Bacon's Rebellion

Bacon's Rebellion happened in 1676 and was a movement led by Nathaniel Bacon in opposition to William Berkley, which was the governor of their home colony, Virginia. The civil disobedience was started when farmers were upset with the corrupted government and wanted their land and families to be safe from Native attacks. Instead of working with the laws of Virginia they pushed them aside, and tried to overturn government. Some scholars say that the second amendment was derived from this rebellion because the right to bear arms was made more important than ever before this point.

American Tobacco and European Consumers

In the 17 c. the new world was mostly based on the simple product of tobacco, selling it, growing it, smoking, sniffing, chewing, or drinking it. This caught on in Europe and the English were willing to buy large quantities of it, and that was the only reason that tobacco had commercial value. Some people in Europe hated it such as King James who was recorded referring to tobacco as “A costome loathsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the black stinkin fume thereof, nearest, resembling the horrible…smoke-of the pit that is bottomelesse.” He also uses the point that it is imitating Natives as his one of his examples asking if Europeans should walk naked as the Natives do. Also saying it was barbarous and beastly mannered. When Spaniards first brought tobacco to Europe during 16 c. doctors claimed it to be the “wonder drug” because it “cured” hunger and thirst for sailors, and provided a “joyous intoxication.” At the beginning the habit was expensive because of the scarcity of tobacco. But after the first century or so prices plunged from the increasing availability of the product. The book states: “American tobacco was the first colonial product of mass consumption by Europeans” and the economy did well after that because smokers needed pipes, boxes to hold the tobacco, embers or steel and flint to make sparks, pipe cleaners, and spittoons. In conclusion tobacco changed the new world and Europe one in the same.