The Bacon Rebellion

The tyranny that was instituted by Andros in New England was paralleled by despotic proceedings in some of the other colonies. In Virginia these led to a rebellion which was for a time successful. Unlike the inhabitants of the more northerly colonies, the Virginians were stanch advocates of the Church of England and partisans of the king, and were intolerant alike of religious and democratic heresies. When Charles I. was executed the planters of Virginia declared for his son, and only submitted under show of force to the Commonwealth. They gladly welcomed Charles II. to the throne, and accepted with acclamation a royal governor, Sir William Berkeley. It was not long, however, ere they found reason for a change of opinion. Despotic measures were put in force, the Assembly, instead of being re-elected every two years, was kept permanently in session, and the inhabitants became the prey of venal office-holders. Commercial laws were instituted which bore severely upon the planters. Tobacco could be sent to none but English ports, and every tobacco-laden ship had to pay a heavy duty before leaving Virginia, and another on reaching England. Berkeley had the true composition of a tyrant, as is shown in his memorable utterance, "I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience into the world, and printing has divulged them and libels against the best governments. God keep us from both!"

To the evils above mentioned were added a series of Indian depredations, which grew in extent till more than three hundred of the settlers had been killed. The government showed little disposition to repress these savage outrages, and the people grew exasperated. At this juncture a young man named Nathaniel Bacon came forward as a leader, and the people readily supported him in what soon assumed the proportions of a rebellion against the constituted authorities. The story of this outbreak is well told in Campbell's "History of Virginia," from which we select its leading particulars.]

"ABOUT the year 1675," says an old writer, "appeared three prodigies in that country, which, from the attending disasters, were looked upon as ominous presages. The one was a large comet, every evening for a week or more at southwest, thirty-five degrees high, streaming like a horsetail westward, until it reached (almost) the horizon, and setting towards the northwest. Another was flights of wild pigeons, in breadth nigh a quarter of the mid-hemisphere, and of their length was no visible end; whose weights broke down the limbs of large trees whereon these rested at nights, of which the fowlers shot abundance, and ate them; this sight put the old planters under the more portentous apprehensions because the like was seen (as they said) in the year 1644, when the Indians committed the last massacre; but not after, until that present year, 1675. The third strange phenomenon was swarms of flies about an inch long, and big as the top of a man's little finger, rising out of spigot-holes in the earth, which ate the new-sprouted leaves from the tops of the trees, without other harm, and in a month left us."

These prodigies undoubtedly appeared to the superstitious inhabitants as omens of the disasters which at this time fell upon them in murdering incursions of the Indians. A large body of men proceeded against the Susquehannocks, whom they charged with these outrages. But the violent measures which they adopted only inflamed the passions of the savages, who at once broke into open hostilities.

At the falls of the James the savages had slain a servant of Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., and his overseer, to whom he was much attached. This was not the place of Bacon's residence: Bacon Quarter Branch, in the suburbs of Richmond, probably indicates the scene of the murder. Bacon himself resided at Curles, in Henrico County, on the lower James River. It is said that when he heard of the catastrophe he vowed vengeance. In that time of panic, the more exposed and defenceless families, abandoning their homes, took shelter together in houses, where they fortified themselves with palisades and redoubts. Neighbors, banding together, passed in co-operating parties from plantation to plantation, taking arms with them into the fields where they labored, and posting sentinels to give warning of the approach of the insidious foe. No man ventured out of doors unarmed. Even Jamestown was in danger. The red men, stealing with furtive glance through the shade of the forest, the noiseless tread of the moccasin scarce stirring a leaf, prowled around like panthers in quest of prey. At length the people at the head of the James and the York, having in vain petitioned the governor for protection, alarmed at the slaughter of their neighbors, often murdered with every circumstance of barbarity, rose tumultuously in self-defence, to the number of three hundred men, including most, if not all the officers, civil and military, and chose Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., for their leader. According to another authority, Bacon, before the murder of his overseer and servant, had been refused the commission, and had sworn that upon the next murder he should hear of he would march against the Indians, "commission or no commission.".