The Bacon Rebellion: Seth Sothel and Bacon's
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.]