[They Say] Bacon's Rebellion

Nathaniel Bacon and many angry and poor colonists started a rebellion against the government and the Indians in Virginia, in the year of 1676. Governor William Berkeley wanted to keep peace between the Native Americans and the colonists. However, the colonist’s felt they were treated unfairly and wanted to get back at the government and the Natives. In Bacon’s Declaration (1676), he states, “for having protected, favored, and emboldened the Indians against his Majesty’s loyal subjects…” (4.) Basically, Bacon is mad at the government for not letting the colonists expand on the Indian land. Moreover, the colonists didn’t like the way the colony was being run. Similarly, in Puglisi’s article, “Whether They Be Friends or Foes: The Roles and Reactions of Tributary Native Groups Caught in Colonial Conflicts” he explains, “The frontier colonists were apparently dissatisfied with government efforts to protect their new settlements.”(77) Instead of putting more attention on the colonists, the government tried keeping peace between the natives and the colonists, and at the same time feared rebellion. The times were hard for many colonists and they felt the government let them down. In Howard Zinn’s and Rebecca Stefoff’s book “A Young Peoples History of the United States,” Zinn and Stefoff say, “He probably cared more about fighting Indians than about helping the poor.”(37) In making this comment, the colonists felt that he was on their side. Even though, we don’t know if Bacon really did care about the land more than the poor people, we can conclude that if it wasn’t for Bacon stepping up to the plate, there probably wouldn’t have been a rebellion against the Indians and the government at that time.