The Slave Riots In The 1700's

In this time period, white affluent men had held – and still do hold, to this day – the most privilege in America. Not only were non-whites and women discriminated against, but those of a lower social class were considered to be undeserving of equal treatment as well, described in the text as, “such persons found begging could be stripped to the waist and whipped bloody, could be sent out of the city, sent to workhouses, or transported out of the country” (Zinn 42). The majority of lower-class people were forced into serving those of a higher-class with no pay. Like the involuntary servants of the slave rebellion in the 1700’s, these people who had to suffer substandard treatment would not stand for it. Their uprising began with Bacon’s Rebellion, “joined by slaves
“As Boston grew, from 1687 to 1770, the percentage of adult males who were poor, perhaps rented a room, or slept in the back of a tavern, owned no property, doubled from 14 percent of the adult males to 29 percent. And loss of property meant loss of voting rights” (Zinn 47) suggests this statement, and reveals another way the poor were discriminated against: by being revoked of their right to vote. Riots did not come to a halt, but the lower-class attempted a different strategy, to better their lives rather than rise against the unfairness against them. “In the 1730s, a committee of the Boston town meeting spoke out for Bostonians in debt, who wanted paper money issued to make it easier to pay off their debts to the merchant elite” (Zinn 50) conveys that many poor Americans did attempt to demolish their debt. “In the 1720s, with fear of slave rebellion growing, white servants were allowed in Virginia to join the militia as substitutes for white freemen. […] white men would make up the rank and file of these patrols, and get the monetary reward” (Zinn 53) reveals that white men in poverty would enter the army to gain