The primary cause of Bacon’s Rebellion was the immense distance between poor and wealthy elite, with no middle class in between, resulting in an insec

Thesis sentence: The primary cause of Bacon’s Rebellion was the immense distance between poor and wealthy elite, with no middle class in between, resulting in an insecurity that made the poor prone to rebelliousness and susceptibility to Bacon’s influence. (As is evident above, this thesis sentence can't fit within title margins)

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

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.
Reputable source provided (See bottom)

III. Thesis sentence: The primary cause of Bacon’s Rebellion was the immense distance between poor and wealthy elite, with no middle class in between, resulting in an insecurity that made the poor prone to rebelliousness and susceptibility to Bacon’s influence.


IV. Body:

“They say” source needed
1. Response to “They Say”: How & why the absence of a middle class leaves no means/tools to the lower class (the poor) for climbing to higher classes of wealth.
Needed examples:

“They say” source needed
2. Response to “They Say”: How & why the immense distance between the upper class and the lower class resulted in a system of segregation similar to racism.
Example: The general poor (including recently freed indentured servants) and indentured servants were perceived as people of very low stature, and as a result, they received little respect from the wealthy elite.

“They say” source needed
3. Response to “They Say”: How & why it was a dire situation to be stuck in the lower class while suffering from oppression by the burden of taxes.
Needed Examples:

V. Discussion:
“They Say” source needed
I will relate Bacon’s Rebellion to today’s American economic crisis, with regard to classes of wealth (lower, middle, and upper class), and how Barack Obama intends to mend the situation by strengthening the middle class.

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 that a colony was divided into two classes, the poor and the wealthy. The economic 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.


More needed VII. Sources relating directly to outline material:
This source supports III (thesis)
Title: The Alteration in the Relationship between Leadership and Constituents in Virginia, 1660 to 1720
Author(s): John C. Rainbolt
Source: The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Jul., 1970), pp. 411-434
Publisher(s): Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1919668


VIII. Other sources:
http://www.queens.edu/undergraduate/courses/history_203_lecture_3.asp
http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/beverley.html