Thesis/Essay 1 Final Draft

_____Bacon’s rebellion was the effect of unjust taxes and lack of protetion by the English government. The English government

was taxing the Virginia people with so many taxes that the people were becoming miserably poor and desperate. On top of all

this the Indians were stealing their goods, and killing the Virginians. 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 inflicting them with taxes that served no purpose, other than to prosper. One of these taxes that the

Virginians were being endured with was the Virginia poll tax.

_____The Virginia poll tax of 1645 had replaced the property tax. The poll tax was to tax people based on their income, but the

English government did quite the opposite. The poor were being taxed more than the rich. 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.” This means that people with a lot of land would be taxed less than the people without because

they had more ways of earning profit. I think in this situation it was not only wrong to tax the poor more than the rich, but it

was also stupid. If the English government were to tax the rich more, they would get more money out of them. This is only one

of the worst things the government did to its people, but not the only one. The next hinder of the Virginia people was the

trade taxes

_____An example of a poll tax trade would be the beaver trade, which outrageously over charging colonists for the price of

beaver fur. The only reason for this high priced fur, was simply because the English government had a monopoly on it. It was

hard for the colonists to pay these taxes and it felt like their government left them sitting in the dark.

_____An additional way to show that England’s government still did care about the settlers in the new world with their unjust

taxes was they gave them a law called, ‘The Navigation Laws.’ This law was directed to the planters. For a long time the

planters were very prosperous through their tobacco culture, some became very wealthy from it. Soon enough the navigation

laws were passed and 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. On top of all that they were still taxed for the ship. This was called the Ship Tax English government shouldn’t be

treating their people this way just because they are a 3 month trip away over water. These people still originated from England,

their government should have cared for them more.

_____Nevertheless another tax came along. It was called the, “quitrent.” This is the origin of the modern system of land taxes

in Virginia. 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. The money being gained from these taxes were going right back to the government officials. The New World people

weren’t receiving any benefit from these taxes.

_____Taxes in Virginia had gotten worse, 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

personal 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. Governor Berkeley tried making it better but in the wrong way, in the form of a unjust tax. The

hearth tax shows this. The hearth tax was an attempt to spread the suffering of the people. The heath tax was to charge

people according to their occupation. The tax was to create money for the army. Governor Berkeley wanted to make the people

safer with an army but it was hurting them more with the money they were paying.

_____Even that Governor Berkeley had good intentions with the hearth tax, he 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 Berkeley 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.’

_____The following June Nathaniel Bacon assembled a group of five hundred men leading them into Jamestown in what comes

to be known as bacon’s Rebellion. Nathaniel bacon had many supporters of his rebellion such as the Virginia planters. The

Virginia planters supported this because their indentured servants were being killed in the planter fields.

_____This rebellion and unjust taxes of Virginia relates to the present. Our government now is charging us with taxes that

people don’t want to pay also. Such as how some of our taxes go to the low income society. I disagree with this tax because of

how most people are just too lazy to get a job. People like this use the government to their advantage, they will use food

stamps and other supports from the government and use their own money for things that are unnecessary. The best example I

can give about this was when I was out in the parking lot at Wal-mart pushing carts as I sometimes do on the job. It was a

cold morning and there was a little fog in the air. As I was pushing these carts inside I happened to look back behind my

shouder to make sure there was no cars behind me before I made a wide turn. When I looked back I saw a new BMW 745Li. I

was very impressed with the car because I know it’s the largest luxury sedan BMW makes. I continued to the door with the

carts as I was still impressed with the car. I saw a Mexican lady and her 3 children come out of the car. I remember saying to

myself, “lucky,” as I saw them hop out. A little while later as I’m passing through the line of checkouts with the annoying

dinging I hear every time a item is checked, I see the same lady pocking around with the ATM machine. As I walk by the lady,

her daughter who was about ten years old or so asked me how to use the ATM machine for food stamp credit. I had no idea

what she wanted me to do so I directed her towards a manger as she is translating for her mom. As I happened to spot them

going back into their luxury car I was actually angry. Angry at the fact that money that I pay through taxes coming out of my

pay check and taxes from every day items actually helped that lady pay for her food. I saw absolutely no way that lady would

deserve to drive that 80,000 dollar car as she uses the state’s taxes to feed herself and her children. These taxes should be

monitored who they go towards, and the government should track their spending.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/bacon.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0805681.html

http://www.virginiaplaces.org/military/bacon.html

http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/local/va20_coltax.htm

http://colonialancestors.com/biographies/nathanielbacon.htm