Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 17, a history of the United States. Episode 17. A History of the Decline and Fall of General Bacon.

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When we left things last time out,

Virginia had thrown off the mantle of subservience to England, and had decided to

take a shot at independence. They didn't want to go it alone against England, so they

sammed out the other colonies. Massachusetts was the ally the revolutionaries really wanted,

but Bacon was confident that Maryland and Carolina would both join two,

and they had representatives at the Green Spring meetings, though we'll get more into the specific

issues affecting those states at a later date. For now, I'll note that the protesters in Maryland,

opposed to their provincial government, saw the solution not in

independence, but in tighter control by England. They wanted a stronger imperial system,

since each colony was pretty autonomous, aside from New York. They wanted a royal commander-in-chief

for North America, so that the colonies would work together more,

and so that they would be less at the whims of the colonial oligarchs.

This brought them into opposition against Bacon, who was preparing to resist royal troops,

...