey to America by working for a master for five or seven years" (40, Zinn). The voyage over wasn't easy either. They were kept in the most inhumane conditions imaginable. Once they were taken in by an American they were not treated any better than on the ship. "Beatings and whippings were common" (42, Zinn) amongst the indentured servants. If the servants tried to escape they were to be returned to their rightful owner and then the owner could do whatever they wanted with them because they were their 'property'. Numerous amounts of slaves did run off because of the lack of food and personal time allowed to them by their 'owners'.
The colonists population grew "from one-quarter of a million people to more than a million and a half" (46, Zinn) between 1700 and 1760. Population wasn't the only thing that grew in that period of time, because the population increased so much "agriculture, shipping, and trading [also] grew"(46, Zinn). Even with all the increases happening, mostly only the upper class benefited from them. 1713 was a rough year with a "severe food shortage" (47, Zinn). This brought violence and riots. One riot "broke into Belcher's warehouses looking for food, and shot the lieutenant governor of the colony" (47, Zinn). Later on England fought many wars that benefited few colonists, mostly rich ones. The wars brought "high[er] taxes, unemployment, and poverty [to the already poor colonists]"(48, Zinn), thus angering the poor colonists more.
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-I removed the last paragraph of my previous post because one comment I received said that it made my post be in non-chronological order. I also removed it because another commenter said it was a bit biased.
-I added a new paragraph to the end of my entry that continued on with information from after Bacon's Rebellion because I felt that more details were needed for the reader to understand the full event.
-I think one thing I would change about my revised blog would be to add more quotes from other documents, not just the piece written by Zinn.
-One commenter told me that my piece was too long, but I actually thought I could add more, so I extended it instead of shortening it. I respect her advice but I decided to go in the direction that I felt fit best for my writing.
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