Nanthail Bacon Essay

Submitted By slapyomominthemouth
Words: 479
Pages: 2

King Marchand
History 135
Mr. Willmann
1/30/14

Many countries came rushing to the Americas for life, liberty and freedom, but in some cases, freedom was the last thing they received. As tensions rose in the colonies, so did greed amongst the white settlers, particularly in the Virginia colony in 1676, where a man named Nathanial Bacon let greed take the best of him. In struggle for Indian land, Bacon felt that he must take matters into his own hands by seizing Indian lands; bacon and his followers would obtain new land lands, new farms, and new opportunity for fur gathering (Seal). As Bacon saw this land seizure as a way for him and his followers to get rich, Governor Berkeley had no desire to start a war with the Indians, rather; Governor Berkeley’s policy was viewed as “weak”. This policy didn’t stop Bacon, instead he gathered a group of over five hundred people containing indentured servants, and free blacks, whose land bordered with Indian land. With all these followers, Berkeley refused to back Bacon and, instead, declared Nathanial Bacon as a rebel (Seal). Bacon went on to burning down Jamestown before he passed away with chronic diarrhea. What bacon didn’t know is that this tension over land would change America’s work force for the next century. With all the indentured servants seeking new land, the workforce in the colonies was diminished, and the only other option was to emigrate blacks from Africa and put them on the plantation. This change eventually affected all of the colonies and set the nation for a system of slavery based on race (“America’s). In result of a slave workforce, these slaves started multiplying and having families who were born into slavery. Tension rose as these slaves had few rights and on September 9, 1739 a group of twenty black slaves met at the Stono River to concoct a plan for escaping the harsh