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The Great Republic by the Master Historians
The Bacon Rebellion
by Bancroft, Hubert H.
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[The tyranny that was instituted by Andros in New England was paralleled by
despotic proceedings in some of the other colonies. In Virginia these led to a
rebellion which was for a time successful. Unlike the inhabitants of the more
northerly colonies, the Virginians were stanch advocates of the Church of
England and partisans of the king, and were intolerant alike of religious and
democratic heresies. When Charles I. was executed the planters of Virginia
declared for his son, and only submitted under show of force to the
Commonwealth. They gladly welcomed Charles II. to the throne, and accepted with
acclamation a royal governor, Sir William Berkeley. It was not long, however,
ere they found reason for a change of opinion. Despotic measures were put in
force, the Assembly, instead of being re-elected every two years, was kept
permanently in session, and the inhabitants became the prey of venal office-
holders. Commercial laws were instituted which bore severely upon the planters.
Tobacco could be sent to none but English ports, and every tobacco-laden ship
had to pay a heavy duty before leaving Virginia, and another on reaching
England. Berkeley had the true composition of a tyrant, as is shown in his
memorable utterance, "I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing, and I
hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought
disobedience into the world, and printing has divulged them and libels against
the best governments. God keep us from both!"
To the evils above mentioned were added a series of Indian depredations, which
grew in extent till more than three hundred of the settlers had been killed. The
government showed little disposition to repress these savage outrages, and the
people grew exasperated. At this juncture a young man named Nathaniel Bacon came
forward as a leader, and the people readily supported him in what soon assumed
the proportions of a rebellion against the constituted authorities. The story of
this outbreak is well told in Campbell's "History of Virginia," from which we
select its leading particulars.]
"About the year 1675," says an old writer, "appeared three prodigies in that
country, which, from the attending disasters, were looked upon as ominous
presages. The one was a large comet, every evening for a week or more at
southwest, thirty-five degrees high, streaming like a horsetail westward, until
it reached (almost) the horizon, and setting towards the northwest. Another was
flights of wild pigeons, in breadth nigh a quarter of the mid-hemisphere, and of
their length was no visible end; whose weights broke down the limbs of large
trees whereon these rested at nights, of which the fowlers shot abundance, and
ate them; this sight put the old planters under the more portentous
apprehensions because the like was seen (as they said) in the year 1644, when
the Indians committed the last massacre; but not after, until that present year,
1675. The third strange phenomenon was swarms of flies about an inch long, and
big as the top of a man's little finger, rising out of spigot-holes in the
earth, which ate the new-sprouted leaves from the tops of the trees, without
other harm, and in a month left us."
[These prodigies undoubtedly appeared to the superstitious inhabitants as omens
of the disasters which at this time fell upon them in murdering incursions of
the Indians. A large body of men proceeded against the Susquehannocks, whom they
charged with these outrages. But the violent measures which they adopted only
inflamed the passions of the savages, who at once broke into open hostilities.]
At the falls of the James the savages had slain a servant of Nathaniel Bacon,
Jr., and his overseer, to whom he was much attached. This was not the place of
Bacon's residence: Bacon Quarter Branch, in the suburbs of Richmond, probably
indicates the scene of the murder. Bacon himself resided at Curles, in Henrico
County, on the lower James River. It is said that when he heard of the
catastrophe he vowed vengeance. In that time of panic, the more exposed and
defenceless families, abandoning their homes, took shelter together in houses,
where they fortified themselves with palisades and redoubts. Neighbors, banding
together, passed in co-operating parties from plantation to plantation, taking
arms with them into the fields where they labored, and posting sentinels to give
warning of the approach of the insidious foe. No man ventured out of doors
unarmed. Even Jamestown was in danger. The red men, stealing with furtive glance
through the shade of the forest, the noiseless tread of the moccasin scarce
stirring a leaf, prowled around like panthers in quest of prey. At length the
people at the head of the James and the York, having in vain petitioned the
governor for protection, alarmed at the slaughter of their neighbors, often
murdered with every circumstance of barbarity, rose tumultuously in self-
defence, to the number of three hundred men, including most, if not all the
officers, civil and military, and chose Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., for their leader.
According to another authority, Bacon, before the murder of his overseer and
servant, had been refused the commission, and had sworn that upon the next
murder he should hear of he would march against the Indians, "commission or no
commission.".
Bacon had been living in the colony somewhat less than three years, having
settled at Curles, on the lower James, in the midst of those people who were the
greatest sufferers from the depredations of the Indians, and he himself had
frequently felt the effects of their inroads.. At the breaking out of these
disturbances he was a member of the council. He was gifted with a graceful
person, great abilities, and a powerful elocution, and was the most accomplished
man in Virginia; his courage and resolution were not to be daunted, and his
affability, hospitality, and benevolence commanded a wide popularity throughout
the colony.
The men who had put themselves under Bacon's command made preparations for
marching against the Indians, but in the mean time sent again to obtain from the
governor a commission of general for Bacon, with authority to lead out his
followers, at their own expense, against the enemy. He then stood so high in the
council, and the exigency of the case was so pressing, that Sir William
Berkeley, thinking it imprudent to return an absolute refusal, concluded to
temporize. Some of the leading men about him, it was believed, took occasion to
foment the difference between him and Bacon, envying a rising luminary that
threatened to eclipse them. This conduct is like that of some of the leading men
in Virginia who, one hundred years later, compelled Patrick Henry to resign his
post in the army.
Sir William Berkeley sent his evasive reply to the application for a commission,
by some of his friends, and instructed them to persuade Bacon to disband his
forces. He refused to comply with this request, and, having in twenty days
mustered five hundred men, marched to the falls of the James. Thereupon the
governor, on the 29th day of May, 1676, issued a proclamation declaring all such
as should fail to return within a certain time rebels. Bacon likewise issued a
declaration, setting forth the public dangers and grievances, but taking no
notice of the governor's proclamation. Upon this the men of property, fearful of
a confiscation, deserted Bacon and returned home; but he proceeded with fifty-
seven men.. The movement was revolutionary,-a miniature prototype of the
revolution of 1688 in England, and of 1776 in America. But Bacon, as before
mentioned, with a small body of men proceeded into the wilderness, up the river,
his provisions being nearly exhausted before he discovered the Indians. At
length a tribe of friendly Mannakins were found intrenched within a palisaded
fort on the farther side of a branch of the James. Bacon endeavoring to procure
provisions from them and offering compensation, they put him off with delusive
promises till the third day, when the whites had eaten their last morsel. They
now waded up to the shoulder across the branch to the fort, again soliciting
provisions and tendering payment. In the evening one of Bacon's men was killed
by a shot from that side of the branch which they had left, and, this giving
rise to a suspicion of collusion with Sir William Berkeley and treachery, Bacon
stormed the fort, burnt it and the cabins, blew up their magazine of arms and
gunpowder, and, with a loss of only three of his own party, put to death one
hundred and fifty Indians. It is difficult to credit, impossible to justify,
this massacre.. Bacon with his followers returned to their homes, and he was
shortly after elected one of the burgesses for the County of Henrico.. Bacon,
upon being elected, going down the James River with a party of his friends, was
met by an armed vessel, ordered on board of her, and arrested by Major Howe,
High Sheriff of James City, who conveyed him to the governor at that place, by
whom he was accosted thus: "Mr. Bacon, you have forgot to be a gentleman." He
replied, "No, may it please your honor." The governor said, "Then I'll take your
parole;" which he accordingly did, and gave him his liberty; but a number of his
companions, who had been arrested with him, were still kept in irons.
On the 5th day of June, 1676, the members of the new Assembly, whose names are
not recorded, met in the chamber over the general court, and, having chosen a
speaker, the governor sent for them down, and addressed them in a brief abrupt
speech on the Indian disturbances, and, in allusion to the chiefs who had been
slain, exclaimed, "If they had killed my grandfather and my grandmother, my
father and mother, and all my friends, yet if they had come to treat of peace
they ought to have gone in peace." After a short interval, he again rose, and
said, "If there be joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that
repenteth, there is joy now, for we have a penitent sinner come before us. Call
Mr. Bacon." Bacon, appearing, was compelled upon one knee, at the bar of the
house, to confess his offence, and beg pardon of God, the king, and governor.
.. When Bacon had made his acknowledgment, the governor exclaimed, "God forgive
you, I forgive you;" repeating the words thrice. Colonel Cole, of the council,
added, "and all that were with him." "Yea," echoed the governor, "and all that
were with him." Sir William Berkeley, starting up from his chair for the third
time, exclaimed, "Mr. Bacon, if you will live civilly but till next quarter
court, I'll promise to restore you again to your place there" (pointing with his
hand to Mr. Bacon's seat), he having, as has been already mentioned, been of the
council before those troubles, and having been deposed by the governor's
proclamation. But, instead of being obliged to wait till the quarter court,
Bacon was restored to his seat on that very day; and intelligence of it was
hailed with joyful acclamations by the people in Jamestown. This took place on
Saturday. Bacon was also promised a commission to go out against the Indians, to
be delivered to him on the Monday following. But, being delayed or disappointed,
a few days after (the Assembly being engaged in devising measures against the
Indians) he escaped from Jamestown. He conceived the governor's pretended
generosity to be only a lure to keep him out of his seat in the house of
burgesses, and to quiet the people of the upper country, who were hastening down
to Jamestown to avenge all wrongs done him or his friends. .
In a short time the governor, seeing all quiet, issued secret warrants to seize
him again, intending probably to raise the militia, and thus prevent a rescue.
Within three or four days after Bacon's escape, news reached James City that he
was some thirty miles above, on the James River, at the head of four hundred
men. Sir William Berkeley summoned the York train-bands to defend Jamestown, but
only one hundred obeyed the summons, and they arrived too late, and one-half of
them were favorable to Bacon. Expresses almost hourly brought tidings of his
approach, and in less than four days he marched into Jamestown unresisted, at
two o'clock P. M., and drew up his force (now amounting to six hundred men),
horse and foot, in battle-array on the green in front of the state-house, and
within gunshot. In half an hour the drum beat, as was the custom, for the
Assembly to meet, and in less than thirty minutes Bacon advanced, with a file of
fusileers on either hand, near to the corner of the state-house, where he was
met by the governor and council. Sir William Berkeley, dramatically baring his
breast, cried out, "Here! shoot me -- 'fore God, fair mark; shoot!" frequently
repeating the words. Bacon replied, "No, may it please your honor, we will not
hurt a hair of your head, nor of any other man's; we are come for a commission
to save our lives from the Indians, which you have so often promised, and now we
will have it before we go." Bacon was walking to and fro between the files of
his men, holding his left arm akimbo, and gesticulating violently with his
right, he and the governor both like men distracted. In a few moments Sir
William withdrew to his private apartment at the other end of the statehouse,
the council accompanying him. Bacon followed, frequently hurrying his hand from
his sword-hilt to his hat; and after him came a detachment of fusileers, who,
with their guns cocked and presented at a window of the Assembly chamber, filled
with faces, repeated in menacing tone, "We will have it, we will have it," for
half a minute, when a well-known burgess, waving his handkerchief out at the
window, exclaimed, three or four times, "You shall have it, you shall have it;"
when, uncocking their guns, they rested them on the ground, and stood still,
till Bacon returning, they rejoined the main body. It was said that Bacon had
beforehand directed his men to fire in case he should draw his sword. In about
an hour after Bacon re-entered the Assembly chamber and demanded a commission
authorizing him to march out against the Indians.
The Assembly went on to provide for the Indian war, and made Nathaniel Bacon,
Jr., general and commander-in-chief, which was ratified by the governor and
council. An act was also passed indemnifying Bacon and his party for their
violent acts; and a highly-applausive letter was prepared, justifying Bacon's
designs and proceedings, addressed to the king and subscribed by the governor,
council, and Assembly. Sir William Berkeley at the same time communicated to the
house a letter addressed to his majesty, saying, "I have above thirty years
governed the most flourishing country the sun ever shone over, but am now
encompassed with rebellion like waters, in every respect like that of
Masaniello, except their leader."
[The new general, who found himself strongly supported by the Assembly and the
colonists, at once proceeded with energy to fulfil the duties of his position.]
His vigorous measures at once restored confidence to the planters, and they
resumed their occupations. Bacon, at the head of a thousand men, marched against
the Pamunkies, killing many and destroying their towns. Meanwhile the people of
Gloucester, the most populous and loyal county, having been disarmed by Bacon,
petitioned the governor for protection against the savages. Reanimated by this
petition, he again proclaimed Bacon a rebel and a traitor, and hastened over to
Gloucester. Summoning the train-bands of that county and Middlesex, to the
number of twelve hundred men, he proposed to them to pursue and put down the
rebel Bacon,--when the whole assembly unanimously shouted, "Bacon! Bacon!
Bacon!" and withdrew from the field, still repeating the name of that popular
leader, the Patrick Henry of his day, and leaving the aged cavalier governor and
his attendants to themselves. The issue was now fairly joined between the people
and the governor. .
Bacon, before he reached the head of York River, hearing from Lawrence and
Drummond of the governor's movements, exclaimed, that "it vexed him to the heart
that, while he was hunting wolves which were destroying innocent lambs, the
governor and those with him should pursue him in the rear with full cry; and
that he was like corn between two millstones, which would grind him to powder if
he didn't look to it." He marched immediately back against the governor, who,
finding himself abandoned, again, on the twenty-ninth of July, proclaimed Bacon
a rebel, and made his escape, with a few friends, down York River and across the
Chesapeake Bay to Accomac, on the Eastern Shore.
[A series of events of secondary importance succeeded, which we cannot
particularize. It will suffice to say that the movement was diverted more and
more from an expedition against the Indians to a civil war, in which the
adherents of Bacon took strong ground against Berkeley and advised his forcible
deposal. A successful operation against the Baconites induced the governor to
return to Jamestown, from which the friends of Bacon retired.]
During these events Bacon was executing his designs against the Indians. As soon
as he had despatched Bland to Accomac, he crossed the James River at his own
house, at Curles, and surprising the Appomattox Indians, who lived on both sides
of the river of that name, a little below the falls (now Petersburg), he burnt
their town, killed a large number of the tribe, and dispersed the rest. .
From the falls of the Appomattox, Bacon traversed the country to the southward,
destroying many towns on the banks of the Nottoway, the Meherrin, and the
Roanoke. His name had become so formidable that the natives fled everywhere
before him, and, having nothing to subsist upon, save the spontaneous
productions of the country, several tribes perished, and they who survived were
so reduced as to be never afterwards able to make any firm stand against the
Long-knives, and gradually became tributary to them.
Bacon, having exhausted his provisions, had dismissed the greater part of his
forces before Lawrence, Drummond, Hansford, and the other fugitives from
Jamestown joined him. Upon receiving intelligence of the governor's return,
Bacon, collecting a force variously estimated at one hundred and fifty, three
hundred, and eight hundred, harangued them on the situation of affairs, and
marched back upon Jamestown, leading his Indian captives in triumph before him.
The contending parties came now to be distinguished by the names of Rebels and
Royalists. Finding the town defended by a palisade ten paces in width, running
across the neck of the peninsula, he rode along the work and reconnoitred the
governor's position. Then, dismounting from his horse, he animated his fatigued
men to advance at once, and, leading them close to the palisade, sounded a
defiance with the trumpet, and fired upon the garrison. The governor remained
quiet, hoping that want of provisions would soon force Bacon to retire; but he
supplied his troops from Sir William Berkeley's seat, at Greenspring, three
miles distant. He afterwards complained that "his dwelling-house at Greenspring
was almost ruined; his household goods, and others of great value, totally
plundered; that he had not a bed to lie on; two great beasts, three hundred
sheep, seventy horses and mares, all his corn and provisions, taken away."
Bacon adopted a singular stratagem, and one hardly compatible with the rules of
chivalry. Sending out small parties of horse, he captured the wives of several
of the principal loyalists then with the governor, and among them the lady of
Colonel Bacon, Sr., Madame Bray, Madame Page, and Madame Ballard. Upon their
being brought into the camp, Bacon sends one of them into Jamestown to carry
word to their husbands that his purpose was to place their wives in front of his
men in case of a sally. Colonel Ludwell reproaches the rebels with "ravishing of
women from their homes, and hurrying them about the country in their rude camps,
often threatening them with death." But, according to another and more impartial
authority, Bacon made use of the ladies only to complete his battery, and
removed them out of harm's way at the time of the sortie. He raised by moon
light a circumvallation of trees, earth, and brushwood around the governor's
outworks. At daybreak next morning the governor's troops, being fired upon, made
a sortie; but they were driven back, leaving their drum and their dead behind
them. Upon the top of the work which he had thrown up, and where alone a sally
could be made, Bacon exhibited the captive ladies to the views of their husbands
and friends in the town, and kept them there until he completed his works.
[As a result of these active proceedings, the followers of Berkeley, though
superior in numbers to those of Bacon, and well intrenched, hastily retired,
leaving their antagonist master of the situation. Bacon at once determined to
burn the town, so that the "rogues should harbor there no more." It was
accordingly set on fire and laid in ashes. Jamestown, at this period, consisted
of a church and some sixteen or eighteen well-built brick houses. Its population
was about a dozen families, since all the houses were not inhabited.]
Bacon now marched to York River, and crossed at Tindall's (Gloucester) Point, in
order to encounter Colonel Brent, who was marching against him from the Potomac
with twelve hundred men. But the greater part of his men, hearing of Bacon's
success, deserting their colors declared for him, "resolving, with the Persians,
to go and worship the rising sun." Bacon, making his head-quarters at Colonel
Warmer's, called a convention in Gloucester, and administered the oath to the
people of that county, and began to plan another expedition against the Indians,
or, as some report, against Accomac, when he fell sick of a dysentery brought on
by exposure. Retiring to the house of a Dr. Pate, and lingering for some weeks,
he died. Some of the loyalists afterwards reported that he died of a loathsome
disease, and by a visitation of God; which is disproven by T. M.'s Account, by
that published in the Virginia Gazette, and by the Report of the King's
Commissioners. Some of Bacon's friends suspected that he was taken off by
poison; but of this there is no proof. .
The place of Bacon's interment has never been discovered, it having been
concealed by his friends, lest his remains should be insulted by the vindictive
Berkeley, in whom old age appears not to have mitigated the fury of the
passions. According to one tradition, in order to screen Bacon's body from
indignity, stones were laid on his coffin by his friend Lawrence, as was
supposed; according to others, it was conjectured that the body had been buried
in the bosom of the majestic York, where the winds and the waves might still
repeat his requiem.
[The death of Bacon ended the rebellion, though disastrous consequences to his
adherents followed. Berkeley sated his revengeful spirit upon those who fell
into his hands, many of whom were executed. The governor had sent to England for
troops, and employed them in executing his schemes of revenge. The Assembly at
last insisted that these executions should cease. Nothing decisive was gained by
the rebellion, yet it clearly showed the spirit of resistance to tyranny in the
Virginians.
The determination not to submit to tyranny, of which we have particularized
several instances in the colonies, declared itself in the Carolinas at the same
period. Several open revolts there took place, which may be briefly described.
Many of the adherents of Bacon had taken refuge in North Carolina, where they
were welcomed, and it is probable that their influence intensified the
democratic sentiment of the people, who soon after broke out into rebellion
against the arbitrary revenue laws. A vessel from New England was seized as a
smuggler, upon which the people flew to arms, and imprisoned the president of
the colony and six of his council. The people chose their own governors for
several years thereafter. In 1688 another revolt occurred against Seth Sothel,
one of the proprietors, and governor of the province. He was tried for
oppressing the people, and banished from the colony. Revolts of a like character
took place in South Carolina. Governor Colleton, who sought to carry out Locke's
system of government, and to collect the rents claimed by the proprietors, drove
the people into a rebellion. They took possession of the public records, and
held an Assembly despite the governor, who thereupon called out the militia and
proclaimed martial law. This increased the exasperation of the colonists, and
the governor was impeached and banished. He was succeeded by Seth Sothel, who
had been banished from North Carolina. In 1692, after two years of tyranny, this
governor was also deposed and banished. The "Grand Model" of government of Locke
had by this time very effectually lost its potency.]
Charles Campbell
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