1675-1676.
Three Ominous Presages--Siege of Piscataway--Colonel John
Washington--Indian Chiefs put to death--Fort evacuated--
Indians murder Inhabitants of Frontier--Servant and Overseer
of Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., slain--The People take up Arms--Bacon
chosen Leader--His Character--Solicits Commission from Berkley
--He proclaims the Insurgents Rebels--Pursues them--Planters
of Lower Country revolt--Forts dismantled--Rebellion not the
Result of Bacon's Pique or Ambition--He marches into the
Wilderness--Massacre of friendly Indians--Bacon returns--
Elected a Burgess--Arrested--Released on Parole--Assembly
meets--Bacon sues for Pardon--Restored to the Council--
Nathaniel Bacon, Sr.--Berkley issues secret Warrants for
arrest of the younger Bacon.
"ABOUT the year 1675," says an old writer, "appeared three prodigies in
that country, which, from the attending disasters, were looked upon as
ominous presages. The one was a large comet, every evening for a week or
more at southwest, thirty-five degrees high, streaming like a horse-tail
westward, until it reached (almost) the horizon, and setting toward the
northwest. Another was flights of wild pigeons, in breadth nigh a
quarter of the mid-hemisphere, and of their length was no visible end;
whose weights broke down the limbs of large trees whereon these rested
at nights, of which the fowlers shot abundance, and ate them; this sight
put the old planters under the more portentous apprehensions because the
like was seen (as they said) in the year 1644, when the Indians
committed the last massacre; but not after, until that present year,
1675. The third strange phenomenon was swarms of flies about an inch
long, and big as the top of a man's little finger, rising out of spigot
holes in the earth, which ate the new-sprouted leaves from the tops of
the trees, without other harm, and in a month left us."[283:A]
The author of this account, whose initials are T. M., says of himself,
that he lived in Northumberland County, on the lower part of the
Potomac, where he was a merchant; but he had a plantation, servants,
cattle, etc., in Stafford County, on the upper part of that river; and
that he was elected a burgess from Stafford in 1676, Colonel Mason being
his colleague. T. M., perhaps, was Thomas Matthews, son of Colonel
Samuel Matthews, some time governor. He owned lands acquired from the
Wicocomoco Indians in Northumberland, and it is probable that his son,
Thomas Matthews, came into possession of them.[284:A] He appears to have
lived at a place called Cherry Point, probably on the Potomac, in
1681.[284:B]
On a Sunday morning, in the summer of 1675, a herdsman, named Robert
Hen, together with an Indian, was slain in Stafford County, by a party
of the hostile tribe of Doegs, and the victims were found by the people
on their way to church.[284:C] Colonel Mason and Captain Brent, with
some militia, pursued the offenders about twenty miles up the river, and
then across into Maryland, and, coming upon two parties of armed
warriors, slaughtered indiscriminately a number of them and of the
Susquehannocks, a friendly tribe. These latter, recently expelled from
their own country, at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, by the Senecas, a
tribe of the Five Nations, now sought refuge in a fort of the
Piscataways, a friendly tribe near the head of the Potomac, supposed to
be near the spot where now stands the City of Washington. In a short
time several Marylanders were murdered by the savages, and some
Virginians in the County of Stafford. The fort on the north bank of the
Piscataway consisted of high earth-works having flankers pierced with
loop-holes, and surrounded by a ditch. This again was encircled by a row
of tall trees from five to eight inches in diameter, set three feet in
the earth and six inches apart, and wattled in such a manner as to
protect those within, and, at the same time, to afford them apertures
for shooting through. It was probably an old fort erected by Maryland as
a protection to the frontier, but latterly unoccupied. The
Susquehannocks, to the number of one hundred warriors, with their old
men, women, and children, entrenched themselves in this stronghold.
Toward the end of September they were besieged by a thousand men from
Virginia and Maryland, united in a joint expedition, at the instance of
the latter. The Marylanders were commanded by Major Thomas Truman, the
Virginians by Colonel John Washington.[285:A] John Washington had
emigrated from Yorkshire, England, to Virginia in 1657, and purchased
lands in Westmoreland. Not long after, being, as has been conjectured, a
surveyor, he made a location of lands, which, however, was set aside
until the Indians, to whom these lands had been assigned, should vacate
them. In the year 1667 he was a member of the house of burgesses.[285:B]
To return to the siege: six of the Indian chiefs were sent out from the
fort on a parley proposed by Major Truman. These chiefs, on being
interrogated, laid the blame of the recent outrages perpetrated in
Virginia and Maryland upon the Senecas. Colonel Washington, Colonel
Mason, and Major Adderton now came over from the Virginia encampment,
and charged the chiefs with the murders that had been committed on the
south side of the Potomac. On the next day the Virginia officers renewed
the charges against the Susquehannock chiefs; at this juncture a
detachment of rangers arrived, bringing with them the mangled bodies of
some recent victims of Indian cruelty. Five of the chiefs were instantly
bound, and put to death--"knocked on the head." The savages now made a
desperate resistance; but their sorties were repelled, and they had to
subsist partly on horses captured from the whites. At the end of six
weeks, seventy-five warriors, with their women and children, (leaving
only a few decrepid old men behind,) evacuated the fort during the
night, marching off by the light of the moon, killing ten of the militia
found asleep, as they retired, and making the welkin ring with the
war-whoop and yells of defiance. They pursued their way by the
head-waters of the Potomac, the Rappahannock, the York, and the James,
joining with them the neighboring Indians, slaying such of the
inhabitants as they met with on the frontier, to the number of
sixty--sacrificing ten ordinary victims for each one of the chiefs they
had lost. The Susquehannocks now sent a message to Governor Berkley,
complaining of the war waged upon them, and of the murder of their
chiefs, and proposing, if the Virginians, their old friends, would make
them reparation for the damages which they had suffered, and dissolve
their alliance with the Marylanders, they would renew their ancient
friendship; otherwise they were ready for war.[286:A]
At the falls of the James the savages had slain a servant of Nathaniel
Bacon, Jr., and his overseer, to whom he was much attached. This was not
the place of Bacon's residence; Bacon Quarter Branch, in the suburbs of
Richmond, probably indicates the scene of the murder. Bacon himself
resided at Curles, in Henrico county, on the lower James River.[286:B]
It is said that when he heard of the catastrophe he vowed vengeance. In
that time of panic, the more exposed and defenceless families,
abandoning their homes, took shelter together in houses, where they
fortified themselves with palisades and redoubts. Neighbors banding
together, passed in co-operating parties, from plantation to plantation,
taking arms with them into the fields where they labored, and posting
sentinels, to give warning of the approach of the insidious foe. No man
ventured out of doors unarmed. Even Jamestown was in danger. The red
men, stealing with furtive glance through the shade of the forest, the
noiseless tread of the moccasin scarce stirring a leaf, prowled around
like panthers in quest of prey. At length the people at the head of
the James and the York, having in vain petitioned the governor for
protection, alarmed at the slaughter of their neighbors, often murdered
with every circumstance of barbarity, rose tumultuously in self-defence,
to the number of three hundred men, including most, if not all the
officers, civil and military, and chose Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., for their
leader. According to another authority, Bacon, before the murder of his
overseer and servant, had been refused the commission, and had sworn
that upon the next murder he should hear of, he would march against the
Indians, "commission or no commission." And when one of his own family
was butchered, "he got together about seventy or ninety persons, most
good housekeepers, well armed," etc. Burk[287:A] makes their number
"near six hundred men," and refers to ancient (MS.) records.
Bacon had been living in the colony somewhat less than three years,
having settled at Curles, on the lower James, in the midst of those
people who were the greatest sufferers from the depredations of the
Indians, and he himself had frequently felt the effects of their
inroads. In the records of the county court of Henrico there is a deed
from Randolph to Randolph, dated November 1st, 1706, conveying a tract
of land called Curles, lately belonging to Nathaniel Bacon, Esq., and
since found to escheat to his majesty. At the breaking out of these
disturbances he was a member of the council. He was gifted with a
graceful person, great abilities, and a powerful elocution, and was the
most accomplished man in Virginia; his courage and resolution were not
to be daunted, and his affability, hospitality, and benevolence,
commanded a wide popularity throughout the colony.
The men who had put themselves under Bacon's command made preparations
for marching against the Indians, but in the mean time sent again to
obtain from the governor a commission of general for Bacon, with
authority to lead out his followers, at their own expense, against the
enemy. He then stood so high in the council, and the exigency of the
case was so pressing, that Sir William Berkley, thinking it imprudent to
return an absolute refusal, concluded to temporize. Some of the leading
men about him, it was believed, took occasion to foment the difference
between him and Bacon, envying a rising luminary that threatened to
eclipse them. This conduct is like that of some of the leading men in
Virginia who, one hundred years later, compelled Patrick Henry to resign
his post in the army.
Sir William Berkley sent his evasive reply to the application for a
commission, by some of his friends, and instructed them to persuade
Bacon to disband his forces. He refused to comply with this request, and
having in twenty days mustered five hundred men, marched to the falls of
the James. Thereupon the governor, on the 29th day of May, 1676, issued
a proclamation, declaring all such as should fail to return within a
certain time, rebels. Bacon likewise issued a declaration, setting
forth the public dangers and grievances, but taking no notice of the
governor's proclamation.[288:A] Upon this the men of property, fearful
of a confiscation, deserted Bacon and returned home; but he proceeded
with fifty-seven men. Sir William Berkley, with a troop of horse from
Middle Plantation, pursued Bacon as far as the falls, some forty miles,
but not overtaking him, returned to Jamestown, where the assembly was
soon to meet. During his absence the planters of the lower country rose
in revolt, and declared against the frontier forts as a useless and
intolerable burden; and to restore quiet they were dismantled, and the
assembly, the odious Long Parliament of Virginia, was at last dissolved,
and writs for a new election issued. This revolt in the lower country,
with which Bacon had no immediate connection, demonstrates how widely
the leaven of rebellion, as it was styled, pervaded the body of the
people, and how unfounded is the notion, that it was the result merely
of personal pique and ambition in Bacon. Had he never set his foot on
the soil of Virginia there can be little doubt but that an outbreak
would have occurred at this time. There was no man in the colony with
a brighter prospect before him than Bacon, and he could hardly have
engaged in this popular movement without a sacrifice of selfish
considerations, nor with out incurring imminent risk. The movement was
revolutionary--a miniature prototype of the revolution of 1688 in
England, and of 1776 in America. But Bacon, as before mentioned, with a
small body of men proceeded into the wilderness, up the river, his
provisions being nearly exhausted before he discovered the Indians. At
length a tribe of friendly Mannakins were found entrenched within a
palisaded fort on the further side of a branch of the James. Bacon
endeavoring to procure provisions from them and offering compensation,
they put him off with delusive promises till the third day, when the
whites had eaten their last morsel. They now waded up to the shoulder
across the branch to the fort, again soliciting provisions and tendering
payment. In the evening one of Bacon's men was killed by a shot from
that side of the branch which they had left, and this giving rise to a
suspicion of collusion with Sir William Berkley and treachery, Bacon
stormed the fort, burnt it and the cabins, blew up their magazine of
arms and gunpowder, and with a loss of only three of his own party, put
to death one hundred and fifty Indians. It is difficult to credit,
impossible to justify, this massacre. The Virginians, a hundred years
afterwards, suspected Governor Dunmore of colluding with Indians. Bacon
with his followers returned to their homes, and he was shortly after
elected one of the burgesses for the County of Henrico. Brewse or Bruce,
his colleague and a captain of the insurgents, was not less odious to
the governor. It was subsequently charged by the king's commissioners
that the malecontent voters on this occasion illegally returned freemen,
not being freeholders, for burgesses.[289:A] The charge was well
founded. It is probable also that others were allowed to vote besides
freeholders and housekeepers. Bacon, upon being elected, going down the
James River with a party of his friends, was met by an armed vessel,
ordered on board of her, and arrested by Major Howe, High Sheriff of
James City, who conveyed him to the governor at that place, by whom he
was accosted thus: "Mr. Bacon, you have forgot to be a gentleman." He
replied, "No, may it please your honor." The governor said, "Then I'll
take your parole;" which he accordingly did, and gave him his liberty;
but a number of his companions, who had been arrested with him, were
still kept in irons.
On the 5th day of June, 1676, the members of the new assembly, whose
names are not recorded, met in the chamber over the general court, and
having chosen a speaker, the governor sent for them down, and addressed
them in a brief abrupt speech on the Indian disturbances, and in
allusion to the chiefs who had been slain, exclaimed: "If they had
killed my grandfather and my grandmother, my father and mother, and all
my friends, yet if they had come to treat of peace, they ought to have
gone in peace." After a short interval, he again rose and said: "If
there be joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that
repenteth, there is joy now, for we have a penitent sinner come before
us. Call Mr. Bacon." Bacon appearing, was compelled upon one knee, at
the bar of the house, to confess his offence, and beg pardon of God, the
king, and governor, in the following words:[290:A] "I, Nathaniel Bacon,
Jr., Esq., of Henrico County, in Virginia, do hereby most readily,
freely, and most humbly acknowledge that I am, and have been guilty of
divers late unlawful, mutinous, and rebellious practices, contrary to my
duty to his most sacred majesty's governor, and this country, by beating
up of drums; raising of men in arms; marching with them into several
parts of his most sacred majesty's colony, not only without order and
commission, but contrary to the express orders and commands of the Right
Honorable Sir William Berkley, Knt., his majesty's most worthy governor
and captain-general of Virginia. And I do further acknowledge that the
said honorable governor hath been very favorable to me, by his several
reiterated gracious offers of pardon, thereby to reclaim me from the
persecution of those my unjust proceedings, (whose noble and generous
mercy and clemency I can never sufficiently acknowledge,) and for the
re-settlement of this whole country in peace and quietness. And I do
hereby, upon my knees, most humbly beg of Almighty God and of his
majesty's said governor, that upon this my most hearty and unfeigned
acknowledgment of my said miscarriages and unwarrantable practices, he
will please to grant me his gracious pardon and indemnity, humbly
desiring also the honorable council of state, by whose goodness I am
also much obliged, and the honorable burgesses of the present grand
assembly to intercede, and mediate with his honor, to grant me such
pardon. And I do hereby promise, upon the word and faith of a Christian
and a gentleman, that upon such pardon granted me, as I shall ever
acknowledge so great a favor, so I will always bear true faith and
allegiance to his most sacred majesty, and demean myself dutifully,
faithfully, and peaceably to the government, and the laws of this
country, and am most ready and willing to enter into bond of two
thousand pounds sterling, and for security thereof bind my whole estate
in Virginia to the country for my good and quiet behavior for one whole
year from this date, and do promise and oblige myself to continue my
said duty and allegiance at all times afterwards. In testimony of this,
my free and hearty recognition, I have hereunto subscribed my name, this
9th day of June, 1676.
"NATH. BACON."
The intercession of the council was in the following terms: "We, of his
majesty's council of state of Virginia, do hereby desire, according to
Mr. Bacon's request, the right honorable the governor, to grant the said
Mr. Bacon his freedom.
PHIL. LUDWELL, HEN. CHICHELEY,
JAMES BRAY, NATHL. BACON,
WM. COLE, THOS. BEALE,
RA. WORMELEY, THO. BALLARD,
JO. BRIDGER.
"Dated the 9th of June, 1676."
+ + + + +
When Bacon had made his acknowledgment, the governor exclaimed: "God
forgive you, I forgive you;" repeating the words thrice. Colonel Cole,
of the council, added, "and all that were with him." "Yea," echoed the
governor, "and all that were with him." Sir William Berkley, starting up
from his chair for the third time, exclaimed: "Mr. Bacon, if you will
live civilly but till next quarter court, I'll promise to restore you
again to your place there," (pointing with his hand to Mr. Bacon's
seat,) he having, as has been already mentioned, been of the council
before those troubles, and having been deposed by the governor's
proclamation. But instead of being obliged to wait till the quarter
court, Bacon was restored to his seat on that very day; and intelligence
of it was hailed with joyful acclamations by the people in Jamestown.
This took place on Saturday. Bacon was also promised a commission to go
out against the Indians, to be delivered to him on the Monday following.
But being delayed or disappointed, a few days after (the assembly being
engaged in devising measures against the Indians) he escaped from
Jamestown. He conceived the governor's pretended generosity to be only a
lure to keep him out of his seat in the house of burgesses, and to quiet
the people of the upper country, who were hastening down to Jamestown to
avenge all wrongs done him or his friends. According to another account,
he obtained leave of absence to visit his wife, "sick, as he pretended;"
but from T. M.'s Account, and others, this version appears to be
unfounded.
There was in the council at this time one Colonel Nathaniel Bacon, a
near relative of Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., who was not yet thirty years of
age. The elder Bacon was a wealthy politic old man, childless, and
intending to make his namesake and cousin his heir. It was by the
pressing solicitations of this old gentleman, as was believed, that
young Bacon was reluctantly prevailed upon to repeat at the bar of the
house the recantation written by the old gentleman. It was he also, as
was supposed, who gave timely warning to the young Bacon to fly for his
life. Three or four days after his first arrest, many country people,
from the heads of the rivers, appeared in Jamestown; but finding him
restored to his place in the council, and his companions at liberty,
they returned home satisfied. But in a short time the governor, seeing
all quiet, issued secret warrants to seize him again, intending probably
to raise the militia, and thus prevent a rescue.
FOOTNOTES:
[283:A] T. M.'s Account of Bacon's Rebellion, in Force's Hist. Tracts,
i.
[284:A] Herring, i. 515, and ii. 14.
[284:B] Va. Hist. Reg., i. 167.
[284:C] For the following details, see T. M.'s Account; Hening, ii. 841,
543; Beverley, B. i. 65; Keith's Hist. of Va., 156; Breviarie and
Conclusion, Burk, ii. 250; Account of Bacon's Rebellion, in Va. Gazette,
1766, and Bacon's Proceedings, in Force's Hist. Tracts, i.
[285:A] Chalmers' Annals, 332, 335, 348; The Fall of the Susquehannocks,
by S. F. Streeter, in Hist. Mag., i. 65.
[285:B] Burk, ii. 144; Account of our Late Troubles in Virginia, written
in 1676, by Mrs. Ann Cotton, of Queen's Creek, 3 in Force's Hist.
Tracts, i. This curious narrative was published from the original MS. in
the _Richmond Enquirer_ of September 12th, 1804. T. M.'s Account was
republished in the same paper.
[286:A] Narrative of the Indian and Civil Wars in Va., in the years 1675
and 1676, 1, in Force's Hist. Tracts, i. This account is evidently in
the main, if not altogether, by the same hand with the letter bearing
the signature of Mrs. Ann Cotton. Several passages are identical.
[286:B] Account of Bacon's Rebellion, in Va. Gazette, 1766.
[287:A] In Hist. of Va., ii. 164.
[288:A] Burk, ii. 247
[289:A] Breviarie and Conclusion, Burk, ii. 251.
[290:A] Hening, ii. 543.