Bacon's Rebellion, 1676Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson
History
Bacon's Rebellion, 1676
Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson
Bacon's Rebellion, 1676; Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Ingram met the Middlesex threat by sending Gregory Wakelett out with a
body of horse. But when he arrived he found that the enemy had
dispersed. Nor were Smith's loyalists more resolute. As they faced
Ingram's force a certain Major Bristow stepped out of the ranks and
offered to try the justice of the governor's cause after the manner of
the Middle Ages by single combat. Ingram himself would have accepted
the challenge, but his men caught him by the arm and pulled him back.
As it turned out there was no battle, for the rank and file of the
so-called loyal forces tamely laid down their arms and went home.
A raid on the right bank of the York also ended in failure. Berkeley
decided to send Captain Hubert Farrill with a strong force to surprise
the garrison at King's Creek. It was planned to drive in the sentries
and to "enter pell mell with them into the house." But they were met
by such a deadly fire that they fell back under the shelter of the
outbuildings, and then fled to their boats. Farrill was left dead, his
commission "dropping wet with blood in his pocket."
But the colony was now in a deplorable condition. Many plantations had
been deserted, others had been plundered by the rebels, Ingram had not
been able to keep order, there was no money to meet governmental
expenses, the desertion of servants and slaves to the rebels, and the
absence from the fields of so many small farmers had caused a shortage
of the tobacco and corn crops, many houses had been burned, the courts
in some of the counties were closed. The rebel officers could not
restrain their rough soldiers from wanton destruction--throwing down
fences, destroying crops, burning barns. Soon the longing for peace
and order became general. Time was working for the governor.
However, it was known that Colonel Herbert Jeffreys with 1000 men had
been ordered to go to Virginia to suppress the rebellion, and their
arrival was expected at any moment.
In the meanwhile the tobacco ships began to come in with needed
supplies of clothing, cloth, medicines, etc. The planters still had
some hogsheads of tobacco on hand, and were anxious to resume trade
with the merchants, but when Berkeley issued a proclamation
threatening to denounce as a rebel anyone who traded with the Western
Shore the shippers held back. So the planters realized that the weapon
of economic pressure, of which Goode had warned Bacon, was to be
applied against them.
And they must have been discouraged when, in November, the ship
_Concord_ of 500 tons, armed with 30 guns and commanded by Thomas
Grantham, entered through the capes and anchored in the York river.
Lawrence wrote Grantham a letter telling him that the people had been
grievously oppressed and begging him and the merchants to remain
neutral. Otherwise they were determined to burn their tobacco.
Grantham replied that he would not treat with men who had taken up
arms against the royal authority.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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