History Essay Rough Draft #1

Angela Kim

October 15, 2007

Writing 101

History Essay Rough Draft #1

Bacon’s Rebellion - Class

Over the years, class distinctions have been a key source of determining who does what. Even now, in modern day, class distinctions are still a major part of lives everywhere. During the time of Bacon’s Rebellion, the status that a person obtained decided where and how that person would live and work. “Bacon’s rebellion illustrated the tensions between white and Indian, planter and slave, and have and have-not in the colony, tensions made worse by an economic depression that must have seemed without end (http://www.cliffnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/Chesapeake-Colonies-Virginia-Maryland.topicArticleId-25073.articleId-25011.html).” Although class, now, is determined by status and education, back then, it was based upon the family/group you were born in to.

Class distinctions influenced the base support for Bacon and colonial authorities because the status and position for a certain person during the time of Bacon’s Rebellion, was determined by that person’s race, class, education, wealth, family, etc. Governor Sir William Berkeley was a veteran of the English Civil Wars, a frontier Indian fighter, a King’s favorite in his first term as Governor in the 1640s, a playwright, and a scholar. Therefore, Governor Berkeley would be known as part of the elite. Nathanial Bacon was troublemaker and schemer, but he was also quite intelligent and eloquent, which by the way he was also Berkeley’s cousin by marriage. Although Bacon is not part of such a high stature as Berkeley may be, Bacon was still living a “better” life. A mishmash of the different classes caused an uprising that was meant to “correct” the colonists’ injustices, “which caused feelings that were both “anti-aristocrat” and “anti-Indian” that shows the struggles people felt due to their race and their class (http://www.helium.com/tm/440347/bacons-rebellion-place-during).” What I wonder most about this was, what makes the “elite” think that the colonists had done wrong, where they feel the need to “correct” them? Not only that, but how did they determine whether or not the colonists did do wrong or right? In my opinion, I believe that once power was given to those of the higher class, they took advantage of that power and bossed the colonists around because they were inferior to them.

The elite became instigators because they believed that they had the right to “pick on” those who were beneath them, which caused a feud to arise. They may be of a higher class than others, but no need to get cocky and conceited about it. These difficulties encouraged the colonists to find a scapegoat to put all their frustrations on and place the blame for their misfortunes. First came the elite, then the colonists, and then the Indians. Unfortunately, colonists found their scapegoat in the form of the local Indians. Because the colonists had been treated badly by the higher class, they started to treat the Indians the exact same way. I believe that the way people are treated, shapes and forms the way they treat others. For example, if a child had been abused by their parents, as that child grows up and becomes a parent of its own offspring, most likely the baby will also get abused. In the parent’s mind, they believe that that is the only way to punish their kid because that is the way that that parent had been punished when growing up. Those that are favored are spared. Bacon believed that Governor Berkeley had played favorites, so he reported the Governor publicly. Before that, Berkeley had “denied him a commission as a leader in the local militia (http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html)”, so he was already pretty ticked off. Eventually, they went off to their separate ways and Bacon was “elected General of a group of local volunteer Indian fighters because he promised to bear the cost of the campaigns (http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html).”

The people needed a leader to let their voices be heard, and so Bacon was a man for the people, while Berkeley was a man for the government. Although “Berkeley’s policy was to preserve the friendship and loyalty of the subject Indians while assuring the settlers that they were not hostile (http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html),” things just did not turn out the way he wanted things to be. In order to resolve the issue, Berkeley called for an assembly known as the “Long Assembly”, in March 1676. Unfortunately, it was accused of corruption because of its ruling regarding trade with the Indians. Berkeley was not necessarily a bad person; he was just a man of power and many ideas, who did not really know how to use them in a way that would satisfy everyone.

The intentions of both Bacon and Berkeley may have been good at the beginning, but this rebellion nearly caused the destruction of the Chesapeake society. “What began as an external conflict with the American Indians, rapidly developed into a domestic insurrection among predominantly western settlers who rejected the accommodationist policies of the eastern establishment (http://www.bookrags.com/research/bacons-rebellion-aaw-01).” Many of the colonial authorities favored slavery because they thought it ensured a more stable and free society. But of course, for the slaves, they would disagree because they are the ones doing all the hard work. Not only that, but slaves also were not given many rights or freedom. So then why would the authorities believe that slavery made a more free society?

As I have mentioned before, in Modern life today, class still plays a major role because the class distinctions label who a person may be on the “outside”. It is said that “one’s class is determined largely by: occupation, education and qualifications, income, personal, household and per capita, wealth or net worth, including ownership of land, property, means of production, etc. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class).” For example, if there was a job opening at Boeing for one position, and there were two applicants that qualified; one from white center who graduated from public schools, and one from Medina who graduated from Lakeside, who would they give the job to? The obvious choice to go with would be the one living in Medina because he/she has a higher status, good family background, and a better education. To others, the “better” one would be classified as the upper middle class or upper class, while the other person would be the lower middle class or working class. According to my research, the different stages/types of classes that made sense to me were: upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, working class, and lower class. The upper class is for those big hot shots; some of the elite groups during the 17^th century would belong to this class, and if not, then to the upper middle class. The lower middle class and working class would be the colonists. Lastly, the lower class would be the Indians.

For those that belonged to the lower side of the bar, they had to endure through many hardships; not by choice. If one was born from a slave, their whole life will be tough because of their family background and status. If one was born from one of those who belonged to the elite, their whole life will have many easy-way-outs. The life that one lived during Bacon’s Rebellion was all determined by class at the instant of when you were born. And even someone with great power can not change the way things were by themselves. Even now, the decided class that a person is placed in can say a lot about that one person.