Bacon's Rebellion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)
This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

Bacon's Rebellion or the Virginia Rebellion was an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony, led by Nathaniel Bacon. It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part; a similar uprising in Maryland occurred later that year. The uprising was a protest against the governor of Jamestown. Nathaniel Bacon demanded an aggressive Native American policy.


Contents

[edit] Background

By the end of the seventeenth century in the area around the Chesapeake Bay, the elite farmers on the Atlantic coast (the "Tidewater gentry") owned much of the best farmland in the area and exercised political power disproportionate to their numbers. The most numerous residents in the colony were small farmers, indentured servants and slaves, who had many reasons to be discontented. Small farmers, unable to afford the best lands, were relegated to backcountry lands vulnerable to attacks by Native Americans. Backcountry farmers also had difficulty moving their goods to markets, as Virginia's economy stagnated after 1660.

Chronic overproduction of an inferior quality of tobacco, aggravated by restrictive features of the Navigation Acts, drove the price of tobacco down.[1] Expensive experimentation with methods of diversifying the economy and the need for defense against the Dutch and the Indians resulted in high taxes. In 1674 both the Home Office and the local government taxed the colonists in order to send agents to London to lobby against the proprietary land grants to Lord Arlington and Lord Culpepper.[2] Circumstances conspired to exacerbate the planters' miseries, and the ineffectual leadership of the colonial governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, led to a general disaffection toward the government.

[edit] Events

A flare-up in troubles with the Indians began in July 1675 with a raid by the Doeg tribe on the plantation of Thomas Mathews, located in the Northern Neck section of Virginia near the Potomac River. The situation became critical when, in retaliation, the colonists attacked a different native nation, the Susquehannocks, which set in motion large-scale native raids.[3] To prevent future attacks and to bring the matter under control, Governor Berkeley ordered an investigation into the matter. He set up what was to be a disastrous meeting between the parties, which resulted in the murders of several tribal leaders. The killing of the Susquehannock envoys touched off a series of Indian atrocities throughout the area, lasting through the fall and winter of 1675-76.[4]

Throughout the crisis, Berkeley would not call out a military force, but continually pleaded for restraint from the colonists. Some, including Nathaniel Bacon, refused to listen.

Bacon was a young man living on his plantation on the James River near "Curl's Wharf". He had been born into a prominent English family and had studied law and traveled throughout Europe before coming to Virginia with his wife shortly before this time. Bacon was respected for his abilities and character, was known to criticize things freely, and had broad support among the colonists.[5] In the spring of 1676, one of the roving bands of Indians killed the overseer of Bacon's plantation.[6] He demanded a commission to raise a militia and fight the Indians. After much political haggling, Bacon was granted the commission and led a campaign against some of the tribes on the northwestern frontier of the Virginia colony.

Nathaniel Bacon disregarded the Governor's direct orders by seizing some friendly members of the Appomattox tribe for allegedly stealing corn. To compromise, Berkeley supplied the "Indians" with powder and ammunition and called the "Long Assembly" in March 1676. After returning to Jamestown, conflicts arose between Bacon and Berkeley and their followers. The so-called Baconites overpowered the Berkeley faction and the governor then fled to the Eastern Shore. Bacon's followers ravaged the capital for three months, destroying the symbols of the aristocratic government.

The Declaration of the People was established, echoing the Commonwealth of England, which had ended 16 years earlier. Bacon died on October 26, 1676, of the "bloody flux" or dysentery. The rebellion continued until several well-armed London-based merchant ships, loyal to Berkeley, arrived in Virginia. These were trading ships whose captains were not aware of the rebellion until they arrived. A fleet of the Royal Navy set sail for Virginia upon hearing of the rebellion but would not arrive until several months after the merchant ships. With these merchant ships, cannon and crews, Berkeley was able to put down the rebellion. In the aftermath, before the arrival of the Royal Navy, Berkeley tried and executed many rebels in what began to resemble a reign of terror. When the Royal Navy and Royal Commissioners arrived, Berkeley's revenge campaign was halted and mass pardons were issued. A significant number of rebels fled to the Albemarle Settlements of North Carolina.

Nathaniel Bacon's Rebellion can be attributed to several causes. Economic problems such as declining tobacco prices, growing commercial competition from Maryland and the Carolinas, an increasingly restricted English market and the rising price of English manufactured goods (mercantilism) caused problems for the Virginians. There were many problems caused by weather; several natural disasters including hailstorms, floods, drought and hurricanes rocked the colony in one year. Virginia had also become a haven for Roundheads and Cavaliers during the English Civil War. Bacon's Rebellion was partly caused when the colonists launched a retaliatory attack but on the wrong tribe, the Susquehannocks, which caused large Indian raids in reprisal.

Berkeley ordered an investigation into the reasons for the attacks, during which he pleaded for restraint on all sides, but many Virginians claimed that Berkeley had monopolized the Indian trade and was making large profits from the Indians, and found his call for restraint insincere. Nathaniel Bacon ignored the Governor's orders and seized some friendly Appomattox natives on a charge of stealing corn. He was reprimanded and his fellow farmers were aggrieved at this seemingly one-sided action. In attempting to find a compromise, the Governor called what was known as the "Long Assembly" which declared war on all the "bad Indians" by setting up a defensive zone around the state. To do this taxes were levied, to the disgust of the frontiersmen, who were already overtaxed. There was an ill-feeling among the middle and lower classes that "favored traders" were allowed to trade with the Indians at the expense of regular traders who had dealt with the Indians for generations.

Bacon came out as leader of those most in opposition to the policies being pursued by Berkeley and he became the elected "general" of a group of local volunteer Indian fighters, having promised to bear the cost of the campaigns. During the campaign against the Indians, the governor nonetheless declared Bacon a rebel.

[edit] Bacon and the House of Burgesses

Bacon and his men continued to attack the tribes. Because Bacon's forces outnumbered Berkeley's, the governor was forced to issue a pardon if Bacon would turn himself in and go to England for trial before King Charles II of England. Many of the members of the House of Burgesses were sympathetic to Bacon's cause, which led to his election as a member of the House.

Bacon, by virtue of this election, attended the important Legislative Assembly of June 1676, where the assembly forced him to apologize for his previous actions. Berkeley immediately pardoned Bacon and allowed him to take his seat in the assembly. Bacon and his followers pushed for more than defense against the Indians by demanding major reforms to the colonial government. Matters came to a head during a debate on the Indian situation when Bacon and his men surrounded the capitol building in Jamestown and forced the Governor to give in to Bacon's demand for campaigns against the Indians without government interference. This concession was short-lived and when Berkeley reneged on the commission, the rebels took over Jamestown between 30 July (when Bacon issued his Declaration of the People of Virginia) and September 1676.

When Berkeley returned to recapture the town, aided by well-armed merchant ships, Bacon burned it. For a short time Nathaniel Bacon was in charge of Virginia but his success quickly ended. On 26 October 1676, Bacon died of the "Bloody Flux" and "Lousey Disease" (body lice). Because his body subsequently disappeared, rumors abounded that his soldiers burned his body. Some of the rebels were executed or had their property confiscated. After the Royal Navy and Royal Commissioners arrived, the rebels expressed their grievances and the government issued mass pardons. The commissioners realized that the majority of Virginians had supported the rebellion. For the colony of Virginia to survive, compromises had to be made. The Royal Commissioners relieved Berkeley of his governorship. He died in England on 9 July 1677.

[edit] Effects of the Rebellion

 This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

Bacon's Rebellion was the result of discontent among backcountry farmers who had taken the law into their own hands against government corruption and oppression. Many Virginians were debtors. Borrowing on the strength of paper money was stopped by the British Government, leading to more discontent against the merchant classes.

Historians have pointed out that one of the most important reforms made during Bacon's government was the recognition of the right to keep and bear arms, so that the common man could defend himself from hostile Indians but also to oppose a despotic regime. After Berkeley's resumption of power, this right was one of the first he repealed. Miller suggests it was Bacon's Rebellion that may have served as one of the motives for later colonists' insistence for the right to bear arms. Historian Stephen Saunders Webb suggests that Bacon's Rebellion was a revolution, with roots in the English Civil War and with consequences including the American Revolutionary War.

It was largely the indentured servants and poor farmers (most of whom were former indentured servants or their descendants) who rebelled. Before the rebellion, African slaves were rare in Virginia, chiefly due to their expense and the lack of slave traders bringing Africans to Virginia. Africans were often brought as indentured servants, becoming free after serving their term of labor. Indentured servants from Europe continued to play a role in Virginia after the rebellion. Due to the demand for labor and a decrease in immigrants from England, African slave imports grew rapidly. New Virginia laws made slavery lifelong and a status inherited by one's children, creating a racially based class system with Africans at the bottom. Even the poorest European indentured servants were above them. This broke the common interest between the poor English and Africans of Virginia which had existed during Bacon's Rebellion.

The rebellion strengthened the ties between Virginia south of the James River and the Albemarle Settlements in present-day North Carolina, while creating a long-lasting animosity between the two colonies' governments. The Albemarle region offered refuge for rebels in the aftermath. In the long term, North Carolina offered an alternative to colonists disenchanted with Virginia.

[edit] Bacon's Castle

In Surry County, Virginia, 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. Contrary to popular folklore, Nathaniel Bacon never lived at Bacon's Castle nor is even known to have occupied it. 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] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ John Fiske (1897). Old Virginia and Her Neighbours. Houghton Mifflin & Co., Vol. II, pp. 51-52.
  2. ^ Wesley Frank Craven (1970). The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 1607-1689. Louisiana State University Press, p. 376.
  3. ^ Fiske (1897), pp. 58-59.
  4. ^ Fiske (1897), pp. 62-63.
  5. ^ Fiske (1897), pp. 64-65.
  6. ^ Craven (1970), p. 380.

[edit] References

  • Frantz, John B. Bacon's Rebellion: Prologue to the Revolution? (1969)
  • Johnson, Paul. A History of the American People. (1997), 77-78
  • Lovejoy, David S. "The Virginia Charter and Bacon's Rebellion," in The Glorious Revolution in America (1972), 32-52.
  • Morgan, Edmund Sears. "Rebellion," in American Slavery, American Freedom:The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (New York: Norton, 1975), 250-70.
  • Takaki, Ronald T. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Back Bay Books (2004), pp. 62-67. ISBN 0316831115.
  • Washburn, W. E. The Governor and the Rebel (1957, repr. 1967).
  • Webb, Stephen Saunders, 1676 - The End of American Independence. (New York: 1984).
  • Wertenbaker, T. J. Torchbearer of the Revolution (1940, rpt. 1965)
  • Wertenbaker, T. J. Bacon's Rebellion, 1676 (1957)

[edit] External links