To understand the significance of Bacon's rebellion in 1675-1676 and the origin of racism in America you have to backtrack to 1660 when the economy of Virginia was declining. However, thousands of indentured servants continued to give to the colony believing it would better their condition in a "Growing Country. Instead, it was only going from bad to worse. In 1670, the Governor William Berkeley and the House of Burgesses coerced all landless freemen in a belief that they were the source of trouble which only increased the anger of the freemen. Four years later Nathaniel Bacon originally an English aristocrat came to the colony. Berkeley denied Bacon a license to engage in the fur trade, which was only open to the governor and his friends, Bacon was furious. In 1675 when Indians attacked the settlers for some of …show more content…
When Berkeley declared that Bacon and his men were rebels, Bacon, in turn, attacked Jamestown twice. After Bacon died Berkeley with the help of regular British troops that Charles II sent out regained control. Understanding the history of Bacon's rebellion is important for how it portrayed and affected race similarities that still occur to this day. In the rebellion the lower class white made a common cause with blacks under Nathaniel Bacon and after the rebellion, government policy faked a trans-class white identity to separate the blacks and Indians. Blacks, mulattoes, and Indians were classed together as a social outcast eligible for enslavement. The government passed laws to support repugnance for them by all classes of 'Christians' (the whites). In 1680 free blacks and Christian although baptized were banned from owning white servants and received thirty lashes for a slave hitting any Christian in 1705 and from there on racism and slavery