Bacon's Rebellion thesis rough draft

I believe as many others do that the government was corrupted. It was started in 1693 when William Berkeley was appointed governor of Virginia. At the time he was a well respected man, but over time he became more and more greedy as his personality characteristics changed. In the 1600’s Virginia was suffering under England’s government horrendously. The English government was enduring them with taxes that served no purpose, other than to prosper. Bacon’s rebellion was the effect of a clash of wrongs and mishaps caused by unjust government with public security, and unsuitable taxes.


Back in 1645 Virginia had a poll tax that replaced the property tax. The poll tax was to tax people based on their income, so one would think that the rich were being taxed more than the poor right? Well matter of fact it was quite the opposite. In document #7 of the royal commissioners narrative states, “ [W]hereas there are some great persons both in honor rich in Estate and have several ways of gains and profit [that] are exempted from paying Levies and the poorest inhabitants being compelled to pay the great taxes which we are burdened with.” Which proves that the rich were being taxed less than the poor.


An example of a trade tax would be the poll trade tax, which had the poor paying more taxes than the rich. The government was, ‘nickel and dimeing’ them with things such as the beaver the trade, which was outrageously over charging colonists. The only reason for this high priced fur, was simply because the English government had a monopoly on it. To many of these colonists, it felt like their government left them sitting in the dark.


To show that England still did care about the settlers in the new world, they gave them a great gift called, ‘The Navigation Laws.’ Which required that the planters should buy from England all the European goods that might be needed, and should bring them over to Virginia in English ships. The effect was to compel the settlers to sell their tobacco at whatever price the English merchants were willing to pay out, and to buy their goods at whatever price the English merchant saw suitable to charge. You’ve got to love the English for their generosity! Not…


The quitrent was a land tax that the King originally imposed and that was regulated by acts of Parliament. The basic English land laws under which the people of colonial Virginia gained title to their land required the owners to pay to the English government a quitrent of two shillings for each hundred acres of land. If a landowner failed to pay the quitrent for a specific number of years, the English government had the right to take back the land and grant it or sell it to another person. The money raised by this tax went into the royal treasury and was used to pay the expenses of the royal government in the colony. Which supports my fact that the government was unjust with unsuitable taxes because all the money was going right into the King’s pocket, no benefit to the people once again. This is the origin of the modern system of land taxes in Virginia.


But things get better, even when the colony was in grave danger from all of the Native American attacks, Governor Berkeley didn’t let the people kill Indians. One of the reasons for this is because Governor Berkeley was gaining person wealth from trading with the Indians. With all of the selfishness of the government, it really looked like that their own government was against them.


Looking aside from all of these taxes, governor Berkeley without a doubt was still looking for ways to benefit himself. The way he did this without taxes was that he did not protect the new settled Virginia people from the savage Indians that were ruthlessly killing them. These Indians were killing indentured servants in planting fields but William Berkeley didn’t do anything about it because he wanted to keep having the people trading with the Indians because he benefited from it. Some would argue that the only reason why berekeley did this was because he wanted the Native Americans to just get along to build the economy. Based on all that I’ve said before this, we all know Berkeley was thinking is, “Money talks.” Meaning that money is the only thing that is going to show his power, so that’s what he was headed for.


One man that was sick of the corruption in the government and the murderous Indians, his name was Nathaniel Bacon. He had sympathy for his fellow colonists and decided to take a stand against the Indians after they had killed a servant in his plantation. He took a stand for his colony and chose to call them on it. He was devoted to the pure patriotic liberty principle. Nathaniel Bacon did this by writing his own letter of complaints to King James. It was called, Nathaniel Bacon’s, ‘Declaration of the people.’