Pueblo Revolt & Bacon's Rebellion

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PUEBLO REVOLT & BACON’S REBELLION Both Bacon’s Rebellion and Pueblo Revolt showed the tensions that colonial society had. They both resulted from the stress and tension from the white settlers and Native Indians clashing. However, the tensions that caused the Bacon Rebellion go much deeper than the conflict between the Indians and the colonists in the Pueblo Revolt. BACON’S REBELLION In the Bacon Rebellion the main conflict was between Nathaniel Bacon, Jr. and his cousin by marriage, Governor Sir William Berkeley. Tensions were rising between the colonists and the Indians, the people were facing very hard economic times and were looking for a way out. The colonists found their scapegoat in the form of the local Indians. The trouble began in 1675 with a raid by the Doeg Indians on the plantation of Thomas Mathews, located in the Northern Neck section of Virginia near the Potomac River. Several of the Doegs were killed in the raid, which began in a dispute over the nonpayment of some items Mathews had apparently obtained from the tribe. Things got much worse when the colonists struck back, but they attacked the wrong Indians, the Susquehanaugs, which caused a large amount of Indian raids to start. Berkeley tried his best to calm things down between the Indians and the colonists, but Bacon would not have any of it. He wanted total control over the attacks on the Indians. He wanted to be able to do pretty much whatever he wanted without any control from anyone else. When he didn’t get it, he rebelled and took off on his own. Berkeley gave him chances to turn himself in, but Bacon refused. Finally, Bacon pretty much self destructed and went too far in his destruction and the people stopped backing him up. Order was finally restored but Jamestown was nearly destroyed because of it. Bacon’s Rebellion was basically a power struggle
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