Bacon’s Rebellion

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September 19, 2026

350 years ago, on September 19, 1676, Nathaniel Bacon and his
followers burned Jamestown - the capital of the Virginia Colony,
Virginia lawmakers would respond by making sure poor men would
not again make common cause by passing laws to divide them along
racial lines, A year before Bacon's Rebellion, raids by both the
Virginia militia and the Susquehannocks inflamed a power struggle
in the colony, Since the colony’s beginning, there had been a
clear line between men with land and power and those who worked
for them, Enslaved people and indentured white workers worked and
socialized together, and as their community grew, they migrated
west, They resented the eastern government that seemed to ignore
their interests, Nathaniel Bacon created a powerful coalition
that marched on Jamestown, protesting taxes and corruption, They
held Jamestown for several months before they were forced
to retreat, When they tried to recapture the town they ended up
burning it, The rebellion fell apart after Bacon's death a month
later, and the crisis convinced the wealthy elite of Virginia to
drive wedges between Black slaves and white servants to avoid
anything like it from happening, They gave legal rights and
protections to white servants and made it costly for white and
Black Virginians to socialize, Black Americans were bound more
tightly into slavery while white Virginians were convinced that
they were independent.

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