Bacons Rebellion
Why did the Frontier Burn?
start >
1676 AD
Why do you think poor settlers rebeled?
📜Excerpt from Nathaniel Bacon’s Declaration of the People (1676)
- “For having, upon specious pretenses of public works, raised great unjust taxes upon the commonalty for the advancement of private favorites and other sinister ends, but no visible effects in any measure adequate.
- “For having protected, favored, and emboldened the Indians against his Majesty’s loyal subjects, never contriving, requiring, or appointing any due or proper means of satisfaction for their many invasions, robberies, and murders committed upon us.”
- “For having, when the army of English was just upon the track of those Indians, who now in all places burn, spoil, murder... expressly countermanded and sent back our army by passing his word for the peaceable demeanor of the said Indians.
- “We accuse Sir William Berkeley as guilty of each and every one of the same, and as one who has traitorously attempted, violated, and injured his Majesty’s interest here by a loss of a great part of this his colony and many of his faithful loyal subjects by him betrayed.”
- Think: Which quote that stands out to you?
- Pair: Discuss with a partner—“What is Bacon angry about? Who is he blaming?”
- Share: Report out—Which quote best shows why frontier settlers rebelled?
🏛️Who Held Power in Virginia?
Prompt: “Looking at this chart, how democratic was colonial Virginia?” Think About: “Whose voices were included or excluded in Virginia’s government? Think About: What impact might this have on labor and social unrest?”
Think-Pair-Share Questions:
“What demographic shift do you see between 1640 and 1710?” “How might land access affect labor systems?”
Interactive question 1
Why Did the Growth of Virginia’s African Population Slow in the 1660s?
Planters Still Relied on Indentured Servants
Bacon’s Rebellion Was a Turning Point
Limited Access to the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Information
Information
Information
Guided Viewing questions
- Answer the questions on the document provided Below.
- Please make a copy and name it (Your Name)_Bacons_Rebellion_Video_Questions
Student Questions
Interactive question 2
Interactive question 3
Interactive question 4
⚖️Slave Codes⚖️ Institutionalizing Race
Prompt: “When did slavery become about race?”
🧭 Historical Context
- Prior to the 1660s, the status of African laborers in Virginia was ambiguous; some enslaved Africans could sue for freedom, own land, or gain release.
- As demand for labor grew and Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) exposed the danger of poor white unrest, planters turned to African slavery as a more controllable alternative.
- The 1705 Slave Code consolidated earlier laws and marked the legal division of society by race.
📚 Why Were the Codes Significant?
- Institutionalized Racism: They legally divided people by race, not just class.
- Eliminated Common Cause: By giving poor whites more rights than Black laborers, elites prevented interracial uprisings like Bacon’s Rebellion.
- Secured Elite Power: Planters could now control labor, inherit wealth, and defend their authority with legal backing.
Slave Codes
Current Events Analogy
On the West Side of Chicago, three people sit at a table: President Trump, a symbol of wealth and political power; Luis, a recent Latino immigrant seeking safety and opportunity; and DeShawn, a young African American resident whose neighborhood has long suffered from underfunded schools, redlining, and disinvestment. On the table are 100 cookies, representing public resources like housing, education, jobs, and community funding. Without much fuss, President Trump grabs 99 cookies for himself—through tax cuts for the wealthy, real estate deals, and policies that benefit elites like him. Then he turns to DeShawn and whispers, “Watch out—Luis is trying to steal your cookie.” Distracted and frustrated, DeShawn sees Luis as the threat, not realizing that it was Trump who took nearly everything. This leaves the two men—both struggling—divided and blaming each other, while the one with real power walks away untouched. This story echoes what happened in colonial Virginia after Bacon’s Rebellion, when the planter elite used slave codes to divide poor whites from enslaved Africans—ensuring the rich stayed in power by pitting laborers against each other based on race.
🟥 What Is Redlining? Redlining refers to the practice of denying loans, mortgages, or insurance to people living in certain neighborhoods—usually Black or immigrant communities—by literally drawing red lines around them on maps created by the federal government and banks.
Race-Based Laws vs. Class-Based Laws
On the following pages, you will determine if the quote is a Race-Based Law or a Class-Based Law.
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🔗Tying the ICE Raid to the Division Strategies
In colonial Virginia, the slave codes legally divided “white servants” from “enslaved Africans,” granting small privileges to whites to discourage solidarity across laboring classes. The planter elite used those laws to protect their power by separating poor whites from Blacks—even if both groups suffered exploitation.Fast forward to today: in Chicago on Oct 3, 2025, ICE conducted a militarized overnight raid in a South Shore apartment building, detaining dozens of migrants—many Latino—and reportedly using helicopters, flashbangs, force, and rounding up children and adults.
- Many of those arrested were Latino immigrants, facing state and federal enforcement.
- The raid created fear and suspicion not just among immigrant communities, but among broader urban neighborhoods.
- At the same time, many Black Chicago residents, especially on the West Side, already face systemic disinvestment, policing, housing instability, and resource scarcity.
The dynamic here mirrors the colonial pattern: elites (national political power, federal agencies) deploy laws, enforcement, and messaging that isolate immigrant Latinos as “others” or threats, which can distract from shared grievances about inequality, disinvestment, policing, and the allocation of public resources. Meanwhile, systemic issues (housing, jobs, policing) left unequally distributed across Black neighborhoods continue largely unchallenged at the structural level. In short: just as slave codes legally entrenched racial divisions to protect elite interests, modern enforcement and rhetoric (e.g. targeting immigrants, harsh raids) can sow division between marginalized groups (Black communities, Latino immigrants), making it harder to unite around common causes—while the underlying power dynamics remain intact.
The story behind the story
✍️ APUSH Short Answer Question (SAQ)
Answer all parts: a) Briefly explain ONE way elites in colonial Virginia used legal or social systems to protect their economic power. b) Briefly explain ONE similarity between the foreclosure/raid event in Chicago and elite strategies used in colonial America. c) Briefly explain ONE difference in how law or government power was used in the two cases.
🔑Key Provisions of the 1705 Virginia Slave Code
- Status Based on Race and Heredity
- “All servants imported and brought into this country... who were not Christians in their native country... shall be accounted and be slaves.”
- Enslaved status was passed from mother to child, making slavery hereditary.
- Legal Inequality by Race
- Black people, whether enslaved or free, could not bear arms, serve in militias, or testify against white people in court.
- Brutal Physical Control Permitted
- If an enslaved person was killed during “correction” or punishment, the owner could not be charged with murder.
- Differential Treatment of White Servants
- White indentured servants retained limited legal protections, such as court-monitored punishment and eventual release.
- Ownership Rights Over Enslaved People
- Enslaved Africans were treated as real property, like land or livestock.
📖Story: The Foreclosure Waiting Game
On Chicago’s South Side, a large apartment building stood locked in legal limbo. Its owner, a company called Trinity Flood, had defaulted on its mortgage, and Wells Fargo, the bank that held the loan, had filed a $27 million foreclosure lawsuit. But even with the paperwork in motion, things moved slowly. As long as the building remained occupied — by tenants with leases or squatters with rights — Wells Fargo couldn’t easily take possession. Evictions are complicated. Tenants can appeal. And city housing codes require notice, inspections, and time.
Then, everything changed. One morning, the building was suddenly cleared. Its residents gone, its doors locked, its future wide open. Now, the foreclosure could move faster. There were no remaining legal claims to delay the transfer. No tenants to relocate. No protests to manage. Wells Fargo, one of the country’s largest banks, was now one step closer to regaining full control of the property — not through a sale, but through silence.
- Prior to 1672, English colonies like Virginia did not have consistent or large-scale access to enslaved Africans.
- The Royal African Company, which monopolized English trade in enslaved people, wasn’t chartered until 1672.
- Before that, Dutch, Portuguese, or illicit traders were sporadically supplying enslaved Africans—so imports were limited and unpredictable.
- In the 1660s, most Chesapeake planters still favored white indentured labor, which was cheaper and more familiar.
- Slavery existed, but it was not yet fully racialized or codified in law—hereditary, race-based slavery was only beginning to emerge (e.g., the 1662 Virginia law that said a child followed the status of the mother).
- The major spike in the African population came after 1676, when elite planters began replacing rebellious indentured whites with enslaved Africans seen as a more controllable labor force.
- So the 1670s mark a shift, but the 1660s were a “pause” before the surge.
Bacons Rebellion
Randal Wolfinger
Created on October 5, 2025
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Transcript
Bacons Rebellion
Why did the Frontier Burn?
start >
1676 AD
Why do you think poor settlers rebeled?
📜Excerpt from Nathaniel Bacon’s Declaration of the People (1676)
🏛️Who Held Power in Virginia?
Prompt: “Looking at this chart, how democratic was colonial Virginia?” Think About: “Whose voices were included or excluded in Virginia’s government? Think About: What impact might this have on labor and social unrest?”
Think-Pair-Share Questions:
“What demographic shift do you see between 1640 and 1710?” “How might land access affect labor systems?”
Interactive question 1
Why Did the Growth of Virginia’s African Population Slow in the 1660s?
Planters Still Relied on Indentured Servants
Bacon’s Rebellion Was a Turning Point
Limited Access to the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Information
Information
Information
Guided Viewing questions
Student Questions
Interactive question 2
Interactive question 3
Interactive question 4
⚖️Slave Codes⚖️ Institutionalizing Race
Prompt: “When did slavery become about race?”
🧭 Historical Context
- Prior to the 1660s, the status of African laborers in Virginia was ambiguous; some enslaved Africans could sue for freedom, own land, or gain release.
- As demand for labor grew and Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) exposed the danger of poor white unrest, planters turned to African slavery as a more controllable alternative.
- The 1705 Slave Code consolidated earlier laws and marked the legal division of society by race.
📚 Why Were the Codes Significant?Slave Codes
Current Events Analogy
On the West Side of Chicago, three people sit at a table: President Trump, a symbol of wealth and political power; Luis, a recent Latino immigrant seeking safety and opportunity; and DeShawn, a young African American resident whose neighborhood has long suffered from underfunded schools, redlining, and disinvestment. On the table are 100 cookies, representing public resources like housing, education, jobs, and community funding. Without much fuss, President Trump grabs 99 cookies for himself—through tax cuts for the wealthy, real estate deals, and policies that benefit elites like him. Then he turns to DeShawn and whispers, “Watch out—Luis is trying to steal your cookie.” Distracted and frustrated, DeShawn sees Luis as the threat, not realizing that it was Trump who took nearly everything. This leaves the two men—both struggling—divided and blaming each other, while the one with real power walks away untouched. This story echoes what happened in colonial Virginia after Bacon’s Rebellion, when the planter elite used slave codes to divide poor whites from enslaved Africans—ensuring the rich stayed in power by pitting laborers against each other based on race.
🟥 What Is Redlining? Redlining refers to the practice of denying loans, mortgages, or insurance to people living in certain neighborhoods—usually Black or immigrant communities—by literally drawing red lines around them on maps created by the federal government and banks.
Race-Based Laws vs. Class-Based Laws
On the following pages, you will determine if the quote is a Race-Based Law or a Class-Based Law.
00:30
00:30
00:30
00:30
00:30
00:30
00:30
00:30
00:30
00:30
🔗Tying the ICE Raid to the Division Strategies
In colonial Virginia, the slave codes legally divided “white servants” from “enslaved Africans,” granting small privileges to whites to discourage solidarity across laboring classes. The planter elite used those laws to protect their power by separating poor whites from Blacks—even if both groups suffered exploitation.Fast forward to today: in Chicago on Oct 3, 2025, ICE conducted a militarized overnight raid in a South Shore apartment building, detaining dozens of migrants—many Latino—and reportedly using helicopters, flashbangs, force, and rounding up children and adults.
The dynamic here mirrors the colonial pattern: elites (national political power, federal agencies) deploy laws, enforcement, and messaging that isolate immigrant Latinos as “others” or threats, which can distract from shared grievances about inequality, disinvestment, policing, and the allocation of public resources. Meanwhile, systemic issues (housing, jobs, policing) left unequally distributed across Black neighborhoods continue largely unchallenged at the structural level. In short: just as slave codes legally entrenched racial divisions to protect elite interests, modern enforcement and rhetoric (e.g. targeting immigrants, harsh raids) can sow division between marginalized groups (Black communities, Latino immigrants), making it harder to unite around common causes—while the underlying power dynamics remain intact.
The story behind the story
✍️ APUSH Short Answer Question (SAQ)
Answer all parts: a) Briefly explain ONE way elites in colonial Virginia used legal or social systems to protect their economic power. b) Briefly explain ONE similarity between the foreclosure/raid event in Chicago and elite strategies used in colonial America. c) Briefly explain ONE difference in how law or government power was used in the two cases.
🔑Key Provisions of the 1705 Virginia Slave Code
📖Story: The Foreclosure Waiting Game
On Chicago’s South Side, a large apartment building stood locked in legal limbo. Its owner, a company called Trinity Flood, had defaulted on its mortgage, and Wells Fargo, the bank that held the loan, had filed a $27 million foreclosure lawsuit. But even with the paperwork in motion, things moved slowly. As long as the building remained occupied — by tenants with leases or squatters with rights — Wells Fargo couldn’t easily take possession. Evictions are complicated. Tenants can appeal. And city housing codes require notice, inspections, and time.
Then, everything changed. One morning, the building was suddenly cleared. Its residents gone, its doors locked, its future wide open. Now, the foreclosure could move faster. There were no remaining legal claims to delay the transfer. No tenants to relocate. No protests to manage. Wells Fargo, one of the country’s largest banks, was now one step closer to regaining full control of the property — not through a sale, but through silence.