today we're looking at bacon's rebellion
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the questions down in the description so when we talk about bacon's rebellion we're not referring
to an uprising of delicious breakfast food against those of us consuming it rather we're
talking about a rebellion that took place in virginia a hundred years before the american
revolution this rebellion would have an unintended outcome that would be terrible and long-lasting
in order to understand the rebellion we have to look back and recall how virginia was founded
at jamestown and that the colonists there began growing tobacco which required a lot of labor
indentured servants were the main labor and if you recall indentured servants were people who worked
for a master for a certain period of time usually seven years and in exchange the plantation owner
would pay their passage to america beginning in 1618 the virginia company of london began offering
head rights to anyone that came to the virginia colony now hopefully you're asking yourself what
is a head right a head right was the offer to any colonist man woman or child that could pay their
own passage to america and they would receive 50 acres of land this was a great offer and
many englishmen were eager to take up the virginia company on this because there was little land in
england available but here's what happened wealthy plantation owners who were paying the passage for
indentured servants to come over here would take the indentured servant's head rights as soon
as they arrived in america so plantation owners could basically build plantations overnight say
a plantation owner paid for a family of a father mother and two children that would equal 200 acres
of land they would get problem was indentured servants contracts would run out and eventually
they would be free from being under the plantation owners and you can guess what they wanted when
their contract was done they wanted their land and so william berkeley had been the governor of
the virginia colony for many years and in 16 in the 1640s william berkley had been the governor
over the virginia colony for many years and in the 1640s he had made a deal with area native american
tribes that gave him a large piece of land which he basically divvied up among some of his friends
and in exchange for this land berkeley promised to limit the movement of colonists westward
and stop them from taking native american lands to the west in virginia now enter nathaniel bacon
in 1674 he arrived in america and purchased a plantation near jamestown bacon came from a
prestigious family in england and was related to sir francis bacon who was a well-known statesman
back in england bacon was quickly put on governor berkeley's council but very soon they began to
butt heads because berkeley and him disagreed over the treatment of native americans nathaniel bacon
argued for moving further west in taking native american land while berkeley abided by the deal
he had made with native americans years before so basically bacon was upset that berkeley would not
allow him and other settlers to attack native americans and take their land so you know not
a very just cause but nonetheless bacon began to gain more followers many of the former indentured
servants who were getting out of their contracts and had no land of their own became supporters of
bacon and his plan to get more land pushing to the west in virginia bacon also argued that the
safety of the colonists was in jeopardy because of berkeley's policies well you can probably guess
what happened some colonists began to attempt to settle into this western frontier virginia
and they end up being attacked by native americans and that was all it took for
bacon and his followers to start the rebellion in early 1676 bacon organized about 60 colonists and
they began conducting their own raids of native american villages killing men women and children
after these raids the house of burgesses remember the first representative body in america
met and passed what was known as bacon laws that took some power away from governor berkeley and
also gave voting rights to men who didn't own land and they hoped this would be enough to satisfy
bacon and his growing rebellion but it was not bacon and about 500 followers marched on jamestown
and demanded that bacon be given permission to attack native americans with his new little army
governor berkley refused as bacon and berkeley openly argued in the streets of jamestown
members of the house of burgesses were threatened and then agreed to bacon's demands
bacon continued his raids on native american villages throughout the late summer of 1676
as governor berkeley organized his own militia to put down the rebellion so bacon and berkeley's
forces began to clash and on september 19 1676 bacon and his militia marched on jamestown burning
it to the ground and forcing governor berkeley to abandon the capital and run and now bacon was in
charge but within weeks nathaniel bacon would die of dysentery on october 26 and the rebellion would
begin to fall apart after his death berkeley's forces began to fight back and shortly after the
entire rebellion was over and berkeley was back in control and 23 of the leaders of the rebellion
were rounded up and executed and not long after that governor berkley was actually taken out of
control by king charles ii who feared a civil war breaking out in the colonies but now you might
be asking yourself why is this rebellion even important in history berkeley remained in power
bacon didn't achieve what he hoped to achieve but here's the terrible unintended outcome of
the rebellion plantation owners became very fearful of using indentured servants for labor
most of the rebels fighting were former indentured servants wanting land and so plantation owners
wanted a labor force that would never be out of their contracts and would never get land
hence you can guess what we see a significant rise in enslaved africans being forced to work
on these plantations so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you