What is the significance of nathaniel bacon

Probably as a consequence, he moved to Virginia in the summer of with his wife and possibly their two daughters, whose birth dates are unknown. Bacon was well connected, well educated, intelligent, tall, and handsome, although somewhat melancholy and, in the view of some Virginians, unpleasantly arrogant. The rebellion Bacon led against the governor erupted suddenly the next year following a long period of unsettled politics, economic hardship, and, more proximately, a series of genuinely frightening incidents.

By then Bacon had begun participating with William Byrd — in trade with some of the Indians on the southwestern border of the settled parts of Virginia and, as some writers later charged, one result may have been his growing antipathy toward the governor, who was also a significant participant in the Indian trade and therefore a competitor.

In March the General Assembly met to prepare for defending the colony and enacted laws to erect forts along the fall line, to try to keep friendly Indians at peace with the colonists, and to cut off the Indian trade temporarily to reduce contacts that might flare into conflicts. The causes of the rebellion later adduced by royal commissioners included public resentment of the requisite high taxes, which the people believed had bought no real protection. In this charged atmosphere Bacon became the leader of the angry and frightened militiamen in the upper reaches of the James River valley, and he requested permission from the governor to lead an expedition against the hostile Indians.

Berkeley also called for the election of a new House of Burgesses and convened the new assembly as soon as possible in order to take necessary additional steps to secure the safety of the colony.

Bacon, meanwhile, led his men southwest to one of the main Occaneechi villages. He persuaded the Occaneechi to attack a nearby party of hostile Susquehannocks, but the allies soon quarreled and, after a pitched battle, Bacon and his men devastated the Occaneechi village. On June 6, , Bacon and a company of armed men arrived in Jamestown.

The governor then announced that he was pardoning Bacon and restoring him to his seat on the Council. At this point an assembly member urged that Bacon be made a general to command the campaign against the Indians, and the large crowd of angry men who had descended on Jamestown took up the cry.

The governor vacillated, first agreeing to the appointment but then changing his mind, revoking his pardon of Bacon, and again expelling him from the Council.

Bacon left Jamestown, but on June 23 he stormed back into the capital with about men and demanded that the governor commission him as a general to lead the colony against the Indians. Berkeley nevertheless yielded to the demands of Bacon and his supporters, and the assembly rapidly completed work on the laws of the session.

Bacon withdrew upriver in search of Indians to attack, but late in July the governor again reversed course, once again declared Bacon a rebel, and went to Gloucester County to recruit men to fight him. Bacon and his army marched to Middle Plantation, the site of present-day Williamsburg, while Berkeley retreated to the Eastern Shore.

On August 3, , Bacon obtained the endorsement of seventy of them to his leadership against the Indians, and the next day thirty signatories assented to a more radical declaration that a new assembly was to be chosen under his authority rather than recalling the one that had met in June. Bacon then marched his men into the Dragon Swamp on the lower reaches of the Rappahannock River, where they attacked the friendly Pamunkey Indians. Early in September the governor returned to Jamestown with a small force and issued another proclamation against Bacon, whereupon Bacon marched there and laid siege to the capital.

Many of them apparently spent much of their time ransacking the estates of men identified as loyal to the governor. By autumn letters from Virginia had arrived in London apprising royal officials of the rebellion. King Charles II formed a three-member commission to assist the governor in suppressing the revolt and to inquire into its causes.

With respect to Nathaniel Bacon, the proclamation was already a dead letter. Governor Berkeley has had his defenders, too. Washburn presented Bacon as the ambitious and impetuous leader of a mob of Indian-hating frontiersmen. However one may interpret him, the rebellion itself preceded significant changes for Virginia.

Encyclopedia Virginia Grady Ave. Virginia Humanities acknowledges the Monacan Nation , the original people of the land and waters of our home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Bacon did not, at this time, comply with the Governor's orders. Instead he next attacked the camp of the friendly Occaneecheee Indians on the Roanoke River the border between Virginia and North Carolina , and took their store of beaver pelts.

In the face of a brewing catastrophe, Berkeley, to keep the peace, was willing to forget that Bacon was not authorized to take the law into his own hands.

Berkeley agreed to pardon Bacon if he turned himself in, so he could be sent to England and tried before King Charles II. It was the House of Burgesses, however, who refused this alternative, insisting that Bacon must acknowledge his errors and beg the Governor's forgiveness. Ironically, at the same time, Bacon was then elected to the Burgesses by supportive local land owners sympathetic to his Indian campaigns.

Bacon, by virtue of this election, attended the landmark Assembly of June It was during this session that he was mistakenly credited with the political reforms that came from this meeting. The reforms were prompted by the population, cutting through all class lines. Most of the reform laws dealt with reconstructing the colony's voting regulations, enabling freemen to vote, and limiting the number of years a person could hold certain offices in the colony. Most of these laws were already on the books for consideration well before Bacon was elected to the Burgesses.

Bacon's only cause was his campaign against the Indians. Upon his arrival for the June Assembly, Bacon was captured, taken before Berkeley and council and was made to apologize for his previous actions. Berkeley immediately pardoned Bacon and allowed him to take his seat in the assembly. At this time, the council still had no idea how much support was growing in defense of Bacon.

The full awareness of that support hit home when Bacon suddenly left the Burgesses in the midst of heated debate over Indian problems. He returned with his forces to surround the statehouse. Once again Bacon demanded his commission, but Berkeley called his bluff and demanded that Bacon shoot him. Bacon refused.

Berkeley granted Bacon's previous volunteer commission but Bacon refused it and demanded that he be made General of all forces against the Indians, which Berkeley emphatically refused and walked away.

Tensions ran high as the screaming Bacon and his men surrounded the statehouse, threatening to shoot several onlooking Burgesses if Bacon was not given his commission.

Finally after several agonizing moments, Berkeley gave in to Bacon's demands for campaigns against the Indians without government interference. With Berkeley's authority in shambles, Bacon's brief tenure as leader of the rebellion began. Even in the midst of these unprecedented triumphs, however, Bacon was not without his mistakes. He allowed Berkeley to leave Jamestown in the aftermath of a surprise Indian attack on a nearby settlement.

He also confiscated supplies from Gloucester and left them vulnerable to possible Indian attacks. Shortly after the immediate crisis subsided, Berkeley briefly retired to his home at Green Springs and washed his hands of the entire mess. Nathaniel Bacon dominated Jamestown from July through September During this time, Berkeley did come out of his lethargy and attempt a coup, but support for Bacon was still too strong and Berkeley was forced to flee to Accomack County on the Eastern Shore.

Feeling that it would make his triumph complete, Bacon issued his "Declaration of the People" on July 30, which stated that Berkeley was corrupt, played favorites and protected the Indians for his own selfish purposes. Bacon also issued his oath which required the swearer to promise his loyalty to Bacon in any manner necessary i.

Even this tight rein could not keep the tide from changing again. Bacon's fleet was first and finally secretly infiltrated by Berkeley's men and finally captured. This was to be the turning point in the conflict, because Berkeley was once again strong enough to retake Jamestown. Bacon then followed his sinking fortunes to Jamestown and saw it heavily fortified.

He made several attempts at a siege, during which he kidnapped the wives of several of Berkeley's biggest supporters, including Mrs. Nathaniel Bacon Sr. Infuriated, Bacon burned Jamestown to the ground on September 19, He did save many valuable records in the statehouse. Many were executed for their actions. Right after the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson and others upheld the event as a brave stand by embattled colonists.

Today, though, historians see it as a tussle over the ownership of the colonial frontier and an effort to further drive Native Americans off their lands. Settlers roll barrels of tobacco up a ramp and onto a ship in preparation for export from Jamestown, Virginia.

At the time, wealthy settlers had built profitable tobacco plantations and used their crops to pay high colonial taxes. But for poorer Virginians, times were lean. Only people who owned land could vote, and the indentured servants and poorer Virginians who did not felt disenfranchised.

There, they faced threats from Native Americans intent on protecting their ancestral lands. When the colonists called on their governor for military support, he refused. Berkeley refused, infuriating Bacon. He began to amass a militia of his own. Drunk on brandy and the prospects of the land to which they thought they were entitled, Bacon and his men headed south. There, they met a group of Occaneechi people, whom they enlisted to help them fight a group of Susquehannocks.

The Occaneechi helped, but met with a brutal reward. After the skirmish, Bacon and his men turned on them, slaughtering most of the Occaneechi and decimating their village. Nathaniel Bacon right and his rebel followers confront Virginia governor Sir William Berkeley with his failure to protect them from Native American attacks.

In response, Berkeley declared Bacon a rebel and scheduled elections for a new assembly to solve the problem for good. But Bacon was immediately elected to that legislative body, and when he headed to Jamestown to begin his tenure there, was met with a chilly welcome.