Berkeley returned to the State-house, accompanied by Bacon, whose partisans outside, crowding round the windows, exclaimed, “We’ll have it; we’ll have it!” “You shall have it; you shall have it!” said one of the burgesses, addressing them from the house, and they withdrew, pacified. Bacon, once more in the house, “harangued the body for near an hour on the Indian disturbances; the condition of the public revenues; the exorbitant taxes, abuses and corruptions of the administration, and all the grievances of their miserable country.”
“The commission was issued,” says Bancroft, “and the ameliorating legislation of the assembly was ratified. That better legislation was completed, according to the new style of computation, on the 4th of July, 1676, just 100 years to a day before the Congress of the United States adopting the declaration which had been framed by a statesman of Virginia, who, like Bacon, was ‘popularly inclined,’ began a new era in the history of man.” “The child is father of the man,” may be said with equal truth of nations as of individuals. The early history of America foretold a strong maturity.
A better day seemed now to be at hand, and the whole country rejoiced with hope, when again the tempest gathered. Scarcely had Bacon marched with his troops towards the frontiers, than Berkeley, repenting of the concession that had been made to the popular party, again proclaimed him a traitor. This unadvised step excited the indignation of every generous heart in Virginia, and the party of Bacon was strengthened by the accession of many powerful names. Drummond the late governor of North Carolina, and Richard Lawrence, “a man of deep reflection and energy of purpose,” hastened to the camp of Bacon. “Shall persons wholly devoted to their king and country, men hazarding their lives against the public enemy, deserve the appellation of rebels and traitors?” exclaimed Bacon, when the news reached him. “But those in authority, how have they obtained their estates? Have they not devoured the common treasury? What arts, what sciences, what schools of learning have they promoted? I appeal to the king and parliament, where the cause of the people will be heard impartially.”
The purpose of Bacon was now changed; and, addressing the people of Virginia, he invited them, by their love of country and home, to meet him in convention at Middle Plantation, now Williamsburgh, and “aid in rescuing the colony from the tyranny of Berkeley.” The call was responded to, and an oath was taken by a convention composed of the principal men of the colony, to join him against the Indians, and to prevent, if possible, a civil war; yet still, if forces should arrive from England—for Berkeley had appealed to the mother-country—they would resist them, until their own appeal should reach the king.
It was about this time that “a spy was detected in Bacon’s camp. Being sentenced to death by court-martial, Bacon declared that if any one in the army would speak a word to save him, he should not suffer. Not a word was spoken, and he was put to death. Bacon’s clemency won the admiration of the army, and this was the only instance of capital punishment under his orders; nor did he plunder any private house.”
Bacon was now almost omnipotent in the province. Drummond advised the immediate deposition of Berkeley, urging from the ancient records of Virginia that such things had already been done. Bacon preferred rather that his retreat should be regarded as abdication, for he had left Jamestown, and fled across Chesapeake Bay, to Accomac, on the eastern shore; and so it was determined, the ten years for which he was appointed having expired. As with the Puritans of New England, so here, in this great contest for liberty and popular rights, were women among the active spirits. “The child that is unborn,” said Sarah Drummond, “shall have cause to rejoice of the good that will come by this rising of the country.” “Should we overcome the governor,” said the cautious Ralph Weldinge, “we must expect a greater power from England, that would certainly be our ruin.” In reply, this spirited woman reminded them that England had much to think of at that time, being divided herself into hostile factions, and taking up from the ground a small stick, which she broke, she said “I fear the power of England no more than a broken straw.” As regarded the navigation act, she said, anticipating a future greatness for Virginia, “We can build ships, and like New England, trade to any part of the world.” With such women the men could not do less than strive bravely.
Meanwhile Sir William Berkeley, who meant anything but an abdication by his flight, collected at Accomac a large number of adherents, men of a base and cowardly nature, allured by the passion for plunder, among whom were great numbers of the indented servants of the insurgents to whom he promised liberty. With these, a number of royalists and a horde of Indians, he sailed with five English vessels and ten sloops for Jamestown, where landing without opposition, he fell on his knees and returned thanks to God, after which he again proclaimed Bacon and his party traitors. As regards these ships, we must relate how they came into the governor’s hands, and this we will do in the words of Campbell, in his Introduction to the History of the Old Dominion. “There was a gentleman in Virginia, Giles Bland, only son of John Bland, an eminent merchant of London, who was personally known to the king and had considerable interest at court. As he was sending out his son to Virginia, to take possession of the estate of his uncle, Theodorick Bland, he got him appointed collector-general of the customs. In this capacity he had a right to board any vessel he thought proper. He was a man of talent, courage, of a haughty bearing, and having quarrelled with the governor, now sided warmly with Bacon. There chanced to be lying in York River, a vessel of sixteen guns, commanded by Captain Laramore. Bland boarded her with a party of armed men, on pretence of searching for contraband goods, and seizing the captain confined him to the cabin. Laramore, discovering Bland’s designs, resolved to deceive in his turn, and entered into his measures with such apparent sincerity, that he was restored to command. With her and a vessel of four guns under Captain Carver, Bland, now appointed Bacon’s lieutenant-general, sailed with 250 men for Accomac. On his passage he was joined by another vessel, commanded by Captain Barlow, one of Cromwell’s soldiers, and so appeared off Accomac with four sail. The governor had not a single vessel to defend himself, and was overwhelmed with despair. At this juncture he received a note from Laramore, offering, if he would send him some assistance, to deliver Bland with all his men into his hands. The governor at first suspected a trick, but being advised by his friend Colonel Ludwell, accepted Laramore’s offer as his only alternative, and Ludwell himself undertook the enterprise. Accompanied by twenty-six men he appeared alongside Laramore’s vessel, and not only boarded her without loss of a man, but took the other vessels also soon after. Bland, Carver and the other chiefs were sent to the governor, and the common men secured on board the vessel.
“When Laramore waited on the governor, he clasped him in his arms, called him his deliverer, and gave him a large share of favour. In a few days the brave Carver and Barlow were hanged on the Accomac shore and Bland put in irons. Captain Gardiner, sailing from James River, now came to the governor’s relief with his own vessel, the Adam and Eve, and several sloops. Sir William Berkeley, by this unexpected turn of affairs, was suddenly raised from the abyss of despair to the pinnacle of hope.”
Berkeley now took up his position in Jamestown, and was soon besieged by Bacon and his force, which having been dispersed, was considerably inferior in numbers to that of the governor. Jamestown was situated on a peninsula two miles long and about a mile broad, washed on the south by the river and encompassed on the north by a deep creek. The situation was insalubrious, the low ground being full of marshes and swamps of brackish waters, which created, especially in summer, a constant malaria. Bacon commenced intrenchments across the neck of the peninsula, and as a means of defence against the besieged, while engaged in this work, resorted to an extraordinary expedient, which we will give in the words of Mrs. Ann Cotton. “He was no sooner arrived at town, when, by several small parties of horse, he fetched into his little league all the prime men’s wives whose husbands were with the governor, as Colonel Bacon’s lady, Madam Bray, Madam Page, Madam Ballard and others, which the next morning he presents to the view of their husbands and friends in town upon the top of the small work he had cast up in the night, where he caused them to tarry till he had finished his defence against his enemies’ shot, it being the only place for those in the towns to make a sally at.
They made a sally, the ladies being removed, but to very little purpose; and two or three days afterwards, being impatient for plunder, the followers of the governor “embarked in the night, secretly weighing anchor, and dropping silently down the river,” fled from an enemy greatly inferior to themselves in number, and who, while lying outside the walls, had been exposed to hardships much severer than their own. Berkeley also fled, accompanied by the inhabitants and their goods, thus leaving Jamestown open to the insurgents.