Did Bacon's rebellion have a major impact on the slave trade?

by J2quared
DarthNetflix

Bacon's Rebellion can be seen as a turning point in the American slave trade. Up until that time, most labor in Virginia was conducted through white male indentured servitude. Slaves had a large presence at the time, but had not been entirely bound under the chattel slavery present during the American Revolution. Such slavery existed in other British colonies, like Jamaica, but had not quite migrated to the North American colonies. Avenues for freedom had been available in Virginia from the very beginning and the colony enjoyed a sizable population of free-people-of-color. That's not to say the slaves were not exploited, the institution was beginning to take shape leading up to the rebellion. But we can safely say that they were not as exploited as they would later become. The treatment of black and white bondsmen was almost equally awful.

There was more fluidity between the lower classes and it was the alliance between Africans (most of the slaves were African-born) and the indentured whites that allowed the rebellion to proceed. When the rebellion was put down, Virginia began to harden the racial lines between poor whites and enslaved blacks to prevent another alliance. Their most famous laws to this effect are the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705.

Institutionalized slavery began to emerge shortly before the rebellion, which was part of the reason African slaves took part. The number of "servants for life" was growing leading up tot he rebellion but African-descendants were not necessarily being born into slavery. But the institution did not really begin to take part until after the rebellion. Slavery way well have institutionalized without the added urgency provided by Bacon's Rebellion, but the rebellion certainly accelerated the process.

TL;DR - Bacon's Rebellion provoked a reactionary response that accelerated the institutionalization of slavery in part to hard racial lines and prevent future rebellions.

Sources:

  • History of Black Americans: From Africa to the Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom, Philip S. Foner.