Bacon's Rebellion

BACON'S REBELLION

BACON'S REBELLION was a revolt in Virginia in 1676 led by Nathaniel Bacon Jr., a young planter, against the aged royal governor, Sir William Berkeley. The revolt has usually been interpreted as an attempt at political re-form directed against the allegedly oppressive rule of the governor. Bacon's Rebellion, so the argument goes, was prologue to the American Revolution. Late-twentieth-century scholarship, however, has questioned this thesis and emphasized controversy over Indian policy and class divisions within the colony as fundamental causes of the rebellion. The ensuing civil war exposed deep social rifts between the poor whites and the Anglo-American elites of the Chesapeake region.

When Indian attacks occurred on the northern and western frontiers late in 1675 and early in 1676, Bacon demanded the right to lead volunteers in retaliation against all Indians, even those living peacefully within the colony. Berkeley, fearing unjust dispossession and slaughter of the friendly Native American tribes, refused. Bacon ignored the governor's restriction and in May 1676 led volunteers to the southern frontier, where he slaughtered

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and plundered the friendly Occaneechee Indians. When the governor attempted to call him to account, Bacon marched to Jamestown and, at gunpoint, forced the House of Burgesses of June 1676 to grant him formal authority to fight the Indian war. The burgesses and the governor, powerless before the occupying army and eager to be rid of it, quickly acquiesced. Bacon then marched against another nonhostile tribe, the Pamunkey.

When Berkeley attempted to raise forces to reestablish his own authority, Bacon turned on the governor with his volunteers. Civil war ensued. Berkeley was driven to the eastern shore of Virginia. Jamestown, the capital, was burned. For a few months Bacon's word was law on the mainland. Bacon's rebels retained the loyalty of many indentured servants and small landholders. The colony depended heavily on supplies from England, however, and the sea captains and sailors sided with Berkeley.

The rebellion, already flagging, came to an abrupt end when Bacon died in October 1676. Berkeley, having recruited forces on the Eastern Shore, returned to the mainland, defeated the remaining rebels, and by January 1677 had reestablished his authority. Soon thereafter, eleven hundred troops, sent by Charles II to suppress the rebellion, arrived, accompanied by commissioners to investigate its causes. Berkeley's strict policy toward the defeated rebels was severely censured by the commissioners, who attempted to remove him from the governorship. Berkeley returned to England in May 1677 to justify himself, but died on 9 July before seeing the king. Charles II installed Colonel Herbert Jeffreys as governor and promised a plan of internal reform. These reforms erased much of the political autonomy built during Berkeley's regime and reasserted imperial control over Virginia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Frantz, John B., ed. Bacon's Rebellion: Prologue to the Revolution? Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1969.

Webb, Stephen Saunders. 1676, The End of American Independence. New York: Knopf, 1984.

Wilcomb E. Washburn / a. r.

See also Colonial Policy, British ; Indian Policy, Colonial ; Insurrections, Domestic .