The wealthy feared poor Whites joining enslaved Blacks more than they feared Native attacks

Evidence

By September 1676, a defiant Bacon had “proclaimed liberty to all Servants and Negroes.” For Governor Berkeley’s wealthy White inner circle, poor Whites and enslaved Blacks joining hands presaged the apocalypse. At the head of five hundred men, Bacon burned down Jamestown, forcing Berkeley to flee. When Bacon died of dysentery in October, the rebellion was doomed. Luring Whites with pardons and Blacks with liberty, Berkeley’s forces persuaded most of Bacon’s army to lay down their weapons. They spent the next few years crushing the rest of the rebels. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 130

Categorization

• XREF: The fear of cross-racial class solidarity is a recurring thru-line; connects to the chapter after, where planters act on this fear to create White privilege.