White indentured servants from Great Britain Black Africans that couldn’t bring their children with ‘em Sweating and freezing and dying in all kinds of weather Shipped to Jamestown enslaved together In the 1600’s, we didn’t know we were White Huddled like sheep through those dark winter nights No racist theories teaching us to be separate Just crushed by oppression and equally desperate Oppressed by the wealthy, oppressed by their laws With poor African friends we found common cause And formed coalitions. It isn’t surprising Every one of us expected a serious uprising I hear from rich landowner, Nathaniel Bacon Native Indian soil is ripe for the taking His uncle, the governor, refuses to help him So he's gathering forces to ignite a rebellion Let's follow Nathaniel, our ranks are formidable Light up your torches let's burn down the capitol We’ll ambush the landowners quick before they take cover And scatter like cockroaches infesting our cupboards Take prisoners, the nobles like Governor Berkely They heard that we're coming, so we'll have to move quickly They're boarding their ships, they're getting away They're scrambling like cowards out into the bay The governor looked back in confused disbelief If not for their ships they’d all be in shackles at least He howled for the crown to send stout reinforcements A resolute plan to take back the town was important He'd rally his forces, wait for assistance Round up his rivals, crush the resistance So in the end, our uprising failed Our leaders were hanged and our comrades were jailed Landowners, shocked, not amused nor regaled Acknowledged their narrow escape as a cautionary tale We all lick our wounds and crawl back to work Pushing our plows and digging up dirt Pondering new policies put into place That aim to blame the rebellion on something... On something called race
The Back Story
“[We must defend ourselves] against all Indians in generall, for that they were all Enemies.” This was the unequivocal view of Nathaniel Bacon, a young, wealthy Englishman who had recently settled in the backcountry of Virginia. The opinion that all Indians were enemies was also shared by many other Virginians, especially those who lived in the interior. It was not the view, however, of the governor of the colony, William Berkeley.
Berkeley – who happened to be Bacon’s uncle – was not opposed to fighting Indians who were considered enemies, but attacking friendly Indians, he thought, could lead to what everyone wanted to avoid: a war with “all the Indians against us.” Berkeley also didn’t trust Bacon’s intentions, believing that the upstart’s true aim was to stir up trouble among settlers, who were already discontented with the colony’s government.
Bacon attracted a large following who, like him, wanted to kill or drive out every Indian in Virginia. In 1675, when Berkeley denied Bacon a commission (the authority to lead soldiers), Bacon took it upon himself to lead his followers in a crusade against the “enemy.” They marched to a fort held by a friendly tribe, the Occaneechees, and convinced them to capture warriors from an unfriendly tribe. The Occaneechees returned with captives. Bacon’s men killed the captives. They then turned to their “allies” and opened fire.
Berkeley declared Bacon a rebel and charged him with treason. Just to be safe, the next time Bacon returned to Jamestown, he brought along fifty armed men. Bacon was still arrested, but Berkeley pardoned him instead of sentencing him to death, the usual punishment for treason.
Still without the commission he felt he deserved, Bacon returned to Jamestown later the same month, but this time accompanied by five hundred men. Berkeley was forced to give Bacon the commision, only to later declare that it was void. Bacon, in the meantime, had continued his fight against Indians. When he learned of the Govenor’s declaration, he headed back to Jamestown. The governor immediately fled, along with a few of his supporters, to Virginia’s eastern shore.
Each leader tried to muster support. Each promised freedom to slaves and servants who would join their cause. But Bacon’s following was much greater than Berkeley’s. In September of 1676, Bacon and his men set Jamestown on fire.
The rebellion ended after British authorities sent a royal force to assist in quelling the uprising and arresting scores of committed rebels, White and Black. When Bacon suddenly died in October, probably of dysentery, Bacon’s Rebellion fizzled out.1
Right after the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson and others upheld the event as a brave stand by embattled colonists. Today, however, historians see it as a tussle over the ownership of the colonial frontier and an effort to further drive Native Americans off their lands.
Dramatic Reading
The summers were stifling hot in Jamestown and Prudence was in a fowl mood. Living in the New World was supposed to offer her wonderful opportunities, but she resented almost everything about being here. She had anticipated an adventurous, yet comfortable life as part of the aristocracy. But despite her efforts, she had been unable to shake a part of her grandfather’s legacy that left a nasty film on her image. She appreciated the inheritance, to be sure, but she was growing frustrated with the reputation that accompanied it.
When Grandpa Elfrith had first arrived on his privateering venture some 50 years earlier, he had become wealthy, partly as a result of his famous wager with John Jope, captain of the White Lion. Daniel Elfrith had successfully transported and sold more enslaved Angolans than Jope, who had counted on Elfrith losing most of his Africans en route. Daniel’s crew had packed them in so tightly on The Treasurer that Jope was convinced most would die during the voyage. To everyone’s surprise, the greater number had survived, while Jope had lost half of his White Lion captives. But the survival of Grandpa Elfrith’s other passengers had been much less celebrated. Disembarking with everything else had been a horrible infestation of black rats. The stories were legendary and disgusting. According to the old timers the rats had reproduced at an astonishing rate and almost overnight were found literally hanging from the trees and living in the rafters. Residents were finding them alive and dead in fresh milk pails, in sacks of grain, hiding in the hanging meat carcasses at the butcher shops and dropping onto their beds at night. Most dreadfully, they had brought the bloody flux from which many of the colonists had died. Elfrith was never forgiven and Prudence was stuck with his legacy.
She had been overjoyed when her best friend, Elizabeth Duke, had moved to Jamestown and married. But even her friendship with the now Elizabeth Bacon, was souring. Her husband, Nathaniel, was a troublemaker. He was handsome and rich, to be sure. For that, she could not blame Elizabeth. But he was constantly in conflict with his uncle, the governor, and was stirring up the common folk considerably. Why couldn’t people just be happy with what they had? Everyone was always wanting more. It was annoying.
Prudence had overheard her two servants arguing about joining Bacon in some kind of coup or revolt or something. But Nathaniel was always talking about fighting someone, the Indians, mostly – even the friendly ones. He was greedy for more land and it created problems for everybody else. He and Elizabeth were constantly arguing and she rarely came to visit anymore. It made Prudence want to pick up and move back to England where the weather was cooler and the dirt was manageable.
*Play the song*
The Whiteness Factor
Why is this event regarded as pivotal in the development of Black/White relations?
The injustices being exacted on poor Blacks and Whites were, before Bacon, roughly similar. Class, rather than color, was the main point of division. Bacon took full advantage of that divide to unite Black and White against their common enemy – rich landowners. Of course, the local Indigenous peoples were not invited to the party. After all, their land was what Bacon was hoping to pirate. His intentions were purely capitalistic. But his ability to unite a large base from the poor community was a startling wakeup call for the aristocracy. After the rebellion and several additional uprisings in other colonies similar to those with Nathaniel Bacon, it became clear that Black/White coalitions were a serious threat.