In chapter 3, the author mentions that the member of the rebellion, those who were white, came to the New World in hopes of a fresh start. The white members of the rebellion were mostly made up of criminals, vagabonds, or English, but in poverty. Wasn’t the idea of coming to the New World supposed to be about truly getting that fresh start and a second chance. We see from reading this chapter that not all English men and women were in a better situation from where they came from. They were still underneath and property of the elites. We weren’t taught that the white men had to work under elites, mostly just people of color were those who had to work for no pay in the New World.
We see all the way back to the colonization of Virginia that the classes mattered. It mattered if one came over with money, it mattered if you messed up before you came over to the New World. Today, 2020 it is still mostly true that once all debt has been paid back, it is still rare to jump from one socioeconomic class to another. That is what happened in the 18th century as well. Once those were freed from their debt still struggled and lived miserably. Some servants found future and fortune, but that wasn’t exactly how everyone turned out.
The chapter suggests that as England was fighting in some wars, they managed to pour their financial burdens on the colonies. Yes, the colonies have been somewhat financed by England, these actions had created more of a divide between the classes in the colonies. We see that those on the top didn’t really care about anything, but themselves and the over top percent. The hardest part of reading this chapter was the fact that this is still a problem in the United States today. In 2020, a year of crazy ups and downs the gap between classes has widened even more. When will enough be enough? When will the next rebellion happen?
I like how you made the comparison between the past and the present. It is weird to think that we should almost be expecting a rebellion, as history repeats itself.