Bacon's Rebellion

History, by definition, is made from unchanging facts and events. Despite this, most history books teach the past differently. How can the same information be taught in a way so that the reader gains something different from each text? America Past and Present by Robert A. Divine and A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn write about common events and ideas, however, they convey them in both different and similar ways. First contact between Spaniard and Indian is talked about in both books. They both describe how the Spanish were desperate in their search of gold. However, Divine mainly focuses on the conquistadors and how they took over indian civilizations, and how the European countries responded in Colombus 's discovery. Zinn, however, points out the cruelty of the Spanish and

In Zinn 's book, Nathaniel Bacon is described as a manipulative man, who persuaded the gullible to agree with his ideas and values. The rebellion itself was because Bacon hated both the elite and the indians, and after he was released from prison for being a rebel, he took his 'army ' and began attacking innocent indians. After Bacon had died, Zinn includes the fact that the anti-rebel forces tricked Bacon 's militia into thinking that if they surrendered, the slaves and servants (who made up most of the rebels) would be given freedom. Instead, they took them back to their masters. The governemt strived to stop the rebellion for two reasons: to make a policy to control indians, and to discourage rebellion in the future. On the other hand, Divine says that Nathaniel was a brave and ambitious, and that his reason for rebelling was to counter-attack previous indian attacks. There was possibly an alterior motive for Berkeley to stop rebellion in fear of his 'fur monopoly ' being threatened. As one could see, each author portayed the same event using the same facts in very