Bacon's Rebellion, the most important event in the establishment of democracy in colonial America.

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…by the English as well as the other colonies. Besides influencing governmental procedures in Virginia, recent research suggests it might have affected English domestic and foreign policies as well. One researcher claimed that the concern for representative institutions and the anti-imperialist feeling that existed in Virginia then was expressed not by the rebels, but by those suppressing the rebellion and that such democratic attitudes increased significantly after, rather that immediately before or during Bacon's Rebellion. 3