Bacon’s Rebellion

Following a string of setbacks for the colonists at Jamestown, including falling tobacco prices, rising costs of English goods and a string of hurricanes, floods and dry spells, the colonists at Jamestown had good reasons to seek out a scapegoat for their problems.

Bacon vs. Berkeley

They found their whipping boys in two stubborn and hotheaded colonists—Virginia Governor Sir William Berkeley—a veteran of the English Civil Wars, a frontier Indian fighter and a scholarly playwright—and Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., whose father sent him to Virginia in hopes that his troublemaking son would mature under the more desolate and subsistent conditions on the American frontier.

The colonists also found their scapegoat in the form of local Native Americans, who had begun a series of retaliatory raids on English settlements after colonists like planter Thomas Mathews failed to make payments for goods obtained from the Indians.

Bacon Leads Raids on Native American Settlements

Colonists soon rallied behind Bacon, who led a series of raids against Indian settlements, despite Berkeley’s repeated reprimands and calls for restraint, in the hopes of preserving alliances and trade with local tribes.

As Indian raids intensified, discontent accelerated as taxes were raised to pay for an army in defense against Native Americans, which in turn saw Bacon elected General of a self-appointed militia when he promised to bear all costs of planned campaigns intended to push Indians out of Virginia.

Bacon’s Rebellion

Tensions reached a boiling point from July through September of 1676, which witnessed screaming face-offs between Berkeley and Bacon’s supporters in front of the statehouse, leading to the kidnapping of the wives of several of Berkeley’s leading supporters.

With Bacon now in full control of Jamestown, Berkeley made several attempts at a siege, until Bacon burned Jamestown to the ground on September 19th, 1676, which led to an abrupt decline in his popular support.

He died abruptly on October 26th of that same year, from Bloody Flux dysentery caused by body lice, returning Berkeley to power before he was relieved of duty by King Charles. 23 people were hanged for their part in the rebellion and subsequent destruction of Jamestown Colony, making Bacon’s Rebellion, an early foreshadowing of America’s growing thirst for independence.