USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 14
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After the death of Cromwell the desire of the English people
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for a settled government lead to the restoration of the House of Stuart; and Charles HI. returned to England, landing at Dover on the 26th of May. 1660. He ascended the throne amid the joyful acclamations of the royalists, and for twenty-five years the profligate monarch gave his eountry the most disgraceful government it ever had to endure. Virginia promptly after the restoration announced allegiance to the new king; and one of his first aets in connection with the colony was to give recognition to Sir William Berkeley by re-appointing him governor. Berkeley made himself as abnoxious to the colonists during his second term of office as he had been popular with them when first serving as governor. It was largely due to his arbitrary and haughty conduet that Bacon's Rebellion was brought about in 1676, which occurred just one hundred years before the Revolution. In fact. the more appropriate name for the uprising of Nathaniel Bacon and his fellow-colonists against the oppressions of the royal and local government is revolution. It was essentially a revolt against the despotie course of King Charles, supplemented by that of the local government. Virginia had reached a stage where she was content to have the protection but not the despotie control of England. Parliament had, by its commissioners, pledged a preservation of all the privileges and immunities the colony had acquired under the proteetorates of Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard. There were a number of grievances that aroused popular discontent. One was the enactment of a navigation law which prohibited the colonists from trading with foreign countries, and requiring them to confine their trade exelusively to England. The object of this law was to enrich the English merchants and increase the revenues of the king, at the expense of the colony. This was an early manifestation of Eng- land's insatiable commercial greed; and it is as pronounced today as it was when Charles II. had his mean navigation act foisted upon the American colonies. A remonstrance against the outrageous measure was prepared and dispatched to King Charles. Failing to seeure a repeal of the obnoxious measure, the colonists had the will and courage to trade with all foreign ships and merchants who were willing to take the risk of having their eargoes captured on the high seas by English cruisers.
There were other grievances which were even more potential for inciting revolt against the English and the Colonial govern- ments. These were burdensome and unequal taxation and arbitrary restrictions of the right of suffrage. The taxes were so levied as
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to bear heavily upon the poorer members of the colony; and by an act of the House of Burgesses, passed in 1670. the rights of suffrage and of membership in the legislature were restricted to freeholders. Speaking of these unjust and oppressive laws, Howe, in his inter- esting History of Virginia, says :
"But these evils in domestic legislation were trivial, compared with those produced by the criminal prodigality of Charles, who wantonly made exorbitant grants to his favorites of large tracts of lands, without a knowledge of localities, and consequently without regard to the claims or even the settlements of others. To cap the climax of royal munificence, the gay monarch, in, perhaps, a merry mood, granted to Lords Culpeper and Arlington the whole colony of Virginia, for thirty-one years, with privileges effectually royal as far as the colony was concerned, only reserving some mark of homage to himself. This might be considered at court, perhaps, as a small bounty to a favorite, but was taken in a very serious light by the forty thousand people thus unceremoniously transferred. The Assembly in its extravagance, only took from them a great proportion of their profits; but the king was filching their capital, their lands, and their homes, which they had inherited from their fathers, or laboriously acquired by their own strenuous exertion."
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CHAPTER V.
BACON'S REBELLION, AND DISCOVERY OF SHENANDOAH VALLEY.
Nathaniel Bacon, then about twenty-eight years old, was living on his plantation on the James, near Curl's Wharf. He was an Englishman by birth and raising, had been educated as a lawyer, and had emigrated with his young wife to Virginia a few years previous ; and had shown such talent that he had already been made a member of the Colonial Council. Bacon was a man of resolute purpose, fine personal appearance, and of republican convictions. The Susquehannock Indians, from Maryland and Delaware, who were of the Iroquoian stock, had been making incursions into Vir- ginia and attacking exposed settlements. This had made Bacon very hostile to the Indians, and in a moment of anger he had declared: "If the redskins meddle with me, damn my blood but I'll harry them, commission or no commission." Governor Berkeley on the other hand was anxious to stay at peace with the Indians, and had announced that he would not give a commission to any one to march with an armed force against the savages. In May, 1676, the Indians made an attack upon Bacon's upper plantation, where Richmond is now located, and killed his overseer and one of his servants. When it became known at Curl's Wharf, the planters in the vicinity armed themselves and offered to accompany Bacon on an expedition against the Indians. He dispatched a messenger to Berkeley and requested a commission to lead the expeditionary force, and received from the governor an evasive answer. Bacon sent him a courteous note, thanking him for the commission, and without delay started with a mounted force of the planters to make war on the redskins. They had marched but a few miles when they were overtaken by a messenger with a proclamation from Governor Berkeley, commanding the party to disperse. A few of the men obeyed, but Bacon and the others continued their march, came upon the Indians, and gave them a severe defeat. In the meantime Berkeley had started with a troop of cavalry in pursuit of the Bacon party, but the governor was recalled to Jamestown by intelligence that the planters of the York peninsula were in revolt. Upon his return to Jamestown, the governor dissolved the House of Burgesses, then in session, and issued writs for the election of a new assembly. Bacon became a candidate to represent
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Henrico County, and he was elected by a heavy majority, the people being in sympathy with his views on the several vital ques- tions then engaging the attention of the colony. When the time came for the assembling of the House of Burgesses, Bacon, with thirty followers, journeyed to Jamestown; and upon his arrival he was arrested by orders of the governor and taken before that digni- tary, who rebuked and then pardoned the young rebel. In a spirit of compromise, Bacon was reluctantly induced to admit at the bar of the assembly that he had acted illegally in marching against the Indians without a commission from the governor ; whereupon, Berke- ley extended his forgiveness to Bacon and all the men who had accompanied him on his expedition against the Indians.
The General Assembly had not been long in session until a struggle began between that body and the governor, the latter demanding that the assembly confine its legislation exclusively to Indian affairs. But the assembly, defiantly and resolutely, went to work to relieve the people from the evils that had been oppressing them. They restored universal suffrage; repealed an odious law which exempted councillors and their families and the families of clergymen from taxation; abolished trade monopolies ; made pro- vision for a general inspection of public expenses and the careful auditing of public accounts, and enacted a number of other reform measures.
Nathaniel Bacon had been an active worker for reform legisla- tion, and had also made insistent application for a commission to resume hostilities against the unfriendly Indians, who continued to make depredations upon the outlying settlements. These acts of the young patriot so angered Governor Berkeley that he not only refused to give Bacon a commission but made secret plans for his arrest and trial upon a charge of treason. Friends warned Bacon that his life would be endangered if he remained longer at James- town, and he secretly left that place in the night time. He repaired to his plantation at Curl's Wharf and organized a force of six hundred men. With this small but resolute band of followers he marched upon Jamestown; and on the afternoon of a sultry day in June halted his men on the green in front of the State House. With a small detail of soldiers he advanced to the door of the building in which the governor and council and the burgesses were then sitting. The governor, in a towering rage, presented himself at the door, and pulling open his lace shirt front to bare his bosom, cried out to Bacon: "Here I am! Shoot me! 'Forc God, a fair
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mark, a fair mark-shoot !" Bacon stood calm, and politely replied: "No, may it please your honor, we have not come to hurt a hair on your head or of any man's. We are come for a commission to save our lives from the Indians, which you have so often promised, and now we will have it before we go." It seems that Bacon's calmness was self-enforced, for as soon as Berkeley retired with his council for a conference, the angry young rebel declared he would kill them all if the commission demanded was not fortheoming. His squad of soldiers pointed their guns at the windows and shouted: "We will have it! We will have it!" In response to the cry of the soldiers, one of the members of the assembly waved from a window "a pacific handkercher" and called out, "You shall have it." The General Assembly prepared and gave Bacon a commission as general of an army, and also addressed a memorial to the king, setting forth the wrongs Bacon and his adherents were sceking to get rid of, and heartily commending the intrepid young patriot for the valuable services he had rendered the colony. On the following day the governor was constrained to affix his approving signature to the commission and also to the memorial to the king.
Governor Berkeley promptly issued a proclamation deelaring Bacon and his associates rebels and traitors. He then went to Gloucester County, where he expected to find sufficient loyal senti- ment among the people to enable him to cope with and suppress the Bacon rebellion. He found the sentiment in Gloucester as pronounced for the rebels as it was at Jamestown and in other localities of the colony. The infuriated old man made his escape across Chesapeake Bay to Accomac, where he was protected by loyal supporters.
When Bacon heard of the harsh proclamation of the governor; he was severely shocked by its accusations as to the purposes of himself and his followers. "It vexed him to the heart to think that while he was hunting Indian wolves, tigers and foxes, which daily destroyed our harmless sheep and lambs that he and those with him should be pursued with a full ery, as a more savage or a no less ravenous beast." He quit his hunt for the "Indian wolves" and hastily marched his men to Middle Plantation, the point where the historic city of Williamsburg was afterward located. One of his first acts was the issuance of a manifesto in reply to Berkeley's proclamation. Though written in the peculiarly stilted and obscure style then used by even the most highly educated men, it is an eloquent and fervid defence of the young leader and his com-
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panions against the acrimonious attacks of Governor Berkley. From the original manuseript, which is still preserved in the British State Paper office, the following is quoted:
"If virtue be a sin, if piety be guilt, all the principles of morality, goodness and justice be perverted, we must confess that those who are now Rebels may be in danger of those high imputa- tions. Those loud and several bulls would affright innocents, and render the defence of our brethren and the inquiry into our sad and heavy oppressions Treason. But if there be (as sure there is) a just God to appeal to, if religion and justice be a sanctuary here, if to plead the cause of the oppressed, if sineerely to aim at his Majesty's honour and the public good without any reservation or by-interest, if to stand in the gap after so much blood of our dear brethren bought and sold, if after the loss of a great part of his Majesty's eolony deserted and dispeopled freely with our lives and estates to endeavour to save the remainders, be treason-God Almighty judge and let guilty die. But sinee we eannot in our hearts find one single spot of rebellion or treason, or that we have in any manner aimed at subverting the settled government or attempting of the person of any, either magistrate or private man. notwithstanding the several reproaches and threats of some who for sinister ends were disaffected to us and censured our innocent and honest designs, and since all people in all places where we have yet been can attest our civil, quiet, peaceable behaviour, far different from that of rebellious and tumultuous persons, let Truth be bold and all the world know the real foundations of pretended quiet. We appeal to the country itself, what and of what nature their oppressions have been, or by what eabal and mystery the designs of many of those whom we eall great men have transacted and carried on. But let us trace these men in authority and favour to whose hands the dispensation of the country's wealth has been committed."
This splendid protest of Nathaniel Bacon against the assump- tions and oppressions of a profligate king remained a glowing spark on the plains of Williamsburg for one hundred years; and then burst forth into a eonsuming flame when George Mason presented to the Virginia fathers the greatest charter of human liberty ever penned by man, the Virginia Bill of Rights. Bacon sounded the first æolian notes for American freedom; and Mason and Jefferson caught up the strain, and in glorious, swelling, undying tones chanted it to an enslaved world.
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The manifesto of Bacon was a protest against the oppressive and corrupt acts of the men in authority whom he designated as "juggling parisites whose tottering fortunes have been repaired at the public charge." Grave accusations were made against the official and personal conduct of Sir William Berkeley. He was charged with levying unjust taxes upon the common people for the benefit of his private favorites and for other sinister ends; with failure to protect the colony by fortifications, and neglecting to advance its commercial interests. And he was also accused of bringing "the majesty of justice" into contempt by placing in judicial positions men who were "scandalous and ignorant fav- ourites." Another serious accusation was. that the governor had monopolized the beaver trade, and for the purpose of "that unjust gain," had "bartered and sold his Majesty's country and the lives of his loyal subjects to the barbarous heathen." The manifesto named nineteen of the most prominent men of the colony as Berke- ley's "wicked and pernicious councellors, aiders and assisters against the commonality in these our cruel commotions." Some of the names mentioned were those of Sir Henry Chicheley, Richard Lec, Robert Beverly and Nicholas Spencer. The paper closed with a demand that all the persons mentioned be arrested and placed in confinement at the Middle Plantation until further orders. On account of their apparent truth, these charges were very galling to Berkeley. and sharpened his appetite for revenge upon his accusers.
After he had promulgated his manifesto, Bacon called a con- vention of the most notable men identified with the rebellion to formulate plans for making it effective. The meeting was held at the Middle Plantation on the 3rd of August, 1676. and the con- vention deelared the governorship was vacant because of the abdica- tion of Sir William Berkeley, and that the council should fill the vacancy until action could be taken by the king. Five members of the council also issued writs for the election of a new House of Burgesses. An agreement was drawn up which pledged the signers thereof to stand by and with Bacon until all the matters in dispute between Berkeley and the colonists could be presented to and passed upon by King Charles. For a time some of the leaders refused to sign the paper, because they thought Bacon was going too far in his resistance to the authority of the king. though pro- fessions of loyalty to Charles II. were prominently set forth in the document. News was then received of renewed hostile attacks by
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the Indians; and this information removed the reluctance of those who had hesitated in signing the agreement. Bacon took his army aeross James River and marched to the town of the Appomattox tribe, then located where Petersburg now stands, and gave the Indians a crushing defeat. For several weeks the Indians were pursued in different localities, the white men killing, capturing and dispersing them. Bacon then sent an expedition of four armed vessels, under command of Giles Bland, to the Eastern Shore to arrest Governor Berkeley; but Bland and his entire party were made captive by Berkeley through the treachery of the captain of one of the vessels. Bland was put in irons and one of the captains hanged, as a warning of Berkeley's intentions to the other leaders of the revolt. Berkeley then gathered an army of one thousand men, composed largely of the indentured servants of the planters who were with Bacon, promising these servants the estates of their masters if he succeeded in repressing the rebellion. With this motley force he sailed up the river and again took possession of Jamestown. At that time Bacon was at West Point with his army, and he immediately marched to Jamestown, and after a few days of desultory fighting forced the governor to flee again to Accomac. The town was then burned, Bacon declaring that it should no longer "Harbour the rouges." It was but a brief while thereafter when the rebellion was terminated by the death of Bacon. He had con- tracted the fever while besieging Jamestown, and died at the home of a friend in Gloucester County. His remains were secretly buried, his friends fearing that if Berkeley regained power he would take the body from the grave and hang it on a gibbet as Charles II., after his restoration, had treated the remains of Oliver Cromwell. A number of Bacon's followers surrendered, placing themselves at the mercy of Berkeley; and he lost no time in hunting down those who tried to conceal themselves. Colonel Thomas Hansford was captured by Robert Beverley. Hansford requested that he should be "shot like a soldier and not hanged like a dog", but Berkeley was thirsting for vengeance and Hansford was hanged, being made "the first martyr to American liberty." Berkeley then made pro- clamation of a general amnesty to all his enemies who would sur- render their arms and restore the property they had taken from his partisan supporters. Many of the revolutionists availed them- selves of these terms, only to find that the perfidious governor had taken this course to entrap them. Persecutions and prosecutions were begun against the most prominent men of the rebellion. Heavy
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fines were imposed and large estates were confiscated for the pri- vate benefit of the governor and his minions. Twenty-three of the leaders were hanged without jury trials, a military court, acting under martial law, imposing the death penalty upon the victims at the dictation of Berkeley. Fortunately, commissioners had been sent from England to investigate the rebellion; and through their effort and at the protest of the General Assembly, Berkeley was prevailed upon to desist from his prosecution of the offending colonists. The commissioners in their report of the trials that took place after their arrival gave severe condemnation to the governor and his subservient military court. They said: "We also observed some of the royal party, that sat on the bench with us at the trial to be so forward in impeaching, accusing, reviling, the prisoners at the bar, with that inveteracy, as if they had been the worst of witnesses, rather than justices of the commission, both accusing and condemning at the same time. This severe way of proceeding represented to the assembly, they voted an address to the governor, that he would desist from any further sanguinary punishments, for none could tell when or where it would terminate."
Strange to tell, the two great-grandfathers of George Wash- ington were partisans of Governor Berkeley in his vindictive perse- cutions of the patriots. They were John Washington and Colonel Augustine Warren. One hundred years thereafter George Wash- ington, their great-grandson, became the patriot military leader of the Virginians when they revolted against Governor Dunmore's attempted enforcement of the oppressive and unjust tax laws of George III. The despicable Berkeley was forced to return to England with the commissioners, where he found himself so scorned by his fellow-countrymen that he soon died from humiliation and shame.
Some historians have been disposed to condemn Bacon and his associates for making their determined struggle for popular govern- ment, upon the theory that a majority of the wealthiest and most aristocratic citizens of the colony were opposed to the revolutionary movement. These aristocrats were averse to democratic ideas and popular government ; and were worshipers of monarchy and nobility, even when represented by such debased creatures as Charles II. and Sir William Berkeley. This Cavalier element adhered to the doctrine that "society is most prosperous when a select portion of the community governs the whole." It is the same fatuous doctrine that in these days exudes from the narrow minds of certain political
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leaders who contend that those whom they call "the best people" shall rule; and that an oligarchy is preferable to the form of popular government which Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln gave to their country.
Made desperate by the oppressions of his people, heaped upon them by a venal governor, the young leader may on some occasions have been too extreme in expression and in action, but his revolt was the first tragic manifestation of a yearning for personal and political freedom in Colonial America.
The Bacon rebellion was of brief duration and was confined to a small territory, but its influence was far-reaching in connection with other English colonies in America. A number of persons who were connected with the Virginia rebellion fled to North Carolina to escape the persecutions of Governor Berkeley. They found the condition of affairs in that province very much like they had been in Virginia. An obnoxious navigation act, coupled with excessive taxation, and "denial of a free election of an assembly" brought about an insurrection. It was led by John Culpeper, a prominent member of the colony, and he was valuably assisted by the refugees from Virginia. The royalists were as bitterly opposed to popular government in North Carolina as they had been in Virginia. The advocates of self-government were denounced by the royalists as meriting "hanging for endeavoring to set the poor people to plunder the rich." The government was then being conducted by Thomas Miller as president and secretary, and with the added authority of collecting the revenues ; and he had a council, as did the governor of Virginia. One of the counsellors joined in the rebellion, but the others, with Miller, were arrested and imprisoned. Culpeper and his associates refused to submit to the odious acts of Parliament, organized a representative popular government, and established courts of justice. The insurrectionists sent Culpeper and another planter to England to effect a compromise with the proprietaries of the colony. After fulfilling his mission, Culpeper started to leave England, but was arrested at the instance of Miller. He was acquitted by an English jury for participating in the insurrection ; and from that time the North Carolina colonists were left free to conduct their local affairs.
The sixty-nine years that intervened between the landing of the colony at Jamestown and the insurrection lead by Nathaniel Bacon were pregnant with incidents that were tinged with romance, pathos, and tragedy. They were an appropriate sequel to the sad story of T.H .- 10
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the lost Roanoke eolony and little Virginia Dare. The small com- munity that had been planted on the Jamestown peninsula in 1607 had expanded until it occupied nearly the entire Tidewater Virginia. Beautiful estates, many of them now historie, were located along the borders of the James, the York and other rivers, and of the numerous inlets that dotted the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The population had grown to forty thousand souls, and enterprise and abundance had supplanted the slothfulness and destitution which had threatened to destroy the colony during the first years of its existence. The neighboring colonies, Carolina, Maryland, and Penn- sylvania, as well as those more remote, New York, and Massachu- setts, were also prospering and growing to such form as to fore- cast the need of a continental government for all of the colonies. From this time onward, until 1776, the trend of the American eom- munities was in the direction of independent republican government.
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