SLAVERY IN THE COLONIAL ERA: HOW DID IT EVOLVE?Please read the following pages thoughtfully in order to respond to the questions throughout.In the 1600s, 3 out of every 4 migrants to the Chesapeake/Virginia was a white indentured servant.As whiteindentured servants began to grow in number in the Chesapeake and earn their freedom, the richplanter class faced a problem: 6 out of 7 men were propertyless, impoverished and had little prospectof obtaining a wife or land. They were also armed and had begun to attack the rich planter class(Bacon’s Rebellion).Bacon’s Rebellion was a 1676 Virginia uprising of poor farmers, indentured servants, and free andenslaved Africans against the Governor and the Virginia government. The leader, Nathaniel Bacon,was a plantation owner and planter who disliked Governor Berkeley and who wanted to benefit fromthe profitable fur trade that was often controlled by local Native American tribes. Bacon led attacks onlocal Native Americans in an attempt to drive them off western lands that could be opened up to morefarmers.He and his followers marched on Jamestown, burning the Virginia capital. The question is,why did these men join Bacon in his rebellion? What were their motives?Several events and developments surrounded the rebellion:●More indentured servants were living out their contracts, meaning they were owed 50 acres ofland to start their own farms●Governor Berkeley proposed building defensive forts to protect against Native Americanattacks, but said they would have to raise taxes to build them●The price of tobacco, the major crop of Virginia, had decreased, meaning planters were notmaking as much money off their tobacco harvestsShortly after the rebellion began, Nathaniel Bacon died from illness. Governor Berkeley quickly putdown the rebellion and had 23 of the rebels executed by hanging.Throughout history, owners of slaves have always feared violent slave uprisings.In Virginia, ownersfaced the additional fear of African slaves teaming up with poor Englishmen to overthrow therich planter class. The wealthy planter class needed to create a system that could separate thetwo groups - they needed poor Englishmen to feel more connected to rich planters thanAfrican slaves.In a sense, they needed to invent the concept of the “white race” that would bindpoor Englishmen with upper-class Englishmen. Virginia passed a series of laws that accomplishedthat objective. The primary purpose these laws served was to create a rigidracially-basedslavesociety that would come to distinguish itself from all previous forms of slavery in world history.
