Bacon's Rebellion Challenges Virginia Colony Power Elites

Michael Streich

In 1676 the forty-thousand inhabitants of the Virginia colony were confronted by an uprising that came to be called Bacon’s Rebellion. Led by 29-year old Nathaniel Bacon, related to Governor Berkeley and a member of the House of Burgesses, the revolt centered on frontier Indian policy, high taxes, and the actions of a small group of wealthy planters Bacon referred to as “unworthy favorites and juggling parasites.” Although unsuccessful, Bacon’s Rebellion forced social changes in Virginia and the event itself continues to be debated by historians.

 

Causes of Bacon’s Rebellion

 

Nathaniel Bacon represented a higher social pedigree than many of his planter counterparts whose fortunes were amassed over years of hard work and shrewd business ventures. These men comprised the “favorites” Bacon referred to, tied to the royal governor and his policies that included a monopoly on the deerskin trade. According to historian Alan Taylor, “the Chesapeake’s leading men lacked the mystique of a traditional ruling class.”

 

As poor whites made their way to the frontier to establish farms of their own, they encountered various Indian groups, some friendly while others were hostile. Governor Berkeley’s policy was to keep the Indians divided, maintaining good relations with friendly Indians that also supplied him with valuable trade in deerskin. On the frontier, however, settlers made no distinctions between Indians and killed all Indians indiscriminately following minor skirmishes and escalating tensions.

 

The governor’s decision to build several new forts on the frontier was met with severe criticism. Farmers saw this action as leading to higher taxes. High taxation was already a chief reason for collective discontent. Additionally, tobacco prices had fallen while poor corn harvests threatened the fragile profit margins of many small farmers. Too often, their farms were bought by the wealthier planters intent on consolidating their land holdings.

 

Bacon Breaks with Governor Berkeley

 

From contemporary accounts, Nathaniel Bacon was articulate, charismatic, and well educated. Bacon gathered a small army of disenchanted farmers and poor whites to press a change in crown policy. After Berkeley and the House of Burgesses refused to declare war against the frontier Indians, Bacon and his followers took matters into their own hands and attacked Indian settlements, killing both friendly and hostile natives. For this, Bacon was declared guilty of treason.

 

To what extent was the rebellion an attack on aristocratic privilege as opposed to differences in Indian policy? Columbia University historian Howard Zinn writes that the “character of their rebellion” was “not easily classifiable as either antiaristocrat or anti-Indian, because it was both.” Bacon forced the governor and his cronies to flee Jamestown, which was subsequently burned.

 

In July 1676 Bacon published his “Declaration of the People,” which listed the grievances leading to the uprising. Included in this manifesto were the charges of unjust taxes, the monopoly of beaver and deerskins, and frontier Indian policies. All of these issues appealed to impoverished whites and poor farmers that supported Bacon’s actions. Bacon also attracted fugitive slaves to his cause.

 

End of the Rebellion

 

Shortly after burning Jamestown, Bacon died of dysentery and his movement collapsed. Fugitive slaves were returned to their masters and white leaders in the movement were hanged. Alarmed, England sent 1,000 soldiers and a new governor to replace the 70-year old Berkeley. Was the rebellion indicative of a social revolution, an illustration of class conflict? Was Bacon merely using popular anger over hated policies to gather a following in order to achieve his own, personal agenda?

 

Bacon’s Rebellion would not be the last uprising against colonial governments. By 1760 there were 18 uprisings as well as half a dozen slave rebellions as Africans began to replace indentured servants. Bacon’s Rebellion, however, sheds insight into the early workings of colonial policy at a time significant social transformations were taking place.

 

Sources:

 

Nathaniel Bacon, “Declaration of the People” (Massachusetts Historical Society Collection, Vol. 9: 184-87)

Alan Taylor, American Colonies (New York: Viking-Penguin, 2001)

Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (on-line edition)

[Copyright owned by Michael Streich; reprints only by written permission]