There was an uneven distribution of power, land and wealth among the colonists in Virginia during the seventeenth century. This played a large role in the rebellion set into play by Nathanial Bacon. Land was quite scarce in the Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia, so those who had it were set apart from those who simply did not. Since land was not distributed evenly, most colonists at the time were impoverished, or just very poor. A wave of envy swept over those who did not have the wealth to buy land nor the land to acquire such wealth. This caused the high class citizens to fear for their property and their lives. (1) Both the lack of a middle class and the high class’ obvious majority in Virginian government added to the high class’ fear and the low class’ anger. The class structure at the time of Bacon’s Rebellion led to the rebellion itself, and also had a hand in the events to follow. Some major aspects of this class structure are alive in the United States, to this day.
Bacon’s Rebellion largely revolved around the feelings that both the lower class colonists and farmers had towards the upper class plantation owners. For the most part, the lower class citizens of Virginia hated the class above them. A major portion of that hatred was due to the fact that the class of each individual citizen was directly given to them by their parents. In other words, colonists at the time were born into either power or poverty. Their class, in the seventeenth century, rarely shifted up or down on the social hierarchy, especially within the confines of the Virginia colony. The commoners envied the wealthy, both for their land and money, as well as their places of power among the rest of the colony. From this envy, resentment blossomed. The majority of the colonists in Virginia, the poorer farmers, wished that they had more land; due to their status as un-wealthy citizens, they could not achieve such a feat. This caused frustration and anger among the lower class population.
Such ideas caused a deafening uproar of confusion, and the feeling of being taken advantage of. Nathanial Bacon seized this moment in time, when the colonists were so angry, to fuel his own rebellion. He knew that the poor farmers needed more land, and was well aware of how much land was untouched by Englishmen to the west; the land he spoke of was being ‘unproductively’ inhabited by the Natives. With these thoughts in mind, utilizing his own power in the government, Bacon rallied up many farmers and indentured servants and set off. Monica R. Gisolfi put it into words rather well when she wrote how Nathanial Bacon went through farmlands with his gang of poor colonists and “gather[ed] slaves and indentured servants to join them.”(1) This quote effectively displays how deeply the poor colonists’ hate dwelled within them; that Bacon and his band of followers could walk onto someone’s land and simply swipe them away from their work. It also shows how tightly knit the poor farmers and indentured servants were, because they had no bonds with the wealthy strong enough to stop them. Not only does it display how together the lower class was, but also the schism between the rich and poor.
Prosperous land was so sparse, so few planters were able to generate enough profit to be referred to as high class plantation owners. Due to this rough distribution of land there was no middle class to speak of. (2) Also, this was a main factor causing the poor to stay poor. Those underprivileged farmers had neither the land, nor the money to rise up the hierarchical social ranking of the Virginia colony. The lack of valuable land meant that low class had no land to significantly increase their profits. These facts lead them to being unable to buy more land, because the ratio of citizens to available land was so high. Land must have cost a lot more money, seeing as it was so sparingly distributed. Another effect of the lack of available land was that wealthy land owners made up a small percentage of the population. Thus, the majority of the population was impoverished. Lack of a middle class made life harder for the poor citizens of Virginia, because in order to rise up the ranks of society, they had to increase their revenue almost tenfold. As stated earlier, the lower class was unable to reach ‘wealthy’ status among the Virginians. Indentured servants who lived out their servitude became free man, which posed another problem, because they had no money to buy land. Such men and women were freed into poverty. Their dreams of a glorious life in the New World were crushed by their lack of money and residency, which did nothing but expand the gap between the rich and the poor, and raise the potential farmer to land ratio.
Another threat to Virginia’s class structure, and point that directly affected the rebellion was that the elite farmland owners tended to hold government offices. As studies have shown, in the eighteenth century, four out of five of Virginia’s House of Burgesses’ most prestigious men held more than 10,000 acres of land each.(3) Many lower class land owners viewed this distribution of power as a conflict of interest. In The American Dream, Bacon is said to have claimed that the “elite planters operated the government for private gain.”(4) Nathanial Bacon was speaking against such a dishonorable act in Chesapeake’s society. Obviously, the rich wished to be richer, thus taking advantage of their positions of power. This enraged many commoners, who strongly needed more land, which the officials would not allow them to have. The Governor at the time, Berkley, was singled out among those who unfairly used their power. Nathanial told his followers that the governor was denying them access to the Natives’ land solely because he held substantial trades with them. This would be yet another example of how unstable the Chesapeake society was during the seventeenth century, and how it directly contributed to Bacon’s Rebellion. Poor colonists could not control their own fates because the rich held governmental positions, and they sought to destroy that restraint.
Though the rebellion was eventually crushed, things did get better in Chesapeake. The colonists, both rich and poor, banded together to defeat the Indians. This was necessary because the Native Americans were retaliating due to the English intruding on their territories, and taking their land. One thing that did not change was the planter elites’ positions of power. Their power in the colony was not limited, however, after the rebellion. As The American Promise states, “If anything [Bacon’s Rebellion] strengthened their power.”(4) Whether their stronghold over the Chesapeake society was positive or remained negative is irrelevant to the argument of class structure’s importance in the aftermath of Bacon’s Rebellion. The important part that cannot be overlooked is that the grandees still held their land and power after such a violent rebellion was raised geared towards them losing both.
Society began to stabilize after the rebellion took place. One huge help to the cause was that the ratio of people to land began to lower. Reasons for this ratio’s slip included both the introduction of slavery and the dwindling of English immigrants due to better economy in England. Also, the Virginian government stopped enforcing, harshly, the encroachment into Indian territories. This led to less animosity between classes as free men got more land from the Natives. Indentured servants were no longer coming into the colony after slavery was introduced. Also, a middle class began to shape as slavery increased profits substantially. All of these facts lessened the tension between the lower and high class citizens of the Virginia colonies.
Today, the separations between high, low and middle classes are still very distinct. Middle class is the most common in rural areas, but even this class is vastly separated from the high class citizens. Those on the top of the tier, such as computer programmers, royalty, and media icons have much more wealth than the average person in a first world country, such as America or England. Though lifestyles have changed drastically, the rich are still envied by the poor. This is simply because they have more wealth, power, and land, like in the seventeenth century. Like colonists in Virginia, Americans today plainly wish to have more land, money, freedom and power. Technology and times have changed, but the American dream has not. It is not likely to ever change, even as society becomes more progressive; the want for high social status is in human nature, it is not a necessity, nor is it necessarily life dependent, but the want for more will always be there.
It is clear to see that social classes have had major effects in the American lifestyles since before the seventeenth century. Bacon’s Rebellion is a concrete example on how an unstable class structure can lead to a discontented society. In both seventeenth century Chesapeake Bay and the Americas today, class is viewed as the amount of wealth acquired over one’s lifetime. Even in the contemporary United States, many government officials are viewed as corrupt. Like in the seventeenth century, some are said to have ‘bought’ their way into their positions, and are even accused as creating laws solely to benefit themselves. Technology, clothing and shelter styles have all changed, but class has played, and most likely always will play, a large part in social content. The fluid class structure in seventeenth century Virginia took the leading role in Bacon’s Rebellion. There were other adding components, but the social hierarchy of poor farmers and rich planters no doubt took center stage.
(1) http://caho-test.cc.columbia.edu/sim/15005.html, Bacon's Rebellion: Colonial Society and Politics, 1972
(2) http://www.wm.edu/niahd/journals/index.php?browse=entry&id=440, Jacqueline Woods, 2004
(3) The Invention of the White Race, by Theodore W. Allen, 1998
(4) The American Promise, by James L. Roark, Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson, Susan M. Hartmann, 2005
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