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Nathaniel Bacon and race relationship in colonial america

 

After retaliation by the British, the Native Americans mounted their last major act of armed resistance. This failed due to British awareness, preparedness, and superiority over the Native Americans. After peace was restored, the Native American population in the Chesapeake Bay area was down from eight thousand to two thousand. Later conflict between the Native Americans and the British occurred in 1676 when an English planter named Nathaniel Bacon organized an unauthorized force in Virginia to drive the Native Americans farther west. Bacon and his followers were frustrated that all the best tobacco land had already been taken by the wealthy and decided to drive the Indians west and settle on that land. Bacon's army consisted of other angry Virginian planters who wanted more land so they could grow more tobacco. When the British sent an army to stop Bacon, he reversed his aim and instead went after Jamestown. The sudden death of Bacon while trying to escape an attack from the British army put an end to one of America's first violent protest movements. One result of this rebellion was that it strengthened the elite group of the wealthy planters and government officials. They also realized that indentured servants would not be a reliable source of labor and that they needed enslaved people to work for them. They needed human beings who would never have a chance at freedom, own land, or protest the government. Bacon's rebellion also severed British relations with the Native Americans. The conflict between the British and the Native Americans broke into open hostility and as a result, King Philip's War. King Philip's War began around 1675 in the New England area. The two groups had hoped trade would ease the tensions but in the 1670's the peace came to an end. The English continued to destroy forests, put up fences, and create pastures for their cattle. This threatened the livelihood of the Native Americans, who lived by hunting game, gathering plants for food, and growing crops.


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