University of Virginia Library

BACON'S REBELLION.

No sooner had intelligence of the Restoration reached Virginia than
Berkeley issued a proclamation calling for the election of a new assembly,
declaring that the acts of that body during the existence of the Protectorate,
were illegal and no longer in force. The people still indulged the
hope that all would yet be well; but they had yet to learn that Charles
II. was the worst monarch of modern times, and that in enforcing his
tyrannical edicts he would find in Berkeley a most willing tool.

The new statute was a death-stroke at colonial liberty. It provided
that all trade should be restricted to English ports and carried only in
English vessels. A heavy tax was imposed for the support of the government.
The colonists demonstrated and petitioned, but the king turned
a deaf ear to complaints, and the oppressive laws were rigorously enforced.

But legislative tyranny sank into insignificance when compared with
the recklessness of granting large tracts of land to the ignoble and profligate
courtiers who thronged his court. No matter whether these lands
were on the distant frontier, or the best and most highly cultivated in
the colony. Whole hamlets and entire counties were thus given away,
and in 1673 the king became a bankrupt in the matter of lands by granting
to Lords Culpeper and Arlington a patent for the entire State of
Virginia, together with all its rights and privileges for a period of thirty-one
years.

At the gay court of Charles II. this may have been regarded a small
bounty to a royal favorite, but to the forty thousand Virginians thus
transferred to a proprietor from whom nothing was to be hoped, and
everything feared, it appeared in a very different light. Messrs. Ludwell,
Moryson and Smith went to England and presented a remonstrance,
but to no purpose.

In the meantime a war broke out with the Susquehanna Indians. The
legislature raised and equipped an army of five hundred men for service
in the war, but just as they were ready to march they were disbanded
by the governor, who refused to assign any reason for the act. Volunteers
then flocked to Jamestown and offered to serve without any remuneration
if the governor would only appoint a leader. This he refused
to do. Then they determined to march to the defenseless frontier without
the governor's consent, and looking about for a leader, they found a
young man from Henrico county who had just returned from England,
whither he had gone to complete his education. The name of that young
man was Nathaniel Bacon. When he took command of the volunteer army
he made application to Berkeley for a commission, but it was refused, and
Bacon marched to the frontier authorized only by the will of the people
and the danger of his country. No sooner had the army began its march
than Berkeley declared Bacon a rebel and his followers traitors, and collecting
as great a force as he could raise among the wealthy aristocrats

residing in and about Jamestown, he marched in pursuit of Bacon, with
the proclaimed intention of suppressing the rebellion. Bacon continued
his march to the frontier, defeated the Indians, drove them far into the
interior, and was returning homeward when he heard of the action of
the governor. Leaving the greater part of his army, he continued by
forced marches towards Jamestown, to which place the governor had
fallen back; but he was made prisoner by one Gardiner, and carried before
Berkeley. He was finally pardoned and allowed to take his seat in
the assembly on condition that he would confess the impropriety of his
conduct, and promise obedience for the future. His soldiers, however,
were not satisfied with the humility to which then leader was subjected,
and marched to Jamestown and compelled the governor to give him a
commission, and he again marched to the frontier. But no sooner was
he gone than Berkeley retired into Gloucester and a second time declared
Bacon a rebel; who when he heard the news, fell back towards Gloucester,
and forced the governor with his forces to retreat into Acomac.
This county, located on the eastern shore, was considered a distinct territory,
although tributary to Virginia. Bacon once more marched up
the Potomac, and Berkeley crossed the bay and entered Jamestown.
No sooner had Bacon heard of the governor's movements, than he
wheeled his van and shortly appeared in front of Jamestown, attacked
the place and drove Berkeley on board the ships in the river. The torch
was applied, and in twelve hours the oldest town in British America was
in ruins.

We know little of Bacon after this, more than that he died of disease
contracted during his campaigns. With him died the cause for which he
fought. The patriots disbanded, and Berkeley's authority was soon
restored, and his vengeance glutted by hanging twenty-three of the followers
of Bacon.

Thus ended Bacon's rebellion. The only difference between that
struggle and the one of a hundred years later being that the first was an
effort to establish a free government subject to Great Britain, which could
not be done; and the second was an effort to establish a free government
independent of Great Britain, which was done.

Berkeley resigned his commission and went to England, where he
found his actions towards the colony universally disapproved, even by
the king himself. This the governor could not withstand, and he soon
sank beneath his load of crime, and died, despised in England and execrated
in Virginia.

From this time onward, for a period of nearly fifty years, there is
little of interest in the history of Virginia, save the succession of
governors, and a desultory Indian war carried on upon her western
frontier.

Sir Herbert Jeffries came over as the successor of Berkeley, but was
in a short time relieved by Sir Henry Chichely. In 1678 Lord Culpeper,
who, together with Lord Arlington, held a patent for the entire
State, came over and assumed the government, made many fair promises,
one of which was to secure the redress of grievances demanded by the
colony; then leaving the government in the hands of Chichely, he
returned to England. In 1683 Arlington surrendered his claim to Culpeper,
who thus became sole proprietor of Virginia. He came over and
began his government on the principle that he owned Virginia, and the
Virginians were his slaves, but before his acts could accomplish much mischief,
Charles II. revoked his charter because of a failure to comply
with its terms. Thus, in 1684, Virginia again became a royal province,
with Lord Howard of Effingham as royal governor.

James II. came to the throne in 1685, but there was no change in the
government of the colony for the next three years, when William,
Prince of Orange, drove James from the English throne and mounted
it himself. He referred all complaints of the Virginians to his privy
council, with orders that they should receive prompt attention. Sir
Francis Nicholson came over and assumed the government. By his
mild and conciliatory administration of the affairs of the colony he became
more popular than any of his predecessors.