Nathaniel Bacon
From Freepedia
Nathaniel Bacon ( – October 26,1676) was a colonist and plantation owner of the Virginia Colony of Jamestown, famous for his "Virginia Rebellion", commonly known as Bacon's Rebellion, which ended in the burning of Jamestown to the ground. The rebellion collapsed after Bacon died suddenly.
Contents |
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was brought upon by Nathaniel Bacon's disagreement with Governor William Berkeley's friendly policies toward the Native Americans. When Berkeley refused to retaliate for a series of Indian strikes on frontier settlements, Bacon rounded up a militia of 500 men and his followers took matters into their own hands. They massacred Native Americans, attacking the peaceful Occaneechee (instead of the warlike Susquehannock, whom the Virginians were fighting at that time.
For this attack, Bacon became a local hero, especially among the colonists who both wanted to move west and hated the Indians. He wrote a "Declaration of the People" in 1676, criticizing the Berkeley administration for levying unfair taxes, putting his favorites into high positions, and not protecting the western farmers from the Indians. In response to this, Governor Berkeley branded Bacon a traitor, but Bacon was later pardoned, having apologized.
Bacon then felt that Berkeley had gone back on his pledge to pursue the Indians, and his rebel turned toward the colonial government. In the first popular rebellion in colonial America, Bacon led troops of lower-class planters, servants, and some free and slaves blacks to Jamestown and burned the capital to the ground. Governor Berkeley, faced with a real rebellion, fled.
As Civil War continued in Virginia, an English naval squadron was sent to capture Bacon. He died, however, before they reached him, and William Berkeley was finally able to regain control. He hanged thirty-eight of Bacon's followers. King Charles II commented, "That old fool has put to death more people in that naked country than I did here for the murder of my father."
Identification Controversy
No one knows for certain when he was born. An earlier attribution of him as the Nathaniel Bacon born in 1646 or 1647 appears to be spurious, based on no firm foundation, although widely repeated in later literature including Encyclopaedia Britannica. The old Dictionary of National Biography does not give him a specific birthdate but does say he was "of Friston Hall". Although, from a contemporary document, his father is said to be "Thomas Bacon", his mother is not named and is unknown. She is not Elizabeth Brooke (even though this is repeated in many books), who in fact married a man named Nathaniel Bacon although that Nathaniel was a generation older than the one who this article is about.
References
- Bailey, T., Kennedy, D., & Cohen, L. (Eds.). (1998). The american pageant. 11th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
- Bailey, T., Kennedy, D., & Cohen, L. (Eds.). (2002). The american pageant. 12th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Comments
- Paraphrased general summary from a history text that I have, The American Pageant (Michael Brant 05:22, 13 September 2005 (UTC))
