How Bacon’s Rebellion Kept Poor Americans Separate and Guaranteed Capitalism

Bacon’s Rebellion was one of the first times where rich White people convinced poor Whites that their whiteness made them better than impoverished Blacks, which continues to this day.

Photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash

In 1675, Nathaniel Bacon led an alliance between European indentured servants and Africans against the colonial upper class. The two groups, diametrically opposed in almost all ways, found unity in their fight against poverty. Bacon led the rebellion to Jamestown, Virginia where they were able to besiege the town against the colonial governor William Berkeley. Successfully scaring the colonial upper class into listening, the rebellion was resolved when the upper class convinced the poor Whites that they were better due to their whiteness.

The upper class responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery through the Virginia Slaves Codes Act of 1705. It was one of the first times in US history where the upper class preserved capitalism by creating a wedge between poor Whites and poor Blacks.

Today, we watch as America becomes more politically polarized than ever and a large part of it has to do with maintaining the illusion of superiority through whiteness. Just as…