Bacon's Rebellion
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a popular uprising of the Virginian colonists, headed by Nathaniel Bacon, in protest against certain government abuses, which prevailed under the administration of Sir William Berkeley. Parliament had passed an act requiring that all goods, destined for Virginia, no matter what their source, should first be sent to the mother-country for transfer into British also objectionable, and when, in 1673, the entire revenues of the colony were turned over to Lords Culpeper and Arlington, indignation was rife. But the most pressing cause of complaint was the lack of official protection against Indian ravages. Bacon was a prominent member of the Council, and the colonists, determined to take Indian matters into their own hands, chose him leader. Berkeley proclaimed him a rebel. He attacked and captured the red-men's fort. Made a prisoner he was quickly released. He attacked Jamestown, forcing the Governor to repeal the most obnoxious statutes, exacting a majorgeneral's commission for himself, and acquittal of all blame for the rebellion. Troops were sent for post-haste, but they refused to take up arms against Bacon. The rebel, on repairing to Jamestown, found the Governor fled. The Indians recommenced their aggressions. He knew that if he turned his attention to the latter, Berkeley would take Jamestown; nevertheless, he decided to dispose of the savages first. This he did effectively at Bloody Run. He then marched rapidly to Jamestown, besieged it, forced the Governor to take refuge on a warship, and burned all the public buildings. After partially revising the laws with great benefit to the people, he died, and the rebellion, left leaderless, came to an end.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 presented Bacon as a popular champion whose war on the "red-men" was a service to the colony and whose revision of the laws brought "great benefit to the people." Modern historians read it almost inside out: Bacon's forces struck largely at the Occaneechi, Pamunkey and other tribes that were at peace with Virginia, and the 1676 revolt is now studied less as a democratic dawn than as frontier land hunger plus a rare alliance of poor whites, servants and enslaved Africans — an alliance Edmund Morgan's influential 1975 book argued helped push Virginia's planters toward hardened racial slavery. The rebellion also did not simply end with Bacon's death from dysentery in October 1676; it dragged on under lesser leaders into January 1677, after which Berkeley hanged some two dozen men. Since 1994 the Jamestown Rediscovery excavations have been uncovering the physical remains of the town Bacon burned, and 2026 marks the rebellion's 350th anniversary.
Written for this edition, 2026.