#201 Bacon’s Aftermath 2: Restless Virginia and the Rise of Black Slavery
The History of the Americans
Jack Henneman
4.9 • 632 Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
In the last episode on the Timeline, “Bacon’s Aftermath 1: Diplomacy and Conspiracy 1677-1685,” we looked at the political and geopolitical aftermath of Bacon’s Rebellion. This time we tackle the changes inside Virginia’s society and economy in the years following Bacon’s Rebellion, some of which may have been because of the Rebellion, and others of which probably would have happened anyway.
The first half of the episode looks at the governorship of Thomas, Lord Culpeper, and his deft efforts to give effect to the Crown’s desire “to substitute the benevolent despotism of the king for the rapacious local despotism that had brought on one rebellion and threatened to bring on another.” In the second half, we consider the rise of Black slavery in Virginia and the decline of indentured servitude in the quarter century following Bacon’s Rebellion, the economic foundations of the shift, and the untended and somewhat surprising social consequence that by the early 18th century Virginia was a much more stable society than it had been when it had depended on English indentured servants.
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Primary references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website)
Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom
John C. Coombs, “The Phases of Conversion: A New Chronology for the Rise of Slavery in Early Virginia,” The William and Mary Quarterly, July 2011.
“An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves” (Virginia, 1705)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast, episode 201. |
| 0:11.7 | I'm your host, Jack Heneman, and I'm recording this episode on January 3, 26. |
| 0:18.7 | Happy New Year in Orleans. We are telling the history of the lands now encompassed by |
| 0:25.0 | the United States from the beginning without intentional presentism. Two quick items before we jump in. |
| 0:33.4 | First, if you're going to be at the annual meeting in the American Historical Association in |
| 0:38.4 | Chicago this week, I'll be there from the 8th to the 11th. Send me a note at the History of the |
| 0:44.9 | Americans at gmail.com or by any other means, really, if you want to grab a coffee or a beer or |
| 0:51.7 | something. Second, a tiny bit of self-promotion. |
| 0:57.3 | If you love this always ad-free podcast and have been thinking, |
| 1:01.6 | how can I show Jack my deep appreciation and help him defray some of the costs, |
| 1:07.9 | you can become a paid subscriber to my substack, for which you will get all the same |
| 1:13.9 | content as the free subscribers. Also, I've been putting out a series on old school civics, |
| 1:21.5 | how we taught civics to the generation born about 1900, which includes a lot of surprising things, no matter your political |
| 1:30.0 | inflection today. |
| 1:33.0 | In the last episode on the timeline, Bacon's aftermath won, Diplomacy and Conspiracy, 1677 to |
| 1:41.1 | 1685, we talked about the political and geopolitical aftermath of Bacon's Rebellion. |
| 1:48.0 | This time we're going to tackle the changes inside Virginia's society and economy in the years |
| 1:54.4 | following Bacon's rebellion, some of which may have been because of the rebellion, and others of |
| 2:00.7 | which probably would have |
| 2:01.5 | happened anyway. For much of this, we are back to Edmund S. Morgan's much-bally-hooed American |
| 2:08.5 | slavery, American freedom from 1975. Morgan concludes his chapter on the rebellion with this ambivalent paragraph, which frames the question of cause and effect. |
| 2:22.8 | Quote, it was a rebellion with abundant causes, but without a cause. It produced no real program of reform. No revolutionary |
... |
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