The Outline of Bacon

Title/Thesis:
The land grants being given out to the Indians by the Virginian government caused the mass tension between grandees and poor farmers that became the rebellion.
I. Land grants caused less land to be available to the freed servants, which started a growing dislike for the grandees.
A. The government being mostly land owners, was not affected by the restricted land because they already had all of the land they needed, whereas the freed servants needed to buy more land to survive.
1. “The treaty that concluded the war established policies toward the Indians that the government tried to maintain over the next 30 years……Had the Chesapeake population remained constant, the policy might have worked. But the number of land-hungry colonists, especially poor, recently freed servants, continued to multiply. In their quest for land, they pushed beyond the treaty limits of English settlement and encroached steadily on Indian land.” The American Promise, pg. 92.
a. The way the first sentence is put displays the idea that the government, which was all grandees at the time, did not need the land because they were attempting to uphold that treaty for at least 30 years.
b. The end of the quote states that the population kept growing due to the constant expansion of freed servants, who had come for land in the first place.
c. Being unable to get the land, they began to breach the Indian lands in order to fulfill their dreams of the New World.
II. Main Idea
B. Having to fight Indians every day in order to make a living, the poor farmers began to think that the government didn’t care about them.
2. “Governor Berkeley strove to treat American Indians equitably and to distinguish carefully between American Indian allies and foes. Regardless, many colonists, particularly those located on the western frontier, were deeply suspicious of all American Indians….. Indian relations were further exacerbated by a depressed tobacco economy, anger over what were perceived to be excessive taxes, and displeasure with the restrictions on trade as a result of England's Navigation Acts.” http://www.bookrags.com/research/bacons-rebellion-aaw-01/
a. As it says in the first part, Governor Berkley, head of the government, tried to keep good relationships with the Indians, where the poor farmers saw them as a major threat to their livelihood.
b. The government also put on seemingly excessive taxes while the economic demands for tobacco were going down, which didn’t help to improve their image with the poor farmers.
c. As a final annoyance to the farmers, England brought up the Navigation Acts, which took even more money from them.
d. The farmers were losing a lot of money, and it seemed to them that it didn’t affect the grandees in the government as much which kept things as they were.
III. Main Idea
C. After things began to look up for the poor farmers, Berkley attacked again, provoking the beast which was Bacon’s Rebellion.
3. “Hoping to maintain the fragile peace on the frontier in 1676, Governor Berkley declared Bacon a rebel, threatened to punish him for treason, and called for new elections of burgesses who, Berkley believed, would endorse his get-tough policy. To Berkley’s surprise, the election backfired. Almost all the old burgesses were voted out of office, their places taken by local leaders, including Bacon…..When Bacon learned that Berkley had once again branded him a traitor, he declared war against Berkley and the other grandees.” The American Promise, Pg. 93
a. Bacon, the leader of the poor farmers, had finally gotten in to the government and began to pass laws that benefitted the farmers.
b. Berkley, being pressured by the grandees, once again declared Bacon as a traitor, which finally pushed the poor farmers to war against the unfair higher class.
IV. Main Idea
D. Land grants prevented the quick, mass expansions of farmers in the Chesapeake Bay area.
4. As said in the first quote, the number of farmers who needed land multiplied after the treaty was made, which forced the farmers to push on the boundary lines.
a. The lack of land for farmers to use caused a better market for the grandees due to lack of competition, which increased the profit being made by the rich plantation owners.
b. The lack of land and lowered tobacco prices in England made it much harder for farmers to make a living.
V. Main Idea
E. The land grants added to the general hatred of the Indian people.
5. "Hostilities between colonists and American Indian tribes were omnipresent in the second half of the seventeenth century. In New England, Metacom's War devastated the landscape in 1675-76, and New Englanders were, according to Gary Nash, indeed fighting for their lives. At war's end several thousand colonists and twice as many Indians were dead. Twelve Puritan towns were destroyed and another forty attacked by the resisting tribes. Indian villages were even more devastated. The lessons of such a war reverberated throughout the colonies: Many Indian nations "were prepared to risk extinction rather than become a colonized and culturally imperialized people," and they would go to great lengths, particularly by banding together in confederation, to defend their way of life, their survival.” http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/us_labor_history/105076
a. People already hated the Indians due to the attacks they did against colonists in other regions.
b. The mindset that Indians would rather die than civilize, set the way most farmers treated the Indians, as an incurable pestilence that could only be held back for a while.
c. That is the reason farmers fought against the Indians, as well as the reason that they needed more land.
VI. Main Idea
F. A current example of government laws preventing the prosperity of a certain group of people is with illegal aliens.
6. “A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he:
* Assists an alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or
* Encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or
* Knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.” http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERENCE/AidAbetUnlawfulSec8USC1324.html
a. This summarizes a legal document that prevents people helping illegal aliens by punishment of law.
b. This law prohibits illegal aliens to come into the country or to be helped by anyone in this country, which prevents illegal immigrants to work in the U.S.
c. Like in Bacon’s times, the government passed a law that had a greatly negative effect on a group of people, almost to the extent of stopping them from working.