The Impact of Bacon’s Rebellion on Indentured Servants and Slaves

Introduction

Bacon’s Rebellion proved to be a turning point during the colonial United States because it was a sudden revolt from Indentured Servants and slaves. Although the rebellion failed, it caused panic among the elite Virginians and forced the elite to create countermeasures regarding slave revolts and drastically lowered their need of indentured servants, ultimately leading to a significant increase in demand for slaves.

The question now becomes, how did Bacon’s Rebellion change indentured servitude during the 18th century United States? Bacon’s rebellion caused a domino effect in Virginia by showing collective power. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the cause of Bacon’s Rebellion and the effect it had on indentured servitude.

Advertisement of Runaway Slaves and Servants (1738)

The document reveals to the reader the harsh relationship between servant and master as well as slave and master, to the extent that slave-owners and masters put bounties on the runaway’s head valued at several shillings or pounds by the captor. A brief description of the runaways was also given such as the color of their clothes, the physical condition of the person, age, race, nationality, name, and even their given alias.

In the list, most of the runaways were white European servants, the slaves were singled out in the description of the runaway list. There were significant differences between the slaves and servants, for example, race, constriction to their master, as well as treatment from their owner. Their desire for freedom allowed for the opportunity for both White servants as well as slaves to work together. These advertisements also explained brief descriptions of the escapees.

Liberating Indentured Servants (1784)

The idea of liberty is portrayed in this document as exclusive to the White population. The increased demand for slavery in the post-Revolutionary United States, especially the slave-dependent South. Considering that ships of indentured servants were liberated, and the ships of the slaves ignored, the document draws the line between freedom and slavery that spans even after the 1800s.

The document also points out an obvious statement regarding the idea of white exclusivity of freedom considering that the country is based on so-called liberty for the people when in fact, the majority of the minority population were not considered for the idea of American liberty all because of the established White superiority.

Bacon’s rebellion caused a domino effect among the elite in Virginia by showing a powerful and collective movement. The rebellion was eventually put down, it created a powerful notion of fear on the collective power of people. Although the desire for freedom between Indentured Servants and Slaves were the same during the early 19th century, the conditions changed drastically in the post-revolutionary United States due to recognition of freedom, ideas of emancipation, and liberation.

During the 1740s there were a number of incidents where slaves and indentured servants escaped, and on some occasions, they escaped alongside each other and disregarded their indifferences. “Sometimes they escaped together despite racial differences between them and the fact that slaves served for life and servants would gain their liberty after a number of years”.

That in post-revolutionary United States on so-called liberty, it was the interest of some Americans to free a ship full of Indentured Servants to be freed because it contradicted the idea of freedom that was established and fought for, even though a considerable amount of Blacks have fought in the same war yet were still subject to slavery and deprived of freedom and basic rights “Is contrary to the feelings of a number of respectable citizens, and to the idea of liberty this country so happily established”. The hypocrisy was obvious in the perspective of law and treatment between Indentured Servants and Slaves, even though at one time, both groups were escapees of their own master and escaped hand in hand.

The idea of freedom from bondage was apparent during the advertisements for both Indentured Servants and slaves were already existent. In only a span of fifty years, the White man doing slave labor was seen as a horrible thing, but the Black slaves were seen as normal. The idea of escaping could possibly have been from the other rebellions that were happening with the Native population against the European settlers.

Foreign influences could also be considered, for example, the head-on warfare between “Maroon” Jamaicans against their British owners forced the British to create a law for the freedom of Jamaicans “maroons waged outright warfare against British authorities until a treaty of 1739 recognized their freedom”. Considering that the Advertisements of Runaway Slaves and Servants were published during 1738, the idea of resistance possibly spread throughout the colonial United States and motivated said Servants and Slaves during the 1740s and 1750s, motivating minority groups to rebel.

The case for the treatment of Slaves and Indentured Servants in the post-revolutionary United States were worlds away. Although liberty after the war favored the White man, the chaos also gave some slaves the opportunity to acquire freedom through understanding from their owners “The war left much of the South in ruins. During the 1780s a considerable number of slaveholders … voluntarily emancipated their slaves”. It was also recorded that a number of slaveowners were aware of the immorality of slavery and its polarity with the war for independence. Some slaveowners even went to the point of dividing his land to share with the other freed slaves they have previously owned “Robert Carter III, a member of Virginia’s wealthiest … provided emancipation for more than 400 slaves he owned”.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there were many obstacles that faced Slaves and Indentured Servants, even though Indentured Servitude ended sixty years prior to the American Civil War, it was seen to both parties as a struggle from the freedom of bondage. The general public and the government more so recognized the struggles of the Servants and not so much from the perspective of the slaves, and was hypocritical and immoral, even by some slaveowners themselves.

Arguably rooted from Bacon’s rebellion during the 18th century, which caused a tremendous amount of changes regarding the treatment of laboring people, it stemmed from the idea of resistance from tyranny and bondage and gave both Slaves and Servants a desperately needed desire for the pursuit of happiness. These events happened generations ago and are still studied meticulously by students and historians, these struggles of slavery and freedom may be far fetched during present times, but its roots of hatred and discrimination are still ever-present in society. Issues regarding bias and stereotypes in the government against specific ethnic groups.

A very apparent root from the distinction between slavery and freedom from centuries ago, see the effects of it in modern times with violent white supremacist groups fueled by leaders in government, an agenda-pushing against asylum and compassion towards people who are in need of help and discrimination against the workers of America, not only from white nationalists and the general population, but the President himself. As Bacon’s rebellion was important during the late 1600s, it is also important for today’s society to rebel against what is wrong and understand liberty as to how the founding fathers intended them to be, freedom for all people and not just limited to a certain population.