Draft: Outline for Bacon's Rebellion essay

Essential Question: What was the primary cause of Bacon’s Rebellion?

I. Hook/Introduction: In times of economic crisis the rich are less vulnerable to the devastating effects, while the poor are much more susceptible to the economic suffering because they have no power over the situation. As a result, the poor are compelled to retaliate as a means to survive.


II. Background: Within the first half to three-quarters of the seventeenth century, while the tobacco industry was very profitable, it was possible for land holders to acquire significant wealth. However, as tobacco prices fell, upward mobility became much more difficult. A relatively small proportion of wealthy families and other elites held the reigns of local political power and institutions. Chesapeake society began to look more and more like the rigid, hierarchical social and economic systems back in England. The distance between the upper and lower classes grew larger.


III. Thesis sentence: The primary cause of Bacon’s Rebellion is because there was an immense distance between the poor and the wealthy elite, with no middle class in between, resulting in a sense of insecurity among the poor, and consequently, the poor were prone to resorting to rebelliousness.


IV. Body:
1. How & why the absence of the middle class gives no means/tools to the lower class (the poor) for climbing to higher classes of wealth.
2. How & why the immense distance between the upper class and the lower class resulted in a system of segregation similar to racism.
3. How & why it was a dire situation to be stuck in the lower class while suffering from oppression by the burdening of taxes.


V. Discussion: I found all of my resources to be reputable; they include primary resource material. I will continue to find additional credible sources that are relevant to the topic. I’ll analyze and discuss how the sources relate to my topic.


VI. Conclusion and Suggestion for Further Research: To achieve his own desires, Bacon took advantage of the difficult situation the lower class was enduring. The cause of Bacon’s Rebellion was essentially because of a colony that was divided by two classes, the poor and the wealthy. The economical crisis posed serious threat to the lower class, and thus a sense of discontent and insecurity manifested within them. This division resulted in a colony that didn’t cooperate as a whole. The two classes were segregated similarly to racist division. These two races could be defined as the people (upper class) who were happy and content, in comparison to the people (lower class) who were emotionally deprived by a burdening oppression.


VII. Sources:
http://www.queens.edu/undergraduate/courses/history_203_lecture_3.asp
http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/beverley.html
http://blackboard.highline.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_5_1