Question

Look up information on Bacon’s Rebellion from 1676.  Explain how Bacon’s Rebellion is the beginning of what W.E.B. Dubois called the color line.  How did black and white servants and workers live before the rebellion, and what changed afterward? How does this suggest that race is a proxy, or place holder, for class?

Answer 1

One of the most important and first rebellion in the colonies was organized by Nathaniel Bacon against the Governor of Virginia, Berkeley. When the settlers became discontented with the governor’s decision not to allow them to trade fur with the Native Americans, they joined as a small army irrespective of the classes and race in order to find a common ground. Although the rebellion was crushed, it is one classic example why the white people wanted to introduce race to have more control on other people. The white majority feared that the indentured servants would rebel against the authority along with other race, especially the African Americans because they both received the same treatment. They freed all the white people and brought them under a same race white and introduced slavery to dominate the Black people.

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