The Legacy of Bacon's Rebellion

the Virginia government refused to respond, more rancorous attacks occurred in outlying white settlements along the frontier of Maryland and Virginia. More attacks by English settlers would soon follow, intent on "takeing up the very Townes or Lands (the Indians) are seated upon, turning their Cattell and hoggs on them, and if by vermin or otherwise any be lost, then they exclaime against the Indians, beate & abuse them."⁵

Virginia governor Berkeley initially raised a force to wage war against the Susquehannocks, but later recalled it before any further bloodshed. Instead he would opt for a defensive policy. At Berkeley's request, the legislature attempted to quell anti-Indian hysteria by authorizing the building of forts "at the head of each great river" and would be manned by some 500 soldiers from the lower counties. Natives in this region would be permitted to trade with the forts if they enrolled against the enemy, but all private trade was forbidden. Berkeley's opponents in the lower counties saw this as an attempt for the wealthy elite to profit from the new policy. The new forts, many believed, "would contribute more to the wealth of the men who built them than to the security of the people they were supposed to protect." What was more, in order to pay the soldiers and for the building of the forts, a huge levy would have to be paid by the poorer farmers, the commoners.⁶

II

Enter Nathaniel Bacon. Bacon was a relative newcomer to the Virginia colony, having made a modest fortune for himself in England and intent on making a good start in America as well. He and Berkeley were somewhat close and Bacon's wife was friendly with Lady Berkeley (apparently the two knew each other back in England). "He was a kinsman and a namesake of one of Virginia's elder statesmen," Edmund Morgan explains, "and though he was only twenty-nine years old, Berkeley nominated him at once to the council." Under Berkeley's direction, Bacon established a home upriver of Jamestown and a plantation farther still.⁷

Despite Nathaniel Bacon's connection to Berkeley and proclivity towards wealth, he had a disdain for the new Virginian elite - those from "vile" beginnings, whose "tottering fortunes have bin repared and supported at the Publique chardg." ⁸ He denounced the ascendancy of a "provincial elite lacking the traditional accouterments of power - old wealth, high social status, a 'liberal' education."⁹ This antipathy would bode well

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic