II

From big plantations and from small farms, from manor-houses in the

lowlands and from log cabins in the uplands, grown men and half-grown

boys, armed with guns or swords, hurried to join General Bacon, who was

sending out his call for recruits from his headquarters up the James

River. The colonists were a hardy lot, used to hunting and fighting, and

well pleased now at the prospect of upsetting the tyrannical governor at

Jamestown. Within three days after Bacon's escape from the capital he

was at the head of about six hundred men, stirring them with his

speeches, for he was a very fine and fiery orator, until they were ready

to follow wherever he led. The Porters, father and son, succeeded in

joining his ranks, and when the young commander set out on his march to

Jamestown they rode among his men.

What was Sir William Berkeley doing meantime? Bacon was a fighter, but

the white-haired governor was a fighter also. He sent riders from

Jamestown to summon what were called the "train-bands" of York and

Gloucester, counties that lay along Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic

Ocean. But the spirit of rebellion had spread from the plantations along

the James down to the seaboard settlements, and only a hundred soldiers,

and not all of them very loyal to the governor, answered his summons.

They marched so slowly that Bacon reached Jamestown before they were in

sight of the town. At two in the afternoon the rebel leader entered the

capital at the head of his men and drew up his troops on the green, not

an arrow's flight from the State House where he had knelt for the

governor's pardon less than ten days before.

At his order his men sentineled the roads, seized all the firearms they

could find, and disarmed or arrested all men coming into Jamestown by

land or river, except such as joined their own ranks.

The little capital was in a turmoil. Sir William and his council sat in

a room at the State House, debating what course to take. They ordered a

drummer to summon the burgesses, and those burgesses who were not

already in Bacon's army came trooping to the State House. It seemed as

if war was to break out then and there. Bacon marched across the green

with a file of fusileers on either side, and reached the corner of the

State House. Sir William and his council came out, and the two leaders

fronted one another, Bacon fairly cool and collected, but the aged

governor raging at this affront to his dignity.

Sir William walked up to Bacon, and tearing open the lace at the breast

of his coat, cried angrily, "Here! Shoot me! 'Fore God, a fair

mark--shoot!"

Bacon answered calmly, "No, may it please your honor; we will not hurt a

hair of your head, nor of any other 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."

But though his words were mild, Bacon was really very angry. As the

governor, still raging and shaking his fist, turned and walked back to

the State House with his council, Bacon followed him with his soldiers,

one hand on his sword-hilt, the other threatening Berkeley. As the

governor and council continued their retreat, Bacon and his men grew

more threatening. The leader shook his fist, the fusileers cocked their

guns. And as they came to the windows of the room where the burgesses

sat some of the soldiers pointed their guns at the men inside, shouting

again and again, "We will have it! We will have it!"

Presently one of the burgesses waved his handkerchief from the window,

and called out, "You shall have it! You shall have it!" by which he

meant the commission that Bacon wanted. The soldiers uncocked their

guns, and stood back, waiting further orders from their leader. Bacon

had grown as angry meantime as the governor had been before, and had

cried, "I'll kill governor, council, Assembly and all, and then I'll

sheathe my sword in my own heart's blood." And it was afterward said

that Bacon had ordered his men, if he drew his sword, to fire on the

burgesses. But the handkerchief waved from the window, and the words,

"You shall have it!" calmed him somewhat, and soon afterward he went

into the State House and discussed the matter fully with Sir William and

his council.

Later that same day Bacon went to the room of the burgesses and repeated

his request for a commission. The speaker answered that it was "Not in

their province, or power, nor of any other save the king's vicegerent,

their governor, to grant it." Bacon replied by saying that the purpose

of his coming to Jamestown was to secure some safe way of protecting the

settlers from the Indians, to reduce the very heavy taxes, and to right

the calamities that had come upon the country. The burgesses gave him no

definite answer, and he left, much dissatisfied. Next day, however, Sir

William and his council yielded, Nathaniel Bacon was appointed general

and commander-in-chief against the Indians, and pardon was granted to

him and all his followers for their acts against the Indians in the

west.

This was a great triumph for the rebel leader. Berkeley hated and feared

him as much as ever, but had seen that he must pocket his pride in the

face of such a popular uprising.

The owner of Curles Plantation was now commander-in-chief of the

Virginia troops, and although it was intended that he should use his

army only in defending the colony from Indian attacks, it was generally

believed that he could do whatever he wished with his men. The colony

was practically under his absolute control. The colonists would do

whatever he ordered, and as they hailed Bacon's leadership they paid

less and less heed to Sir William Berkeley. And the governor, knowing

that many adventurers, many men of doubtful reputation, and many who

were his own enemies, were now much in Bacon's company, feared for their

influence on the impulsive young commander.

Having seen their neighbor win his commission, Mr. Porter and Edmund

rode back to their own plantation, and took up the work that was always

waiting to be done in summer. They were busy, and heard only from time

to time of what Nathaniel was doing. They knew he was planning to take

the field against the Indians with a good-sized troop of men.

Full of energy, and eager to show the colony that he was in truth a

great commander, Bacon made his headquarters near West Point, at the

head of the York River, a place frequently called "De la War," from Lord

Delaware, who belonged to the West family. He disarmed all the men who

opposed his command, and then set out, with an army of between five

hundred and a thousand men, to attack the Indians in the neighborhood

of the head waters of the Pamunkey. His scouts scoured the woods and

drove out all hostile Indians; he cleared that part of the frontier of

red men, and in a short time had made the border plantations safer than

they had ever been before. He had justified all his friends had said of

him, he had acted as a loyal Virginian, and he had proved his worth as

general-in-chief of the colony's army.

Edmund Porter, going to the store at the crossroads on a July day, heard

men discussing news that had just come from Jamestown. The rumor was

that, despite Nathaniel Bacon's success as a commander, Sir William

Berkeley had again denounced him as a rebel and traitor, and had fled to

York River and set up his banner there not only as governor, but as

general also. The report proved true. Sir William had nursed his anger

for a short time, and now it flamed forth afresh and even more bitterly

than before. In spite of Bacon's success he was still a rebel in the

governor's eyes; he had forced the Assembly at Jamestown to do his

bidding, and had acted as if the colony belonged to Bacon and his

followers, and not to the king of England and the royal officers. This

matter the governor meant to decide when he flew his flag at York River

and summoned all loyal Virginians to come to his aid. Some came; there

were many planters who honestly believed that Berkeley was in the right

and Bacon in the wrong; but the great mass of the people sided with the

latter, and it began to look as if Sir William might still call himself

the governor, but would find that he had no people to govern.

Then, when the old Cavalier, proud in his defeat as the Cavaliers of

England had been when the Roundheads beat them in battle after battle,

was beginning to see his men desert him, a messenger came post-haste

from Gloucester County, to the north of the York River, with word that

the planters there were still loyal to the king's governor, and begged

him to come to their county and to protect them from the Indians. The

loyalists of Gloucester, some of whom Bacon had disarmed, were ready to

rally round Sir William.

Sir William was overjoyed; he went to Gloucester at once, he flew his

flag there, and called all loyalists to join him. Twelve hundred people

came on the day Sir William set. But, with the exception of the wealthy

planters who had sent the message, even these men of Gloucester were

unwilling to take the field against General Bacon, as Sir William

wanted. Some of them said that Bacon was fighting the common enemy, the

Indians, with great success, and that as good Virginians they ought to

help, and not to hinder, his work. The governor urged and argued with

them, but as he talked men began to leave, muttering "Bacon! Bacon!

Bacon!" as they went. A short stay showed that Sir William was not to

find, even in Gloucester, the support he wished. Where could he go?

There was one place where men might yet listen to him, the distant

country that was sometimes called the "Kingdom of Accomac." It lay

across Chesapeake Bay, remote from the rest of Virginia. The governor

took ship and sailed across the thirty miles that divided it from the

mainland, a romantic, apparently defeated figure, like some of the

English Royalists who fled before the victorious troops of Oliver

Cromwell.

On July 29, 1676, Berkeley posted his proclamation, declaring that

Nathaniel Bacon was a traitor and outlaw. Bacon heard the news as he was

in camp on the upper waters of the James. He was hurt at what he felt

was the governor's injustice to him. To a friend he said, "It vexes me

to the heart to think that while I am hunting wolves, tigers, and foxes

(meaning Indians), which daily destroy our harmless sheep and lambs,

that I and those with me should be pursued with a full cry, as a more

savage or a no less ravenous beast."

The general marched his men down the river, arresting such as were known

to side with the governor, but leaving their property unharmed.

Presently he made his quarters at Middle-Plantation, which was situated

half-way between Jamestown and the York River. Here his riders

bivouacked around the small group of houses that formed the settlement,

and their commander set to work to try to bring some sort of order out

of the tangle into which Virginia had fallen. Sir William Berkeley was

away in the distant country of Accomac, a country that was hardly looked

upon at that time as part of Virginia, and Bacon was to all intents now

the governor as well as the general-in-chief. Some of his friends

advised him to do one thing, some another. Mr. Drummond, an old enemy of

Berkeley's, who knew what Sir William thought of him, and who had once

said of himself as a rebel, "I am in, over shoes; I will be over boots,"

now advised Bacon to proclaim that Berkeley was deposed from the

governorship and that Sir Henry Chicheley should rule in his place. But

Bacon would not go so far as that; he was quick-tempered, but fairly

cool when it came to planning action, and he knew that to overthrow Sir

William would make him clearly a rebel in the eyes of England.

So, instead of acting rashly, he issued what he called a "Remonstrance,"

which protested against Sir William's calling him and his men traitors

and rebels, when they were really faithful subjects of His Majesty the

King of England, and had only taken up arms to protect themselves

against the savages. Besides that, he complained that the colony was not

well managed, and called on all who were interested in Virginia to meet

at Middle-Plantation on August 3d, and make a formal protest to the

English king and Parliament.

Many men met at the village on that day, four members of the governors

council among them. Bacon made a fiery speech, and all agreed to pledge

themselves not to aid Sir William Berkeley in any attack on General

Bacon or his army. Then Bacon went further; he asked the meeting to

promise that each and every man there would rise in arms against Sir

William if he should try to resist General Bacon, and further that if

any soldiers should be sent from England to aid Sir William each man

there would fight such troops until they had a chance to explain matters

to the king of England.

That was going too far; the men had no desire to rebel against their

king. They were willing to sign the first pledge, but not the second. In

the midst of their arguing Bacon interrupted angrily. "Then I will

surrender my commission, and let the country find some other servant to

go abroad and do its work!" he exclaimed. "Sir William Berkeley hath

proclaimed me a rebel, and it is not unknown to himself that I both can

and shall charge _him_ with no less than treason!" He added that

Governor Berkeley would never forgive them for signing either part of

the pledge, and that they might as well sign both as one. Then into the

stormy meeting rushed a gunner from York Fort, shouting out that the

Indians were marching on his fort, that the governor had taken all the

arms from the fort, and that he had no protection for all the people who

had fled there from the woods of Gloucester in fear of the Indians'

tomahawks.

The gunner's words settled the matter. All the men agreed to sign the

whole pledge, promised to fight not only Sir William Berkeley but the

king's troops as well if they came to Virginia to support him. The oath

was taken, the paper signed by the light of torches near midnight on

that third day of August, 1676. Just a hundred years later another

Declaration of Independence was to be signed by men, some from this same

colony of Virginia, in Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

The next business was to organize a new government, and Bacon sent word

through the colony for men to choose representatives to meet early in

September. Then the general marched off with his army to protect the

people who had fled to York Fort, and try to finish his war with the

Indians.

There was great rejoicing throughout the length and breadth of Virginia

when news came to town and plantation that Nathaniel Bacon had set up a

new government in place of the old one that had failed to protect the

colony and that had suppressed the people's liberty. They gloried in

their defiance of the royal governor. Sarah Drummond, the wife of

Bacon's friend, said to her neighbors:

"The child that is unborn shall have cause to rejoice for the good that

will come by the rising of the country!"

One of her neighbors objected, "We must expect a greater power from

England that will certainly be our ruin."

Mrs. Drummond picked up a stick, and breaking it in two, said

scornfully, "I fear the power of England no more than a broken straw!"

And when others shook their heads doubtfully, she said bravely, "We will

do well enough!" That was the feeling of most of the people. They were

back of Bacon, and pledged themselves to support him through thick and

thin.

At the plantation near Curles Mr. Porter brought the news of the oath at

Middle-Plantation to his family, and his wife and son and the men and

women who worked for him celebrated the event as a great victory for all

true Virginians.

Meantime General Bacon crossed the James River, attacked the Appomattox

Indians, and killed or routed the whole tribe. He then marched along the

south side of the river toward the Nottoway and Roanoke, scattered all

the Indians he met, and ultimately returned north to West Point, where

he dismissed all his army but a small detachment, bidding the others go

back to their own plantations to harvest the autumn crops.

Scarcely had the men of Bacon's army reached their homes when a new

message electrified the whole countryside. From man to man the news ran

that Sir William Berkeley, with seventeen ships and a thousand men, had

come back from far-away Accomac, had sailed up the James River, had

taken possession of Jamestown, and was now flying his flag above the

State House there.