The correct answer is turning point for the way the laws of colonial Virginia distinguished people of different races
In 1676, one hundred years before the declaration of independence, the state of Virginia was the scene of the so-called Bacon Rebellion, in which landowners, slaves and servants came together, and which can only be stifled with the dispatch of English troops. It began as a product of the demand of the wealthy landowner Nathaniel Bacon, whose properties were located in the border area, for a more effective war policy against "the Indian". This demand to local authorities extended to the denunciation of an unfair tax policy, the arbitrary distribution of public offices and the lack of protection for farmers against the indigenous threat, in “a mixture of populist resentment against the rich and border hatred against the Indians ”. (Apart from the huge historical-social distances, we could say that it is similar to a Trump that today rages against the political and economic establishment while agitating a strongly xenophobic and anti-immigrant program).
The significance of this rebellion was that it brought together a heterogeneous social spectrum, attracting the dissatisfaction of slaves and servants against their living conditions, showing a potentially dangerous social union. In addition to the problem of indigenous hostility and the danger of slave revolts, the colonial elite had to do with the class anger of the poor whites - the servants, the tenants, the urban poor, the landless, the taxpayers, soldiers and sailors. In fact, after the Bacon Rebellion in 1760, "eighteen new attempts were made to overthrow the colonial governments and eight black revolts in South Carolina and New York." (The Other History of the United States). In this context, racism was the preferred ideological artifact used by the dominant classes to prevent the development of these social ties. But under the strong fiscal pressure that ensued the wars waged by England, which increased poverty in the lower strata and affected sectors of the local elites, they began to defend nationalist ideals as a way to monopolize the extraction of resources while unleashing potential rebellions. depending on national unity.
