Bacon's Rebellion

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In early American history there are 3 important rebellions to analyze. These revolts can give a crucial look into the brains of the population and what made the people finally say enough is enough. The first notable rebellion to occur in American history was Bacon’s Rebellion. This uprising began in 1676 in colonial Virginia. There was two different factions involved in this event. The Backcountry was a group of yeoman farmers who had small farms that were good for subsistence farming and a small amount of trade. They inhabited the western coast of Virginia and had to deal with the Native American tribes, as well as the horrible farming land that had been given to them. A good proportion of these men were indentured servants who had just completed …show more content…

Alexander Hamilton had been given the job as Secretary of the Treasury by President George Washington. Hamilton was now in charge of fixing the United States economy which was still looking to pay off debts. In an attempt to gain the vote to get his legislation passed, he wanted to assume the debt of both the State and Federal government. With this new plan would come the raising of taxes on the common person and the dreaded excise tax on whiskey would spark riots. In western Pennsylvania whiskey was the cash crop of many yeoman farmers. In order to cut down on wasting food, the farmers of the backcountry would take the extra corn that they raised and would distill it into whiskey. The process of distilling also helped when transporting goods. Despite Hamilton’s stubbornness to enforce the law, riots quickly broke out along the frontier. The farmers began to refuse excise officers any payment and even went as far as burning down the properties of those that complied with the officers and payed the tax. Tensions started to peak when 500 militiamen near Pittsburgh marched on an unpopular collector John Neville. This specific event left two killed and six injured. A couple of months later President Washington ordered 12,000 men to march on the rebels in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland to finally end the outburst. He offered amnesty to anyone who pledged their support to the government and jail time to anyone who did not accept. In his proclamation to the people he writes “...do hereby command all persons, being insurgents, as aforesaid, and all others whom it may concern, on or before the 1st day of September next to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes.”(Washington 67). Ultimately only two of the whiskey rebels were convicted and then pardoned by the President. The Whiskey Rebellion had finally come to an end. (Murrin, Hamalainen, Johnson,

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