Race and rebellion in colonial America, 1676-1741

Colonial Unrest

To be sure, the smattering of colonial unrest that occurred in North America throughout history still echoes and occurs even to this day in some forms. Back in 1676, it started with Bacon's Rebellion in Pennsylvania when there were squabbles about alleged non-payment for services rendered and the wrong group of Indians were attacked in retaliation for one of those squabbles. The latter led to more conflagrations (NPS, 2015). Indians were also at the center of the unrest to be found in Massachusetts (and other areas) circa 1723 in the form of the Northeast Coast Campaign which itself was a part of the larger Father Rale's War in New England and parts of Canada (On War, 2015). Race also became an issue in unrest like the New York Slave Revolt in 1712. Since the slaves were held in close quarters at most times and not in the fields, they were more easily able to conspire and plot against their masters and that is precisely what they did. However, the white slave owners only made life harder for the slaves after that (PBS, 2015). In short, some groups would rise up and create spats with other groups and these divisions would quite often involve race to one degree or another. Whether it be Indians versus white people or black slaves versus white people, race was obviously an issue that coincided with or caused problems to arise. While economics and class was certainly an issue in some of the uprisings that occurred in the colonies, it would seem that race was an issue more often than not.