On the advice of a friend, Bacon agreed to apologize to the governor, with the understanding, as seems probable, that the latter should grant him the desired commission. But the trouble between the two men was by no means settled. That very night Bacon's friends warned him of a plot against his life. Under cover of darkness, therefore, he took horse, and found safe shelter among his followers. But he speedily returned to Jamestown at the head of five hundred troops, where he forced Berkeley to grant him a commission, and compelled the legislature to pass laws that were favorable to the interests of the people. Then hearing that the Indians were again beginning to burn and murder on the border, he marched against them.
While he was gone Berkeley called out the militia, with the intention of overpowering Bacon upon his return, but on learning the governor's purpose the troops refused to fight and went back to their homes. Sick with the sense of failure, Governor Berkeley now sought a place of safety across Chesapeake Bay in Accomac County.
The Burning of Jamestown.
Bacon once more occupied Jamestown, but for a third time found it necessary to march against the Indians. While he was gone Berkeley, who had succeeded in raising a troop of one thousand men, came back and took possession of the capital. Although Bacon's men were tired out with fighting the Indians, they promptly gathered at his call, and attacked Berkeley with such vigor that the poor governor was glad to escape again to his retreat in Accomac County.
When Bacon got control of Jamestown, then a mere village of some sixteen to eighteen houses, he burned it to prevent its falling into Berkeley's hands. The people's leader had been successful, and had risked his life and his fortune for the common rights. But the strain of the past four or five months in the malarial swamps broke down his health, and after a short illness, he died of fever at the home of a friend, in October, 1676. It is not known where he was buried. His friends were obliged to hide his body, because they feared that, according to the custom of the times, Berkeley might seize it and have it hanged.
With Bacon's death the rebellion lost its heart and soul. Berkeley brutally punished Bacon's friends, some twenty of whom he put to death. This displeased the English king, who summoned the governor to return to England, where he soon afterward died a broken-hearted man.
Bacon's Rebellion, as this uprising of Virginians in 1676 has been rightly called, although it seemed to fail, was not without large influence for good. For it strengthened the liberty-loving spirit of the people, and prepared them for that greater movement in behalf of their rights that took place one hundred years later.