The episode named Bacon’s Rebellion is a mere footnote in American Colonial history, yet some historians have claimed to divine
the early stirrings of the spirit
of liberty. More have placed the blame on the ego clash between
a stubborn and out of touch Royal Governor and a reckless
upstart schemer. While the latter is
more likely, the fact was that despite
the manifest defects of the rebellion’s leader, his cause united the genuinely discontented from
all parts and levels of Virginia society
from a disgruntled planter elite to
the vulnerable and exposed small farmers on the frontier and included bonded and indentured servants both Black
and White as well as the small class of tradesmen and artisans.
Sir
William Berkeley, 70 years of age, was the Royal Governor of Virginia in 1676. He was in the second of two long terms, interrupted by the accession of Cromwell and the Roundheads to
power in the Mother Country. He was a devoted
royalist and Cavalier who had gained his first appointment in 1740 for loyal service to Charles I in peace and war.
With the governorship came a generous
grant and he built his plantation
Green Spring near the capital of Jamestown. Colonial administration was not then an onerous duty, so Berkeley had plenty of
time to dedicate to his plantation, on which he was determined to find and grow suitable crops to diversify the colony’s near total economic dependence on tobacco. As governor he was popular and respected.
When deposed by a Roundhead fleet in 1652, Berkeley was allowed to remain free on his plantation.
With the Restoration, Charles II was quick to restore him to
power in 1660. At first his second
administration seemed destined to match the success of the first. At least he had the full and enthusiastic support of the planter class who governed the colony hand-in-hand
with him through their absolute control of
the Council and of House of Burgesses. A cornerstone
of the Governor’s administration was his policy toward the native
tribes. He cultivated the loyalty of several tribes still inhabiting parts of the Tidewater
country and their related tribes
further inland as allies against other, more aggressive tribes who harassed settlers on the exposed frontier. It was actually a sensible policy and prevented
a disastrous general uprising like the Powhatan
Uprising of 1622 which had almost
driven the colony back into the sea.
But after several years in office,
there was trouble in
paradise. The colony was coming up
against pile-up of
problems and disasters. Despite Berkeley’s patient efforts, his
fellow planters had resisted all his efforts to induce them to diversify their crops. Now the oldest
of the plantations were beginning to lose
their fertility—tobacco leached
nutrients out of the soil like nobody’s business—and with new competition from Maryland and North Carolina the price in England was falling. The English economy was wracked by taxation in support of a series of mostly losing naval wars
with the Dutch. Prices of imported manufactured goods on which the planter lifestyle relied, were skyrocketing. And the Crown’s
increasingly mercantile policy barred trade with other potential customers and suppliers. The Virginia economy was in a shambles. Meanwhile, on the frontier there were more
frequent clashes with hostile tribes and friendly tribes were being alienated by deceitful trading practices and sometimes the outright theft of valuable fur pelts.
Then in the span of a single year the colony was ravaged by hurricanes, floods, hail,
and tobacco blight.
Under the circumstances discontent
was growing in all levels of society.
Berkeley hardly seemed to notice. Enter just the man to stir the pot and take advantage of all that malaise. Nathaniel
Bacon was a very wealthy young man
of 28 years when he landed in Virginia in 1675.
Although he arrived with a handsome
fortune of £1800, the gift of his father, he had essentially been shipped to the colonies
in disgrace for reckless shenanigans at home.
He had wed the daughter of a wealthy
Peer, Sir Edward Duke, without permission and in some way had fleeced an acquaintance out of his inheritance. It seems his
father got him out of the country one step ahead of the Sheriff.
It turned out the Governor
Berkeley’s wife, Frances Culpeper,
was Bacon’s first cousin by marriage. Berkeley warmly welcomed the young man to the
colony’s elite, helped him secure two fine plantations, and appointed
him to the Governor’s Council. That was
a rapid ascent to the highest levels of society in record time.
Bacon had no interest in running his plantations. He left their management to overseers and settled in Jamestown to
best advance his cause and a career. Almost immediately
he pressed for an appointment to a Militia command.
The spark that set off what became a rebellion was a raid on the plantation of Thomas Mathews located
in the Northern Neck section of
Virginia near the Potomac River by
members of the Doeg tribe in July of
1675. Two of Mathew’s men and several
tribesmen were killed. Outraged locals raised a force and
pursued the Indians across the river into Maryland and attacked the wrong tribe—the peaceful Susquehanaugs. That led to reprisal raids and then a joint
attack by Virginia and Maryland Militia on a main Susqueanaug fortified village. When five
chiefs were invited to a peace parley they were murdered by the Militiamen.
That set off a general frontier war with several
tribes or elements of tribes joining the Doge and Susquehanaugs in raids on
both sides of the Potomac. Within a
month 60 whites were dead in Maryland and 35 in Virginia. Raiding spread as far as the James and York Rivers well into the Tidewater country. Panic spread across the frontier along with demands for action from Berkeley who up to this
point had refused to
commit troops under his authority to the war.
With his peace policy now in a shambles,
Berkeley desperately tried to salvage it.
His pleas for restraint fell on deaf ears as self-organized militia units rampaged
indiscriminately against any Indians they could find. Young Bacon was making a name for himself as a self-appointed captain on some of these raids. When he fell on a band of long friendly Appomattox for supposedly stealing corn, he took several hostages and threatened
to execute them. Berkeley demanded their release. Bacon refused. Instead, he demanded a regular commission in the official
Militia and a carte blanch to conduct
unrestricted war on all of the tribes to drive them out of Virginia.
The Governor refused that
demand.
In March of 1676 the
Governor convened the so-called Long Assembly to deal with the rising crisis and assuage his critics on the frontier who were
siding with the rebellious Bacon. The
Assembly declared war on the “outlaw” tribes but offered protection to loyal tribes who would prove their trustworthiness by surrendering
their weapons. To deal with the
war crisis, the Assembly leveled
unpopular taxes to raise an
army and to build a
string of frontier forts to which he urged
isolated settlers to retreat. He hoped the forts would create a strong defensive zone around the core of the colony with a defended
by a disciplined armed force accountable to the Governor and Assembly.
Since an investigation
of the initial incident at Miller’s plantation revealed that the Doge had
attacked after Miller had stolen pelts
from them and shorted them on
promised trade goods, Berkeley also ordered that all trade with the tribes be
conducted by licensed traders under strictly regulated
conditions. This gored the oxen of many
frontier planters who doubled as traders, and of Bacon who had his plantation
overseers conducting trade. Frontiersmen found the measures inadequate and did not want to abandon their farms. The Tidewater
aristocrats, as always, were outraged by the heavy taxes necessary to raise the
army and build the forts. Bacon began playing the resentments of all like a fiddle.
Bacon now began to move in the direction of rebellion. When western
settlers convened a
meeting to discuss what to do about the governor’s fortress plan, Bacon, a stranger to most of them, showed up with a few dozen of his own men and
several hogsheads of Brandy.
He convinced the settlers to elect
him General for operations against the natives in defiance of the Governor’s
policy.
Gathering a force of a few hundred men, Bacon struck first against a fat,
easy target—the undefended villages
of the peaceful Pamunkeys, longtime allies who possessed valuable lands in the Tidewater. Berkeley reacted
with unexpected firmness. He personally took command of 300
well-armed gentlemen and rode on
Bacon’s camp at Henrico sending the
rebellious general fleeing into the forests with a
couple of hundred loyalists, some of whom promptly abandoned him.
The governor issued proclamations
formally branding Bacon a Rebel but offering amnesty to any of his followers who would
surrender. Bacon was formally removed from the Council but
promised transportation to England
for a fair trial.
Bacon’s answer was another attack on a peaceful tribe, this time against the Occaneecheee along the Roanoke River, the border between
Virginia and North Carolina. His prize
was a large and valuable cache of beaver pelts.
Up to this point the
issue of the rebellion centered on demands for a vigorous campaign to expel the
tribes from the colony. But the taxes
levied to support the Governor’s new armed force and build his chain of forts
not only pinched the Tidewater planters, but they also hit tradesmen—and by
extension their apprentices and bond servants. A hue
and cry went up accusing the governor of being a ruthless tyrant, of playing
favorites with his appointments—for instance refusing to
give Bacon a commission—and of corruption
for appointing cronies as tax collectors
and approved traders. Agitation for a broader extension of the franchise by reducing property qualifications and to include
most free holding yeomen farmers and
tradesmen of property and for a new
election added to the general
turmoil in the colony.
For his part, the tyrant
Berkeley was willing to compromise. With his support the Long
Assembly did broaden the franchise—perhaps
not as much as all had hoped—and called new elections for the Burgesses. Despite his official outlaw status Bacon was elected and although an aristocrat
with no interest in reform for the common mob, the
General became the leader of a broader social movement that he could not really control.
More flocked to his banner, including workers, apprentices, and even bond servants
that hoped a general reform would
somehow benefit them as well.
At this point a word on the status of servitude in colonial Virginia of this era is important. At the time there
was no lifelong, generationally transmittable chattel
slavery. Early in the colony’s history natives captured in war were enslaved, but they proved to be highly unsatisfactory, especially as laborers on tobacco
plantations—they tended to run off quickly or die.
Those who did survive,
including many in domestic service,
were held for their lifetimes only. Neither their mates nor children were automatically enslaved. By this time relatively few remained as slaves, although the current war was rounding up new candidates.
To meet the labor needs
the planters turned to indentured
servitude. Labor was recruited in England from the impoverished classes and even among the
younger sons and daughters of the middle class who had no hope for an inheritance or a career. In exchange
for passage to the New World and a chance to start over there, they pledged their labor for a period of years—usually seven. During
that time in addition to labor for a master, they could farm a
small plot for their own subsistence and profit and even earn wages for work when not
required by their masters. At the
end of their service, the former bondsman or woman was free, hopefully having saved enough money to
establish himself. Some did succeed in earning money enough and were among those who dared establish
farms on the exposed edges of
settlement. Many, however, were
reduced to becoming day laborers, thieves, and in cases of many
women, prostitutes.
The first Blacks arrived in Jamestown as early as 1619. But they and those who followed from Africa and the Caribbean were also
indentured and could achieve
their freedom. By 1650 a little
more than 1% of the colony’s population was Black, about half of those having already achieved their
freedom. The pace of new arrivals had picked up since then
and larger but still minority portions of bondsman were of African origin by the time of the uprising.
White, Black, and Indian bondsmen worked side by side, lived side by side, and mixed freely—including intermarriage. Having more
in common with each other than with their masters, or
even with the free yeomanry this
class and those who had emerged from it to gain their freedom, flocked to the Rebels although none of the reform proposals seemed to be of direct benefit to them. Their growing presence in the un-official
militias alarmed the rebels more patrician supporters, but some thought, like Bacon, that they
could be safely employed.
Emboldened by
his election to the House of Burgesses, Bacon came to the capital in June of
1676 to claim his seat during deliberations on several reforms, including additional expansion of the
franchise for free holders and term limits for office holders. He also hoped to force his commission as general in charge of the Indian war. Berkeley had him arrested, hauled before the House, and forced him to make a humiliating confession. Then, in a grand gesture meant to be conciliatory, Berkeley pardoned Bacon for his offenses, allowed him to take his seat, and even promised to consider his commission if he remained on good behavior.
Bacon would not have it. He abruptly left the House in the midst of a heated debate on Indian policy.
Short days later he returned at
the head of 500 armed men who surrounded
the Statehouse. Berkeley personally emerged to confront him. Bacon stepped
forward and leveled a
pistol at the Governor demanding that he be made General. The governor then defiantly bared his breast and demanded “Here shoot me
before God, fair mark shoot.” The bluff had been called. Bacon could not shoot down a Royal Governor in cold blood and hope to avoid
the relentless wrath of the
Crown and the headsman’s
ax as a traitor.
Bacon lowered his pistol
but ordered his men to turn their arms on the members of the House
who had spilled out of the building behind the governor, who quickly gave in to his demands for
a wider war and for Generalship.
Berkeley, his authority in taters, retreated inside.
While his army was
threatening the legislature, it left
the frontier exposed and
eight colonists were killed on in Henrico
County. Rather than rush to the
defense Bacon kept most of his forces close to the capital. On July 30 he issued a proclamation, the
Declaration of the People of Virginia which
criticized Berkeley’s administration in detail. It accused him of levying unfair taxes, appointing friends
to high positions, and failing to protect frontier settlers from Indian attack.
Berkeley, however, was allowed to leave Jamestown and
once again retire to Green Spring where he plotted
his own counter moves. He briefly
attempted a counter coup against
Bacon but failed and was forced to flee to Accomack County on the Eastern
Shore where he found allies
among the alarmed planters and especially among the merchants who possessed armed merchantmen
and large crews.
Bacon was forced to attend to attacks on the
Frontier or lose his support. He attacked the Pamunkey, a tribe had
remained allies of the English throughout other Native American raids and had
been supplying warriors to aid the English when Bacon took power.
While he was gone,
Berkeley’s merchant allies infiltrated the crews of Bacon’s small fleet and captured the men and ships. The
governor then re-occupied the capital and fortified it with new palisades. Knowing that Bacon was returning to
Jamestown with a large force, Berkeley arrested
the wives and family members of leading rebels, including Bacon’s mother, and forced them to stand on the ramparts as the
Rebels approached on September 19, 1676,
Outraged, Bacon ordered the fortress and the city burned to the ground. Berkeley and his followers managed to escape. The rebels pursued him and burned Green
Spring, but the governor slipped away.
It probably did not take Bacon long to realize that
he had over played his hand. Burning a capital was as bad as executing a
governor. Not long after he left the smoldering ruins
and his troops for his estate. He met an end lacking in any grace or dignity. On October 26th, 1676, Bacon abruptly died of the Bloodie Flux—dysentery—and Lousey Disease—body lice. It is possible his soldiers burned his contaminated body because it was never found. Of course this gave rise to the usual legends of the return of a great hero when his people need him. But fewer
and fewer were regarded him as a hero.
John Ingram
assumed leadership of the Rebellion
but found many of his supporters and forces drifting away. By the time reinforcements arrived from England
resistance was isolated in a few pockets which Berkeley’s forces soon crushed. Score were arrested
and the property and estates of leaders were seized. Berkeley hanged
23 men including William Drummond,
the former governor of the Albemarle Sound colony.
Back in England, Charles
II was appalled by the vendetta. Berkeley was recalled and replaced by Richard Bennett. The King by totally unconfirmed legend supposedly
quipped, “That old fool has
put to death more people in that naked country than I did here for the murder
of my father.” Berkeley died in disgrace on July 9, 1677.
Back in Virginia the new
governor secured a peace with the warring tribes, but sustained Berkeley defensive plan,
including the frontier forts and the establishment
of a Virginal Regiment. Nearly a
century later a young officer named George Washington would become Colonel of the Virginia Blues
and conduct campaigns against hostile tribes from similar forts, now pushed further west.
The new administration
undertook more reforms to assuage unhappiness, but the Royal Governor also now
asserted far more authority than was ever the case under Berkeley. Despite claims, diligent historians have
found no direct links between Bacon’s Rebellion and the Revolutionary generation a century later.
On the other hand, the
Tidewater elite had been terrified by
the united participation of
the Black and White bondsmen.
Eventually, to break up social
equality and collusion among
this class, real chattel slavery was introduced, driving a wedge between White laborers, and the
“cheap competition” of Black
slaves. There was the codification of slave codes and the introduction of a plantation system on a grander scale than ever. By1776 the Virginia economy and way of
life was utterly dependent on
slavery.
The rebellion was just
the first of a long series of uprisings on the frontiers from New England south to Georgia that would periodically erupt. Failure
to protect settlers from Native harassment was a frequent cause, but so was the
sense the colonial and later state
and Federal governments did not understand their needs or were actively oppressing them. Examples include the Green Mountain Boys’ long paramilitary
campaign to break what became Vermont away from claims by New
York, Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts, the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania,
and attempts by settlers in
the trans-Appalachian west to
establish a breakaway country or align with the Spanish in
New Orleans in the early years of the 19th Century.
But Nathaniel Bacon as
the great hero of a popular democratic uprising? Well, that
fat just won’t fry…
No comments:
Post a Comment