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==Slavery and freedom==

==Slavery and freedom==

A central paradox in American history is the simultaneous rise of liberty and equality and the rise of slavery. With particular attention to Virginia, Morgan (1972) has offered a resolution of the paradox. Virginians feared the presence of large numbers of landless and dependent poor people as antithetical to political liberty and social well-being. Yet, this is what was happening in Virginia, leading to Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. Large numbers of young, armed, single white men had come to Virginia to seek their fortune. They worked on tobacco plantations for wages and few could expect to become planters. They became a source of peril to the established gentry. Governor Berkeley had lamented that "six parts of seven at least are poor, indebted, discontented, and armed." The gentry solved the problem after Bacon's rebellion by replacing the white men with black slaves. This  reduced the need to import white servants, opened opportunities for whites who remained, and enabled Virginia to build its free political institutions upon slavery.<ref> Edmund S. Morgan, "Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox." ''Journal of American History'' 1972 59(1): 5-29 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1888384 in JSTOR]; Morgan,  ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia'' (1975) </ref>

A central paradox in American history is the simultaneous rise of liberty and equality and the rise of slavery. With particular attention to Virginia, Morgan (1972) has offered a resolution of the paradox. Virginians feared the presence of large numbers of landless and dependent poor people as antithetical to political liberty and social well-being. Yet, this is what was happening in Virginia, leading to Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. Large numbers of young, armed, single white men had come to Virginia to seek their fortune. They worked on tobacco plantations for wages and few could expect to become planters. They became a source of peril to the established gentry. Governor Berkeley had lamented that "six parts of seven at least are poor, indebted, discontented, and armed." The gentry solved the problem after Bacon's rebellion by replacing the white men with black slaves. This  reduced the need to import white servants, opened opportunities for whites who remained, and enabled Virginia to build its free political institutions upon slavery.<ref>Edmund S. Morgan, "Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox." ''Journal of American History'' 1972 59(1): 5-29 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1888384 in JSTOR]; Morgan,  ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia'' (1975)</ref>

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====References====

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[[category:Colonial America]]

[[Category:Colonial America]]

[[category:Virginia]]

[[Category:Virginia]]