Comparison Between Howard Zinn's Persons Of Mean And Vile Condition

One of the reading done for class was “Persons of Mean and Vile Condition” written by Howard Zinn. In this reading Zinn states what was the Bacon’s Rebellion, how it started and how it ended. In his work, he states his opinion on some issues or happenings, in which I agree. Firstly there was a disagreement between the government and the rich, and the rest of the population of Virginia. They disputed on how to deal with the Natives, who were constantly threatening. People who have lost their lands went west to find new land, however they did not expect to come across with the Indians. Willian Berkeley, the governor, however, was not very motivated to fight the Indians even after basically pushing the population towards them. According to Howard Zinn this can be the reason to why this rebellion cannot be well

The ones that cooperated would be exempt. After that Bacon’s ideas started to spread and the Rebellion had begun. According to Zinn’s point of view, Bacon was not very interested in helping the poor ones, but in killing the Native Americans. As a matter of fact, Bacon himself was not even in the lowest class; he belonged to a new class that started to arise, which was a not so privileged upper class. More towards the end of “Persons of Mean and Vile Condition”, Zinn explains why the Bacon’s Rebellion was so feared, and what new aspect it can give us on America. One of the biggest fear of the upper class and the rulers of Virginia was the possibility of a combination of poor whites and black, since they were a much bigger population. There is a saying that America was “born free”, but that was really not the case. America was born with both free, master, landlord, rich and slave, servant, tenant, and