Bacon's Rebellion, 1676

by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker

They found their leader in Nathaniel Bacon. Bacon, despite his youth, was looked up to as one of the Council, and a member of the English gentry. Not only did he sympathize with the people in their fear and hatred of the Indians, but he had a personal grievance, since they had plundered his outer plantation and killed his overseer. So when several of his neighbors urged him to cross the James to visit the men in arms, he readily consented.

When they saw the slender, black-haired youth, they set up a great cry: "A Bacon! A Bacon! A Bacon!" This was too much for him to resist. It is stated by one of the old chroniclers that he had "a most imperious and dangerous hidden pride of heart." The leadership thus thrust upon him must have pleased him. He was now no longer the erratic youth who had been withdrawn from Cambridge, had caused his father great trouble and anxiety, and had been duped by sharpers. He was the leader of men. But there can be no doubt that he yielded to the pleas of his friends and neighbors in part at least because of his loathing of the Indians and his horror at their cruelty. He yielded also because his spirit revolted at Berkeley's system of government by corruption, because he sympathized with the people in their outcry against the killing burdens placed on them, and because he hoped to redress their grievances. His rough followers listened with approval as he denounced the government as "negligent and wicked, treacherous and incapable, the laws unjust and oppressive," and declared that reform was absolutely necessary. So he listed their names on a huge round-robin, and "enjoined them by an oath to stick fast together and to him." As word spread throughout the colony that at last the people had a champion, almost overnight he became the popular hero, and "the only patron of the country and the preserver of their lives and fortunes."

He first wrote Berkeley asking for a commission to go out to attack the Indians, and then, without waiting for a reply, crossed the Chickahominy into New Kent to overawe or perhaps attack the Pamunkeys. He found the people of this county "ripe for rebellion" and eager to wipe out their treacherous neighbors. But when he heard that the Pamunkeys had fled from their villages to the inaccessible Dragon's Swamp, he turned back to pursue a body of Susquehannocks who had moved south to the Roanoke river.

When the news reached Berkeley that the frontier planters had assembled in arms, chosen Bacon their leader, denounced his administration, and driven the Pamunkeys into hiding, he was furious. But as he had broken up previous mutinies by proclamations, he tried the same expedient now. He declared the action of Bacon and his men illegal and rebellious. But pardon would be granted provided they disperse at once and return to their duty and allegiance.

Bacon had already written the governor to assure him that in taking up arms he was acting only in self-defense and for the country's safety. But now he sent another letter reiterating that he had no evil intentions to him or the government. "I am now going out to seek a more agreeable destiny than you are pleased to design me," he added. As to the money he owed him he enclosed an order for its payment.

He then turned his back on the settlements and plunged into the forests. Although he said he distrusted all Indians, he went out of his way to enlist a few warriors from the allied Nottoways and Meherrins. He then followed a trail used by fur traders and headed for an island in the Roanoke river. Here a friendly tribe, the Occaneechees, had established two forts and a village. They welcomed Bacon, ferried his men over to the island, and went themselves to attack a band of Susquehannocks in a nearby fort. With the aid of some Mannikins, whom the Susquehannocks had forced to accompany them, they took the fort and came back leading a number of captives.

Having accomplished what he had set out to do without the loss of a man, Bacon probably would have started home, had he had provisions enough for the long march through the wilderness. As it was his men faced starvation. So he demanded supplies of food from the Occaneechee chief. Berkeley's friends later accused him of demanding also beaver taken from the Susquehannock fort. The ensuing dispute led to a bloody battle on the island, in which the English rushed up to the palisaded fort, began firing in at the portholes, and set fire to the village. The next day the Indians sallied out, and hiding behind trees, tried to pick off the English. But when many of their warriors had been killed, the chief, with twenty men, tried to circle the English. This too failed, the chief was killed, and the remaining Indians with their wives and children, taking to their canoes, made their escape. Bacon and his men gathered up the spoils, plundered the Occaneechee larder, swam their horses over to the mainland, and started on the return march.

When Berkeley found that his proclamation had had no effect, he gathered a force of about three hundred men, and set out for the falls of the James. But he was too late. When he arrived Bacon and his men had disappeared into the forest on their way to the Roanoke. So the governor had to content himself with issuing another proclamation. Nathaniel Bacon, junior, of Henrico County, with divers rude, dissolute, and tumultuous persons, contrary to the laws of England and their allegiance to the King, had taken up arms without obtaining from him any order or commission. Since this tended to the ruin and overthrow of the government, he declared that Bacon and his aiders were unlawful, mutinous, and rebellious.

At the same time, Lady Berkeley issued a statement of her own. It had been rumored among the people that Bacon would not only be their captain, but provide out of his own pocket for their wives and children. This was a vain hope, she said. His entire estate was bound over, his father had refused to honor his bills of exchange, he owed William Byrd £400 and his cousin Colonel Nathaniel Bacon, senior, £200. "I do accuse him of a worse crime than poverty," she added, "I do accuse him of ingratitude, and that of a deep dye, to return the favorable amity of the governor with casting all kinds of aspersions upon his courage and conduct in the government of this colony."

In the meanwhile, awaiting Bacon's return, the governor turned his attention to the defences on the upper James. He commanded the queen of the Pamunkeys to return to her reservation, and when she refused, prepared to drive her out of the Dragon Swamp. But at this moment word reached him that the people in all parts of the colony were rising against him. Now that they had a leader to redress their wrongs, in many an humble cabin men seized their fusils, swords, and halberds, and waited for him to call them to his side. They expected him to end corruption and favoritism in the government, to lower taxes, to correct private injustices, to give them a really representative Assembly.