'The poverty of the country is such that all the power and influence has fallen into the hands of the rich, who, by extorted advantages, having the common people in debt, they have always repressed and oppressed them in all kinds of ways. This was said by Nathaniel Bacon Jr, and it describes the motivation for the rebellion in which he played a key role, aptly named Bacon's Rebellion which took place in the summer of 1676. It took place in Jamestown , which was an English colony founded in America. in 1607. Eventually it came under the governance of William Berkeley who was forced to act by Bacon's actions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Rebellion began with discontent and grew into something bigger. Several distinct factors contributed to this, including prevailing anti-Indian sentiment, Berkeley's favoritism, and Bacon's premature actions and subsequent threats. The first of these, anti-Indian sentiment, is probably the least well-founded of the three. There were small raids by the Indians, so there was some truth to that sentiment, but they blamed several other things on Indian interference, which were not their fault. One of them was the economic problems they were experiencing at the time, namely the depreciating cost of growing tobacco which they primarily grew, as well as increased competition from neighboring colonies and restrictive trade laws put in place. established by the British. Together, they all combined to create discontent among the settlers who were using the Indians as scapegoats. Another reason was that Berkeley's blatant favoritism when choosing merchants who would have limited contact with the Indians didn't help matters either. Because of the raids and the contending parties on both sides, Berkeley called the long assembly, trying to keep the peace, and in which the village allied itself against all the Indians they considered evil. To protect the city, the Long Assembly designated a defense zone around the city, but this was to the detriment of the citizens, who did not want anything imposed on them by the assembly. Additionally, trade with the Indians was highly regulated and only a few merchants were allowed to trade with the Indians, most of whom were close friends of Berkeley. One of the traders affected by these new regulations was Nathaniel Bacon Jr. who protested vigorously and publicly before later attacking the Indians. Bacon decided to form his own group of men to go after the Indians who they believed had wronged their colony because they felt that Berkeley had not reacted well at all. The Bacon group's first action was to drive the Pamunkey Indians from their land by taking the land they considered theirs and which Berkeley wanted to leave to the Indians. Berkeley, in response to Bacon's actions, took 300 well-armed men and marched to Bacon's headquarters, driving him and his 200 men out. After this, Berkeley published two petitions, that Bacons would be declared a rebel and that Bacon's men would be pardoned if they left Bacon and returned home. Bacon, however, chose to disregard Berkeley and instead chose to head towards the Occaneechi Indians. Berkeley was prepared to extend a branch to Bacon in the form of a pardon from him, but he had to return to the English courts. However, before this offer could be delivered to Bacon, the idea was rejected by the House of Burgesses to which Bacon had recently been elected because he had the appearance of a people's hero. Bacon introduced himself..