Bacon's Rebellion

 

Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 is a very important moment in American History!  Interesting many historians say this was the first time Colonists showed upset and revolutionary resistance!  And thr revolution starts exactly 100 years later! 

 

Surprisingly you do not even need to know what happened at Bacon's Rebellion.  You need to know what came from it!  Plantation Owners began to distrust their Indentured Servants, and wanted a more reliable labor force. 

 

 

Starting in 1607 - the establishment of England's first settlement in the New World, Jamestown - plantation owners used indentured servants for labor.  The Spanish began enslaving the Natives right away, but the European diseases were killing them off by the millions!  So each European power had to figure out their labor force.  England went with Indentured Servants first.  Even though the first African slaves arrived in Jamestown in 1619.

 

 

Indentured Servants were Europeans who could not afford the payment to the New World.  So a wealthy plantation owner in the New World would pay their way.  In return they would work 3 to 5 years for the owner.  Once this system started going owners figured out this was a good system.  They had free labor!  So they instantly made it more difficult to get out of the Indentured Servant.  They made it ridiculously hard to gain their freedom. 

 

One good thing that came out of this was a large population came to the New World.  Many people took advantage of this opportunity.  But was this really an opportunity?   

 

 

After Bacon's Rebellion, Plantation Owners began to look at their Indentured Servants differently.  They did not trust them.  They wanted a more reliable and controllable labor force.  What was happening at this time in full force?  The Atlantic Slave Trade.  This was a negative effect of the Columbian Exchange.  So the owners made the switch, and stopped using their Indentured Servants and started using African Slaves!

 

In APUSH you need to know 3 Rebellions, and they happened in alphabetical order:

Bacon's Rebellion

Shay's Rebellion

Whiskey Rebellion