Bacon ’s Rebellion was a conflict that started like a lot of disagreements — with a bibulous argument . But this dead - lived rising in 17th centuryColonial Americais considered to have had long - condition consequences for Colonial settlement , insurance toward Native Americans and concepts of backwash in North America .
The incident took spot in Colonial Virginia from 1676 to 1677 , and because it was 100 years before theAmerican Revolution , Bacon ’s Rebellion was once posit as a sort of precursor to overthrowing tyranny . In fact , Thomas Jeffersonconsidered rebellion leader , Nathaniel Bacon , a patriot .
But contemporary historians consider Bacon ’s Rebellion in luminance of the battle between colonists and Native Americans , as well as for the effect it had on the way ideas about airstream developed in the American Colonies .
Bacon was a relative newcomer to Virginia when he launched the rebellion . So how did he manage to beat up enough backup to spark a conflict that would exchange the course of story ?
Nathanial Bacon the Man
carry in Suffolk , England in 1647 , Bacon had been packed off to the Virginia colony by his father because he had attempted to defraud a 16 - year - old neighbor , according toJames Rice , Walter S. Dickson prof and professorship , department of history , Tufts University , who order Bacon was considered a " very unpleasant mate . "
This seems to be the oecumenical consensus about the diachronic image . TheNational Park Service websitesays " Bacon was a troublemaker and plotter whose father sent him to Virginia in the hope that he would mature . "
Personality notwithstanding , thing got off to an auspicious start for Bacon . He arrived in Virginia in 1675 , and thanks to his connection — he was related to Governor William Berkeley by man and wife — Bacon receive both a realm grant and a rear on the Governor ’s Council , according to theVirginia Museum of History & Culture . However , his arrival coincided with a crisis in Virginian ’s economic , societal and political order in which he would soon become embroiled .
Trouble in Virginia
Virginia’stobacco plantershad know falling baccy prices in a dependency with economic disparity between the with child landowning planter and small plantation owner , poor immigrant and freed hard worker . Most of the topical anaesthetic were not involved in political life and non - property owner could not vote . In addition to these challenge to constancy , Virginia colonist had variegate opinions about how to manage relations with the aboriginal peoples and local kin group .
At the same time , state of war had catch fire between theSusquehannock Indiansand the colonists , which set about with a " subaltern trading dispute , " Rice said in " Bacon ’s Rebellion in Indian Country , " a 2014 piece he wrote for Journal of American History . There were two ideas about how to respond .
Gov. Berkeley thought the best course of activity would be to engage war against the Susquehannock but remain at peace with other adjacent tribes . Others , include Bacon , differ and felt that the conflict presented an opportunity to exterminate all the native , menstruum .
And it was n’t just Bacon , Rice enounce . Some of the area ’s wealthy planters also want to go further than the governor ’s plan of limited warfare . Bacon took control of an encampment of military volunteer militiaman to fight the Susquehannock and other tribe .
Who were these militia ? It ’s hard to know , according to Rice . He says there has been a myth that Bacon ’s rebels contain poor Western ( frontier ) planters against full-bodied Eastern planters ; that it was an revolt from the bottom up . However , the socioeconomic condition of the militia is difficult to pin down , and there is grounds of rich plantation owner from the frontier , like Bacon himself andWilliam Byrd , who was one of the men who recruited him , among them .
The historiography has focused on a civil warfare between Virginians , and the Indians have been pushed the tolerance of the taradiddle , Rice articulate . But Bacon ’s Rebellion was really about fighting the Indians more than a variance between pitiful and rich colonists .
Bacon’s Stance
What is known for certain is that in August 1676 , Bacon issued a " Declaration of Grievances . " In it , he involve confrontation to Berkeley ’s imposition of unjust taxes , favoritism and failure to properly promote trade . The grievances also noted the regulator ’s inability to protect colonists from attacks by Indians , specifically :
Bacon and his militia begin to foray into , lolly and stamp out , despite Berkeley ’s refusal to make out his vigilante group . Once the rebellion got go , it settled into a sorting of beat , according to Rice . Bacon led his reserves against both the Pamunkey and Occaneecheee Indians . When menace by the regulator , he turn back and take his hitman on the regulator . This happened several times .
" There was a lot of back and forth , " pronounce Rice . " It went on like that for month . " In September , the reserves captured Jamestown and burn up much of it to the ground .
But then suddenly , Bacon die — not in conflict , but of sickness — perchance typhus , on Oct. 26 , 1676 . His body was bury in a secret location to keep the governor from putting it on showing , according to Rice .
But Bacon ’s Rebellion did n’t die with him .
" The underlying reasons for the rebellion did n’t just vanish because he did , " tell Rice . However , at that point , the militia , for the most part , stopped fighting the Indians and the fight became more of a civic war . The Berkeley loyalists were able to achieve final triumph by controlling the waterway just a few days before a thousand Redcoats arrive by ship .
It ’s in these later leg that the majority of the rebel militia was made up of poor planters and enslave Africans , explains Rice . They had the most to drop off if get and the most to gain if they won .
The Aftermath of Bacon’s Rebellion
" Some of the basic issues that had been in play during the rebellion were n’t really resolved , " says Rice . One motion was where unfree project would come from . The General Assembly did pass laws that made it easy to enslave the native Indians , but the more general enquiry of conquest of the Indians was leave alone up in the air . And a division persisted between more of a " genocidal vision " and the governor ’s desire to remove native people in a deadening way .
Some scholars have explore the way Bacon ’s Rebellion shift overall notion of backwash in the colonies . Baconbuilt his militiawith both white and dark indentured retainer , and enslaved Black people who joined in substitution for exemption . The power battle was between Bacon and his rebellion on one side and wealthy planter on the other .
In aninterview with PBS , historian Ira Berlin excuse that before the rebellion , distinctions were made between Blacks and flannel , but their lives could be relatively similar . For model , some the great unwashed of African descent were landholder , while some masses of European downslope were indentured servants .
After the Rebellion , flush whitened planters were alarmed . To protect their status , they change their trust on indentured servants to favormore Black slave . The uprising eventually led to the consolidation of the planter class .
As for the relationship between the colonists and the Indians , after England ’s Glorious Revolution led to a change of power in 1689 , Modern Colonial leader ' musical theme about how to manage with native people aligned more with those of Bacon and his followers — that is they become more strong-growing .
