Nathaniel Bacon
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- For Nathaniel Bacon the Jesuit see Nathaniel Bacon (Jesuit).
Nathaniel Bacon (1640/6 – October 26, 1676) was a colonist and plantation owner of the Virginia Colony of Jamestown, famous for his "Virginia Rebellion," commonly known as Bacon's Rebellion, which ended in the burning of Jamestown to the ground. The rebellion collapsed after Bacon died of dysentery a month later.
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[edit] Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was begun by Nathaniel Bacon's disagreement with Royal Governor William Berkeley's friendly policies toward the Native Americans. Berkeley wanted to set up forts around Cheasapeake to keep the Native Americans out of town, but was advised that this would be insufficient and expensive. When Berkeley refused to retaliate for a series of Indian strikes on frontier settlements, Bacon rounded up a militia of 500 men (mostly servants and slaves) and with him they took matters into their own hands. They massacred Native Americans, attacking the peaceful Pamunkey (instead of the warlike Susquehannock) whom the Virginians were fighting at that time.
For this attack, Bacon became a local hero, especially among the colonists who both wanted to move west and hated the Indians. He wrote a Declaration of the People of Virginia in 1676, criticizing the Berkeley administration for levying unfair taxes, putting his favorites into high positions, and not protecting the western farmers from the Indians. In response to this, Governor Berkeley branded Bacon a traitor, but Bacon was later pardoned, having apologized.
Bacon then felt that Berkeley had gone back on his pledge to pursue the Indians, and his ire turned toward the colonial government. In the first popular rebellion in colonial America, Bacon led troops of lower-class planters, servants, and some free and enslaved blacks to Jamestown and burned the capital to the ground. Governor Berkeley, faced with a real uprising, fled. Bacon did not care even though Governor Berkeley was Bacon's kinsman.
As the insurrection continued in Virginia, an English naval squadron was sent to capture Bacon. He died, however, before they reached him, and William Berkeley was finally able to regain control. Governor Berkeley hanged twenty-three of Bacon's followers. King Charles II commented, "That old fool has put to death more people in that naked country than I did here for the murder of my father."
[edit] Identification controversy
No one knows for certain when he was born. An earlier attribution of him as the Nathaniel Bacon born in 1646 or 1647 appears to be spurious, based on no firm foundation, although widely repeated in later literature including Encyclopædia Britannica. The old Dictionary of National Biography does not give him a specific birthdate but does say he was "of Friston Hall". Although, from a contemporary document, his father is said to be "Thomas Bacon", his mother is not named and is unknown. She is not Elizabeth Brooke (even though this is repeated in many books), who in fact married a man named Nathaniel Bacon although that Nathaniel was a generation older than the one who this article is about.
[edit] Trivia
In Surry County, the Allen family's circa 1665 brick home became known as "Bacon's Castle" because it was occupied as a fort or "castle" in 1676 during Bacon's Rebellion. However, contrary to popular folklore, Nathaniel Bacon never lived at Bacon's Castle, or is even known to have occupied it. Instead, the rebellious Nathaniel Bacon was the proprietor of Curles Neck Plantation in Henrico County, about 30 miles upriver on the northern bank of the James River.
[edit] References
- Bailey, T., Kennedy, D., & Cohen, L. (eds.). (2002). The American Pageant, 12th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-10349-X.
