By 1644 in Virginia, the Powhatan Confederacy were getting really tired of the English and their bullshit. Though they had a treaty worked out following two previous wars, the English were continually starting farms on Powhatan lands, driven by the arrival of new settlers and the fact that tobacco just plain wrecked the land on which it was grown. Finally having enough, the Powhatan launched a surprise attack, killing some 500 settlers in just a few days. Apparently lacking pattern recognition, the Powhatan then went home, convinced that the English would recognize they were being dicks and stop being such a pain in the ass. However, instead they launched a two-year war, killing every Powhatan they could find, causing the complete collapse of the confederacy. The surviving tribes either fled west or south, or signed a treaty which forced them to pay tribute to the English and created small reservations for them which were seized or sold over the next two decades. The war ended with the English effectively in control of everything east of the Appalachians.
No longer really worried about the natives anymore, the English focused more on being dicks to each other. The English Civil War was in full tilt by this time, and though the Puritan colonies of New England were firmly on the side of Parliament, the colonists of Virginia supported the king. This really had no affect on day to day life, except for Virginia being such dicks to any Puritans living in the colony that most left to Maryland where they were dicks to the Catholics. However, things changed when Oliver Cromwell became de facto dictator of England. At first, Virginia basically declared its independence, but this idea was quickly given up on when an English fleet showed up at Jamestown. However, Cromwell then pretty much left Virginia alone, letting them to do whatever the hell they wanted, even to the point that they basically elected their own governor, a position formerly appointed by the powers that be in England.
This actually worked out pretty well for Virginia. Thanks to an influx of former supporters of the king, called cavaliers, the population of the colony rose from 10,000 in 1640 to 40,000 in 1670, helping making Virginia the wealthiest and most populist English colony in the New World. Though much like England, most things like the government and church were controlled by a bunch of rich asshats making up only 5 percent of the free population, the wide availability of fertile land, thanks to being complete dicks to the Powhatan, allowed for the development of a large land owning middle class which represented some 60 percent of the population, much higher than back in England. The remaining 35 percent were all pretty much poor as hell, being mostly former indentured servants, but much like most history, we’re just going to gloss over them for now. The majority of people living in Virginia, at least the free ones, were prosperous as hell, leading to further immigration and larger families, because nothing says prosperity like having your wife pop out kids until she died. Virginia was viewed as a land of opportunity, where a man could raise himself up from lowly beginnings to become someone respectable. By 1700, the population reached 70,000.
In 1660, Charles II was welcomed home to England and crowned king. However, rather than rewarding Virginia for its unbending loyalty, he instead went about trying to fuck the colony as much as possible. Not only did he randomly give big chunks of land in the colony away to various lackeys, much of which was already settled, he as well appointed a new royal governor who was not only corrupt, but also an autocratic dick who halted all free elections in the colony. However, this was nothing compared to the passage of the Navigation Acts starting in 1661, which required all imports and exports from the colony to be carried on English ships only to and from England. While this was great for the merchants back in England, it was not all that great for the settlers in Virginia, who were decidedly not happy with the whole chain of events.
Things finally came to a head in 1674, when a series of native attacks on farms along the frontier caused a widespread call for the royal governor to call up the militia, something he refused to do. Of course, these attacks were largely due to issues surrounding the settlers dickishly seizing land and being unable to tell one tribe from another. However, the royal governor didn’t give two shits about any of this, instead refusing because he was worried it would disrupt the fur trade, of which he was a major investor. Not liking this turn of events, a large group of settlers rose up under the leadership of a recently arrived rich plantation owner named Nathaniel Bacon, who led his ersatz army to Jamestown where they burned the settlement to the ground. Despite this initial success, Bacon’s Rebellion only lasted a few months more, ending when Bacon shit himself to death and the colonial militia scattered the remaining rebels. Though ultimately a failure, Bacon’s Rebellion did result in a more tractable governor being put in place, who was more down with being a dick to the natives, and the re-establishment of free elections. Combined with the relative differences in prosperity between the colony and the homeland, created a sense in Virginia of being more than just a colony.
