Bacons Rebellion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Bacons Rebellion - Essay Example This reality struck the manipulative white class which controlled the disadvantaged class. As is shown in the picture below, whites and blacks are together preoccupied by a mission, however offensive it may be. The picture shows white Virginia settlers and amidst them there are also black men. The man on extreme right beating the drum is a black rebel who like other men in the picture is provoked by Bacon to set Jamestown on fire. The supporters Bacon gathered around himself to thwart Berkeley for personal reasons were a mix of whites and blacks. The image above also shows that Bacon, though leading the rebellion for personal motives, unconsciously demonstrated to the ruling white class that poor whites and blacks could be unified for a solid cause. The whites and blacks who would never stand close to one another struck up an alliance which sent out a very clear message to the rich Virginia colonists. There is a message of unity emanating from this picture and this message frightened the rich white class. This unity between poor white and black social groups motivated the ruling elites to turn whites against black servants by inculcating a sense of racial hatred in them. This also motivated them to incapacitate poor blacks by the aid of slavery. It was due to this alliance between whites and blacks in the Bacon’s rebellion that the rich white planters set out on creating distances between them by very strategically extending more benefits to the disadvantaged whites. Giant masses of Negro slaves and white servants bonded during the course of Bacon’s rebellion. They allied against rich whites of Virginia because Bacon promised them equal rights and independence from economic contraction. It is not a general consensus that Bacon only instigated this rebellion for personal benefits (Rothbard 2012). Bacon might have had some good reasons too to start a rebellion on such a large scale as was believed by a large number of whites and