Question

a different mirror by ronald takaki
during bacon’s rebellion the specter of class revolution had become a reality, and the scare shook the elite landholders. five years after the rebellion, planters continued to harbor fears of class disorder... large landowners saw that the social order would always be in danger so long as they relied on white labor.
the planters had come to a crossroads: they could open economic opportunities to white workers and extend political privileges to them, but this would erode their own economic advantage and potentially undermine their political hegemony. or they could try to reorganize society on the basis of class and race. by importing and buying more slaves they could reduce their dependence on an armed white labor force and exploit workers from africa, who could be denied the right to bear arms because of their race... after bacon’s rebellion, the planters made their choice: they turned to africa as their primary source of labor and to slavery as their main system of labor.
takaki, ronald t. a different mirror: a history of multicultural america. boston: little, brown, 1993. 60. print.
prior to bacon’s rebellion in 1676, what was the primary labor source in the chesapeake region?
elimination tool
select one answer
a native americans
b indentured servants
c enslaved people
d free labor

Explanation:

To determine the primary labor source in the Chesapeake region prior to Bacon's Rebellion (1676), we analyze the options:

• Option A: Native Americans were not the primary labor source in the Chesapeake region during this time; they were often displaced or used in different ways, not as the main labor force for plantations.
• Option B: Indentured servants were the primary labor source before Bacon's Rebellion. The text mentions that planters relied on white labor (indentured servants) and after the rebellion, they shifted to enslaved people from Africa. Indentured servants were people who worked for a set period (usually several years) in exchange for passage to the Americas, and they were a major labor source in the Chesapeake before the shift to slavery became more dominant after Bacon's Rebellion.
• Option C: Enslaved people from Africa became the primary labor source after Bacon's Rebellion, as the text states that after the rebellion, planters turned to Africa as their primary labor source. So this is not the case before the rebellion.
• Option D: Free labor was not the primary labor source in the Chesapeake region's plantation economy before Bacon's Rebellion; the economy relied on unfree labor (indentured servants or later enslaved people).

Answer:

B. Indentured servants