"Let us trace these men in authority and favour to whose hands the dispensation of the country's wealth has been committed... Let us see what sponges have sucked up the public treasure, and how it hath been privately contrived away by unworthy favourites... and whether the Indians be not better treated by us than the King's loyal subjects." — Nathaniel Bacon, "Declaration of the People of Virginia," 1676
Which underlying tension in late-seventeenth-century Virginia best explains the grievances Bacon expresses here?
- A
Religious antagonism between Anglican planters and incoming Puritan settlers
- Bcheck_circle
Conflict between backcountry frontier settlers and the tidewater elite around Governor Berkeley
- C
Trade rivalry between Dutch merchants and English chartered companies
- D
Boundary disputes between Maryland Catholics and Pennsylvania Quakers
Explanation
Bacon's Rebellion was rooted in resentment between landless or frontier-dwelling Virginians and Governor William Berkeley's tidewater clique, especially over Indian policy and patronage. Anglican-Puritan conflict, Dutch trade rivalry, and Maryland-Pennsylvania border disputes were real elsewhere but were not the drivers of the 1676 uprising.