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since Governor Berkeley, under popular pressure, had
forced the subject Indians to turn in their muskets and
disarm. Killing disarmed oppressed people is much more
satisfying to Euro-Amerikans than having to face armed
foes. In fact, as one historian pointed out: "Bacon and his
men did not kill a single enemy Indian but contented
themselves with frightening away, killing, or enslaving
most of the friendly neighboring Indians, and taking their
beaver and land as spoils."
Now Bacon was on the offensive against Governor
Berkeley and his clique as well. Over and over he publicly
damned Berkeley as a traitor to settlers. Bacon was swinging
from his heels, aiming at nothing less than state power.
His big gun against the Governor was the charge that
Berkeley was a secret "friend" to the Indians. No charge
could have been more damaging. As we all know, when
Euro-Amerikans really get serious about fighting each
other the most vicious accusation they can hurl at one
another is that of "nigger-lover" or "Indian-lover" or
some such.
Bacon charged that the Governor was literally a
traitor who had secretly sold the Indians guns so that they
could attack the settlers. We can see the parallels to the
1960's, when white liberals were widely charged with giving
Third-World militants money, legal aid, and even
weapons so that they could kill whites. Berkeley, charged
Bacon, had so intimidated the settlers "that no man dare
to destroy the Indians ... until I adventured to cutt the
knott, which made the people in general1 look upon mee as
the countries friend." Bacon's wife, whose ardent support
for the Rebellion led some of today's Euro-Arnerikan
radicals to see feminist stirrings in it, cried "Thanks bee to
God" that her husband "did destroy a great many of the
Indians.. ."(6) Killing, enslaving and robbing was the exact
central concern of this movement-which Euro-
Amerikans tell us is an example of how we should unite
with them! There's a message there for those who wish to
pick it up.
Bacon had been proscribed as a lawbreaker and
rebel, but he still easily won election to the Assembly which
was to meet on June 5, 1676. He typically chose to ensure
his control of the Henrico County elections by capturing
the site with his vigilantes. Even though Bacon was for
repealing the 1670 Assembly decision denying propertyless
freeman voting rights, these votes and assemblies were just
window-dressing to his dictatorial ambitions.
On June 7, 1676 the Rebellion suffered its first
reverse. Bacon was captured as he and fifty of his armed
band tried to slip into Jamestown, the capital of Virginia
Colony. Then began a dizzying series of maneuvers, coups
and countercoups. Preferring shame to execution, Bacon
begged Gov. Berkeley's pardon on bended knee in front of
the crowded Assembly. He was quickly pardoned-and
even restored to his position on the Council of State.
Young Bacon just as quickly fled Jamestown, returning on
June 23, 1676 with over 500 armed supporters. He easily
captured the capital, Governor and all. But now he in turn
had to release Gov. Berkeley and his loyal supporters, for
they invoked their settlers' right to return home to defend
their plantations and women against the Indians.
It was at that point that we find white indentured
servants entering the scene. Without an army. with almost
all of the planters turned against him, an exiled Gov.
Berkeley outbids Bacon for support. Berkeley promises
freedom to white indentured servants of the Baconites, if
they will desert their masters and take arms with the
loyalist forces of the Crown. He also authorizes looting,
with every white servant sharing in the confiscated estates
of the Baconites. Aided by the lucky recapture of three
armed ships, Gov. Berkeley soon rebuilt his military
forces.
On Sept. 7 1676 the loyalists arrived at
Jamestown. Gov. Berkeley shrewdly offered a general pardon
to all rebel settlers except Bacon and his two chief
lieutenants. Although they still commanded the fortified
capital, Bacon's men abandoned their positions in immediate
flight, without any pretense of battle. Most eagerly
took up Berkeley's offer of pardon.
Now it was Bacon's turn to find himself virtually
armyless, deserted by many of his followers. It appears as
though a good number of settlers rallied to and deserted
from the various sides depending on how the tide of fortune
was running. They had an opportunistic regard for
their immediate gain as the main contour in their minds.
Just one month before, Bacon had been confidently sketching
out how sister rebellions could easily be ignited in
Maryland and South Carolina, and how if London refused
their demands then an independent nation could be formed.
This, incidentally, is why Jefferson and the other 1776
patriots considered Bacon one of the first architects of the
United States.(7) But now his situation was perilous.
In his extreme need, refusing to swallow the bitter
dose of either compromise or defeat, Bacon followed Gov.
Berkeley's example-but did him one better. Bacon
recruited not only the white servants of his opponents, but
also their Afrikan slaves. Hundreds of new recruits flocked
to his army. On Sept. 19, 1676, Baconite forces recaptured
Jamestown. Once again there was no battle. Berkeley's
forces deserted him as swiftly as Bacon's had, and the fortified
capital was abandoned. Bacon, ever the master
psychologist, had skillfully barricaded his besieging ramparts
with the bodies-of both his new Indian slaves and the
captured wives of loyalists. That night he triumphantly
ordered Jamestown put to the torch, and the fires that consumed
the capital were dramatic evidence that he was once
again master of Virginia.
But then Bacon died suddenly from an unexpected
illness. His successor as "General" of the Rebellion lost
heart, and made a secret deal with the Crown to disarm the
rebel forces. The last die-hards were some 80 Afrikan
slaves and 20 white servants, who refused to surrender to a
fate they knew all too well. They were tricked into coming
aboard a ship, taken out to the middle of the river, and
forced to disarm at cannonpoint. As quickly as it had
begun, Bacon's Rebellion was over.
Out of the debris of this chaotic dispute we can
pick out the central facts. First, that there was no
democratic political program or movement whatsoever.
Bacon's Rebellion was a popular movement, representing
a clear majority of the settlers, to resolve serious economic
and social problems by stepping up the exploitaton of op-
15 pressed peoples. Far from being "democratic", it was