Encyclopedia of African American History

Bacon’s Rebellion  23

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Klein, eds. Th e Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-

ROM. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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ries of Enslaved Africans in British America.” Slavery and Ab-

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Impact of the Export Slave Trade on African Societies. Lon-

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consin Press, 1988.

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Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State

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Bacon’s Rebellion

Bacon’s Rebellion was the fi rst rebellion in the American

colonies. In 1676 Nathaniel Bacon, a Virginia planter, led

a rebellion against the government of Sir William Berke-

ley. Bacon’s Rebellion was one of the fi rst collaborations be-

tween whites and blacks in colonial America. Th e white and

black settlers of Virginia united against their common en-

emy—the Virginia ruling class. Th is partnership escalated

fears within the ruling class as to what would protect them

and their power from the united poor masses. It was out

of this fear that the institution of racial slavery was born.

While slavery and indentured servitude had been present

in the colonies prior to Bacon’s Rebellion, the rebellion

turned slavery into a predominantly racial institution. Th e

large majority of slaves from the rebellion onward would be

solely of African descent.

Bacon lived on the frontier. He, like many of his fellow

frontier planters, felt that Governor Berkeley was not ade-

quately protecting the planters from the Native Americans.

Consequently, Bacon and his fellow frontier planters united

to defend themselves against the Native Americans. Bacon

petitioned Berkeley for a commission to allow himself and

his followers to move forcefully against the Native Ameri-

cans. Berkeley, as the head of the government, and thus the

head of the militia, refused Bacon’s request. Berkeley felt

Bacon was not trying to defend himself against the Native

Americans, but rather was trying to stir up trouble among

the settlers who were already unhappy with the colony’s

slave communities in Atlantic Africa; the numerous mass
revolts organized by slaves or peasants; the involvement of
a handful of religious opposition movements, inspired by
Islam, Christianity, or African religion; and active attempts
by states or their leaders to suppress the trade. Indeed, it
may even be possible to discuss the African roots of abo-
litionism given the fact that, as early as 1614, an Islamic
scholar named Ahmad Baba al-Timbucti wrote a detailed
legal treatise that critiqued and undermined the various
justifi cations for enslavement.
In terms of the demography of the slave trade the Du
Bois Institute CD-ROM compiled by David Eltis, Stephen
Behrendt, David Richardson, and Herbert Klein, which
provides the best and most reliable set of estimates, shows
that some 11 to 12 million were exported from Africa,
about 10 million were imported alive into the Americas,
and roughly 1.5 million died on ships during the Middle
Passage. While the estimates regarding the mortality rates
onboard slave ships have raised a great deal of commen-
tary, students of this topic should be cognizant of the fact
that the 1.5 million estimate does not include the untold
millions who died in forced marches from inland mar-
kets to coastal markets, those who perished in the squalid
conditions of slave dungeons, and those who did not sur-
vive seasoning in the Americas or who died within their
fi rst three to fi ve years as slaves. While reliable estimates
for mortality rates will never be fully achieved, some 14 to
26 million Africans died during the slave trade, and the
millions of survivors—on both sides of the Atlantic—bore
the psychological scars of their collective trauma for cen-
turies thereaft er.
See also: African Diaspora; Asiento; Equiano, Olaudah;
Cugoano, Quobna Ottobah

Walter C. Rucker

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