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Changes in Virginia in the course of years Causes of these changes - Classes of settlers Aristocracy predominant - Navigation Act Intolerance of the ruling party - Popular discontent Culpepper and Arlington Charter solicited Causes which led to Bacon's Rebellion - Course pursued by Berkeley - Progress of the contest Success of Bacon - His sudden death Sanguinary revenge of the governor -"Bacon's Laws" Subsequent suffering of the colony under Culpepper and Lord Howard of Effingham Affairs in Maryland General prosperity-Efforts in favor of church establishment - Insurrection stirred up by Fendal James II. no favorer of the proprietary -Writ issued against the charter -James's downfall-English Revolution of 1688.

1660.

IN resuming the history of Virginia | from Chapter VIII., (p. 78,) it will be borne in mind that Sir William Berkeley, a staunch royalist, had been elected governor by the burgesses, in 1660. At that date, popular liberty and privileges were, to all appearance, well established, as before noted: during the twenty-five years or so following, important changes took place, by which the powers of the governor and counsellors were increased in the exact proportion that those of the Assembly and freemen were curtailed. Several causes helped to bring about this result. A brief glance at them is all that our space admits.

Originally settled by offshoots or adherents of the English nobility, Virginia had received a more decidedly aristocratic cast from the influx of Cavaliers

during the civil war in England, who carried with them to the New World their hereditary prejudices in favor of the privileges conferred by birth and rank, and a contemptuous disregard of popular rights and pretensions. Underlying this class was another, consisting of free descendants of the first settlers of inferior rank, and also of indented servants who had been brought over by the planters, and who, bound to labor for a certain number of years, were, during that period, virtually in a state of serfdom. Negro slaves, as we have previously stated, had also been introduced into the colony; and partly from the supposed necessity of the case in the cultivation of tobacco and the general work on plantations, negroes had largely increased in Virginia: these were destitute of all the privileges and op

CH. XIII.]

COURSE OF THE ASSEMBLY.

The aristocratic class very naturally obtained a controlling ascendancy in the management of public affairs. Sir William Berkeley had been put forward by them as especially devoted to their interests. Warmly attached to the soil of Virginia, Berkeley's views accorded well with those of the Assembly by whom he had been chosen, and their influence was united to perpetuate the tenure of that power already in their hands. The term for which they were authorized to hold office was two years, when a fresh election, according to previous usage, ought to have taken place. They continued, nevertheless, quietly to retain possession of their seats, to obtain the reappointment of Berkeley, and to legislate in a spirit entirely favorable to their own interests. Furthermore, in order to insure the continuance of aristocratic influence, they disfranchised, by their own act, a large proportion of the people who had chosen them, confining in future the exercise of the elective privilege to freeholders and householders

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1661.

portunities for improvement which the deavor to obtain relief, but without freemen enjoyed. success; though he did succeed in getting for himself a share in the newly-erected province of North Carolina. Meanwhile the proceedings. of the Virginia Assembly were very much like those of the government in England. Intolerance obtained the ascendancy, old edicts were revived and sharpened, and fresh ones enacted against Puritans, Baptists, and Quakers, who were visited with fines and banishment;-although it is but fair to say, that Virginia did not, like Massachusetts, hang and put to death the unfortunate followers of George Fox. With the remembrance of what had happened during the civil war, even the pulpit itself was feared, Berkeley expressing a wish that the established ministry "should pray oftener and preach less." Education, too, was studiously discouraged. "I thank God," are the words of the governor, 1671. some years later, "that there are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government: God keep us from both!" he piously concludes. Such was the aim of the party in power, to maintain the domination of a body of wealthy aristocratic planters, over a submissive and ignorant commonalty, and a still lower class of indented white servants and negro slaves.

principle maintained in Virginia to this day. The taxes became exorbitant, the governor and Assembly were overpaid, while all power of checking these disorders was taken out of the hands of the people.

The navigation act, which was warmly opposed by Massachusetts, met with equally earnest and strong opposition in Virginia. It bore It bore very severely upon their trade by restricting the market to England and English vessels alone. Berkeley was sent to England to en

The popular discontent was certainly not allayed by the news that the prodigal Charles II. had granted away the

1673.

whole colony to Lord Culpepper and Lord Arlington, two rapacious courtiers whom it was necessary to satisfy. Fresh taxes and levies were the consequence of measures taken to see if these new claimants could not be bought off. Colonel Moryson, Secretary Ludwell, and General Smith were dispatched to England on this business, and the governor and Assembly took the opportunity to solicit a royal charter. Their petition was granted, but delays having occurred in the charter passing the seals, its progress was finally cut short by news of a rebellion which had broken out in Virginia.

1675.

The immediate occasion of this popular outbreak was an Indian war: the man who presented himself as a leader was Nathaniel Bacon. Virginia, it will be remembered, had suffered too deeply from the treacherous outbreaks of the Indians, not to be predisposed, even after an interval of thirty years' peace, to take the worst view of their character and intentions, which the war with Philip of Pokanoket, then raging in Massachusetts, could not fail to strengthen. The Senecas had attacked and driven the Susquehannahs upon the frontiers of Maryland, with which State a war had arisen, in which the neighboring Virginians became involved. Certain outrages of the Indians had been resented by the planters, among others by one named John Washington, who had emigrated some years back from the north of England, and became the founder of that family from which, a century later, sprung the illustrious father of his country. He

had collected a body of his neighbors, besieged an Indian fort, and unhappily put to death six envoys sent forth to treat of a reconciliation; an outrage met on the part of the savages by the usual retaliation of murder, pillage, and incendiarism. The Assembly undertook to provide for the present emergency by a very elaborate but ruinously expensive system of forts and levies of troops to protect the country. Additional dissatisfaction was the consequence; the whole arrangement was stigmatized as absurd and oppressive; and active and energetic operations were loudly demanded. Bacon was among the most earnest complainants. In the vigor of early manhood, educated in the Temple, of good address, and influential connections, he declared his determination to act on his own authority should a commission, which he had requested, be denied him.

1676.

The people generally were in a high state of excitement, when the news arrived that the Indians had broken in upon Bacon's plantation and murdered some of his servants. He instantly flew to arms; and, being joined by some five or six hundred men, set off in pursuit of the enemy. The governor looking upon this proceeding as an insult to his authority, proclaimed Bacon as a rebel, deprived him of his seat in the council, and called upon all those who respected his own authority to disperse immediately. Some of the less zealous of the insurgents obeyed the summons and returned to their homes; but this defection did not restrain their leader, who pushed forward in hot pursuit of the Indians. Some bodies of these were

CH. XIII.]

BACON AND GOVERNOR BERKELEY.

still on a friendly a friendly footing, although suspected; and when nearly out of provisions, Bacon and his company approached one of their forts and requested a supply. Having been kept waiting for three days, until their necessity became extreme, the English waded the stream in order to compel their acquiescence: a shot was discharged from the shore they had just left, which induced Bacon to attack the fort, and put a hundred and fifty Indians to the sword. This, at least, is said to be his own account.

Governor Berkeley, having gathered a body of troops, proceeded to march after Bacon and his men, but his progress was arrested by disturbances in the lower counties. His own authority in the capital passed out of his hands; the old Assembly was dissolved; and Bacon was one among the newly elected burgesses; but, having ventured to approach Jamestown in a sloop with armed followers, he was apprehended and compelled very humbly to beg pardon for his mutinous conduct. The Assembly proceeded directly, so soon as possible, to restore the franchise to the freemen, and to endeavor to effect needed reforms in almost every department.

Bacon, though pardoned and restored to his seat in the council, soon after secretly left Jamestown, and in a few days, having got together some four hundred of his adherents from the upper counties, suddenly made his appearance in the town. His demands had to be listened to, although the fiery old governor, it is said, tore open his dress, and exposing his naked breast,

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exclaimed, "Here, shoot me! 'Fore God! fair mark! shoot!" But Bacon, not giving way to excitement, replied, "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'll have it before we go." The insurgents also made the same demand, accompanied by menaces in case of refusal, against the Assembly itself, who, thus threatened, and with many among them the warm partisans of Bacon, were content enough to give way before the popular movement, and to compel the governor, though sorely against his will, to yield, and also to appoint Bacon to the command of the forces sent against the Indians. This point being settled, the Assembly proceeded to enact many salutary reforms, popularly known as "Bacon's Laws," all tending to abate the exorbitant pretensions of the aristocratic party, and to restore to the mass of the people the privileges of which they had been deprived. These laws, though afterwards abrogated in a mass by the government at home, were, the most important of them, reënacted, in nearly the same words, by succeeding Assemblies.

But there was yet a further struggle between the contending parties. Hardly had Bacon set out on' his work of subduing the Indians, before Berkeley issued a proclamation denouncing Bacon as a rebel, setting a price on his head, and commanding his followers to disperse. Indignant at this treatment, Bacon immediately retraced his steps

and the governor fled in dismay from the capital. Steps were taken directly to reorganize the government. The people were called together; a public declaration was issued; and writs issued for a new election of burgesses in October. Bacon set out again to carry on the war against the Indians, which led Berkeley to contrive by promises of pay and plunder to recover his lost authority. Quite unexpectedly he succeeded; but it was only a passing triumph. Bacon made a rapid descent from the upper country, with an army that had just gained the victory at the Bloody Run. Jamestown was invested and speedily retaken, and further, to prevent its again being occupied by Berkeley, it was, by Bacon's orders, burned to the ground. A large body of troops under Colonel Brent were marching to attack Bacon, but, terrified by his promptitude and success, they dispersed without venturing a battle.

1677.

Bacon's supporters were mostly taken, and Berkeley, again restored to power, pursued a course of malignant revenge utterly disgraceful to his name and position. No less than twenty-five persons were executed during the few succeeding months. Horsford was hanged, and Drummond, formerly a governor of the colony of South Carolina, shared the same fate. So furious had Berkeley become, that the Assembly strongly protested, and the king's commissioners, who had arrived to inquire into the rebellion, were shocked, and endeavored to put a stop to this wholesale slaughter. His conduct excited great indignation in England, and Charles is reported to have exclaimed, on hearing of his doings, "The old fool has taken away more lives in that naked country, than I did here in England for the murder of my father." Berkeley, not long after, returned to the mother country, and in a brief space ended his days there.

Bacon was now completely victorious, and at liberty to carry out his de- The issue of Bacon's rebellion was signs to their fullest extent. Precisely injurious to the interests of the colonwhat he purposed, however, can never ists. Some trifling concessions were be known; for just at this juncture he indeed made to their complaints, but was suddenly stricken down by the majority of those abuses by which the hand of death. This was in they had been provoked into a rising, January, 1677; and as he was the mas-remained in full force. The whole of ter spirit of the whole popular move"Bacon's Laws" enacted by the popument, with him died also all systematic lar Assembly were annulled, the franeffort to obtain redress of grievances.* chise, as just before, and not as originally, was restricted to freeholders alone, and the Assembly chosen by it was only to meet once in two years, nor, except on special occasions, to remain in session for more than a fortnight. Oppressed with the still stricter enforcement of the navigation laws, which ruinously

* Mr. Ware, in his discriminating "Memoir of Nathaniel Bacon," says that "there seems no good reason to doubt the purity of his motives, and the singleness and simplicity of his character." Mr. Ware also doubts the correctness of the opinion advanced by Hening that Bacon was taken off by poison. See Sparks's "American Biography," vol. xiii., pp. 239-306.

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