The legislation of Bacon’s assembly concerning the suffrage and the vestries proves that the people whom he represented were not in sympathy with the political and social changes which had been growing up since the middle of the century. These enactments were a protest against the increasing tendency toward a more aristocratic type of society. It was, therefore, natural that a large majority of the aristocrats should have been opposed to Bacon. Doubtless they sympathized with his protests against legislative oppression and official corruption, but they did not approve of his levelling schemes. Their language concerning Bacon’s followers shows how they felt about them and toward them. William Sherwood calls them “ye scum of the Country.”[69] According to Philip Ludwell, deputy secretary and member of the council, Bacon “gathers about him a Rabble of the basest sort of People, whose Condicion was such, as by a chaunge could not admitt of worse, wth these he begins to stand at Defyance ag’t the Governm’t.”[70] Again, “Mr. Bacon had Gotten at severall places about 500 men, whose fortune and Inclinations being equally desperate, were ffit for ye purpose there being not 20 in ye whole Route, but what were Idle & will not worke, or such whose Debaucherie or Ill Husbandry has brought in Debt beyond hopes or thought of payment these are the men that are sett up ffor the Good of ye Countrey; who for ye ease of the poore will have noe taxes paied, though for ye most pt of them, they pay none themselves, would have all magistracie & Governm’nt taken away & sett up one themselves, & to make their Good Intentions more manifest stick not to talk openly of shareing mens Estates among themselves,[71] with these (being Drawne together) Mr. Bacon marches speedly toward the towne, etc.”[72] Governor Berkeley’s testimony should not be omitted; he wrote to the king in June, “I have above thirty-five years governed the most flourishing country the sun ever shone over, but am now encompassed with rebellion like waters in every respect like to that of Masaniello except their leader.”[73] In other words, the rebels were a mere rabble, except their leader, who was not a humble fisherman like the Italian, but a gentleman of high birth and breeding. According to the careful and fair-minded commissioners, Bacon “seduced the Vulgar and most ignorant People (two-thirds of each county being of that Sort) Soe that theire whole hearts and hopes were set now upon” him.[74]
The real state of the case.
Allowance for prejudice must of course be made in considering the general statements of hostile witnesses, such as Berkeley and Sherwood and Philip Ludwell. It is quite clear that Bacon’s followers were by no means all of the baser sort. This is distinctly recognized in a letter to the king by Thomas Ludwell and Robert Smith, containing proposals for reducing the rebels. In a certain event, they say, “there will be a speedy separation of the sound parts from the rabble.”[75] Here we have an explicit admission that there was a “sound part.” It will be remembered that Drummond had been a colonial governor, and that his house and Lawrence’s were the best in Jamestown. The officers we have met in the story, Hansford and Bland and Cheesman, were men of good family; and among the foremost men in the colony we are told that Colonel George Mason was inclined to sympathize with the insurgents.[76] In this he was clearly by no means alone. On the whole, however, there can be no doubt that Bacon’s cause was to a considerable extent the cause of the poor against the rich, of the humble folk against the grandees.
Effect of hard times.
Populist aspects of the rebellion.
Its sound aspects.
When we take into account this aspect of the case, which has never received the attention it deserves, the whole story becomes consistent and intelligible. The years preceding the rebellion were such as are commonly called “hard times.” People felt poor and saw fortunes made by corrupt officials; the fault was with the Navigation Act and with the debauched civil service of Charles II. and Berkeley. Besides these troubles, which were common to all, the poorer people felt oppressed by taxation in regard to which they were not consulted and for which they seemed to get no service in return.[77] The distribution of taxation by polls, equal amounts for rich and for poor, was resented as a cruel injustice.[78] The subject of taxation was closely connected with the Indian troubles, for people paid large sums for military defence and nevertheless saw their houses burned and their families massacred. Under these circumstances the sudden appearance of the brave and eloquent Bacon seemed to open the way of salvation. The indomitable queller of Indians could also curb the tyrant. Naturally, along with a more respectable element, the rabble gathered under his standard; it is always the case in revolutions with the men who have little or nothing to lose. It is likewise usual for men with much property at stake to be conservative on such occasions. Philip Ludwell’s statement, that some of the rebels entertained communistic notions, is just what one might have expected. There is always more or less socialist tomfoolery at such times. In some of its aspects there is a resemblance between Bacon’s rebellion and that of Daniel Shays in Massachusetts one hundred and ten years later. But the Massachusetts leader was a weak and silly creature, and his resistance to government had nothing to justify it, though there were palliating circumstances. The course of Bacon, on the other hand, was in the main a justifiable protest against misgovernment, and until after the oath at Middle Plantation a great deal of the sound sentiment in Virginia must have sympathized with him. In the unwillingness of some of the gentlemen present to take the oath, we seem to see the first ebbing of the tide. Evidently there began to be, as Thomas Ludwell had predicted, “a separation of the sound parts from the rabble;” and this appears very distinctly in the defection of Goode about four weeks later.
In the intention of resisting the king’s troops, which thus weakened Bacon’s position, he certainly showed more zeal than judgment. It has the look of the courage that comes from desperation. Had he lived to persist in this course, the policy most likely to strengthen him would have been to make his foremost demand the repeal of the Navigation Act which all Virginians detested and even Berkeley disapproved. But it is not likely that anything could have saved him from defeat and the scaffold. Death seems to have intervened in kindness to him and to Virginia.[79]
In the early history of our country Bacon must ever remain one of the bright and attractive figures. Our heart is always with the man who boldly stands out against corruption and oppression. To many persons the name of rebel seems fraught with blame and reproach; but the career of mankind so abounds in examples of heroic resistance to intolerable wrongs that to any one familiar with history the name of rebel is often a title of honour. Bacon’s brief career was an episode in the perennial fight against taxation without representation, the ancient abuse of living on other men’s labour. We cannot fail to admire his quick incisiveness, his cool head, his determined courage; and the spectacle of this young Cavalier taking the lead, like Tiberius Gracchus, in a movement for justice and liberty will always make a pleasing picture.