White indentured servants from Great Britain Black Africans that couldn’t bring their children with ‘em Sweating and freezing and dying in all kinds of weather Shipped to Jamestown enslaved together In the 1600’s, we didn’t know we were White Huddled like sheep through those dark winter nights No racist theories teaching us to be separate Just crushed by oppression and equally desperate Oppressed by the wealthy, oppressed by their laws With poor African friends we found common cause And formed coalitions. It isn’t surprising Every one of us expected a serious uprising I hear from rich landowner, Nathaniel Bacon Native Indian soil is ripe for the taking His uncle, the governor, refuses to help him So he's gathering forces to ignite a rebellion Let's follow Nathaniel, our ranks are formidable Light up your torches let's burn down the capitol We’ll ambush the landowners quick before they take cover And scatter like cockroaches infesting our cupboards Take prisoners, the nobles like Governor Berkely They heard that we're coming, so we'll have to move quickly They're boarding their ships, they're getting away They're scrambling like cowards out into the bay The governor looked back in confused disbelief If not for their ships they’d all be in shackles at least He howled for the crown to send stout reinforcements A resolute plan to take back the town was important He'd rally his forces, wait for assistance Round up his rivals, crush the resistance So in the end, our uprising failed Our leaders were hanged and our comrades were jailed Landowners, shocked, not amused nor regaled Acknowledged their narrow escape as a cautionary tale We all lick our wounds and crawl back to work Pushing our plows and digging up dirt Pondering new policies put into place That aim to blame the rebellion on something... On something called race