June 3; Day 7, Bacon's Rebellion

     I was absent from school on Monday, June 3 having personal obligations to attend to.  On my return to class the next day I asked another classmate what was covered in class.  She mentioned about a man with the last name of Bacon.  Right away I knew who he was, Nathaniel Bacon.

 

     I knew of him and heard about Bacon's Rebellion but I was thankful Jay Leno wasn't around for one of his Jaywalking skits because I could not remember anything about this rebellion or when it was in American history.  I knew it was pre-Civil War but I wasn't sure how "pre" I was look for in America's timeline.  One way to solve this was to google this later on. 

 

     Virginia, at that time, was having some hardships.  There was competition of tobacco prices with neighboring colonies of Maryland and the Carolina's.  There was small naval wars with the Dutch and many Englishmen died.  On top of all that stress, weather was toying with their frustrations with hailstorms on their crops and dry spells after that.  This was enough to make the average Virginia farmer to snap mentally. 

 

     A group of Indian's raided a farmer's home for non-payment over something he traded with that group of Indian's and the Indian's kill the farmer.  Other's heard about this and set out to attack back.  Unfortunately, the Englishmen attacked the wrong tribe.  Other tribes heard about this and planned to attack right back. 

 

     Governor Berkeley wanted to get down to the matter over what had happened and to settle it.  Bacon disagreed.  Bacon got after another tribal Indian for stealing corn.  Berkeley got after Bacon for disobeying direct orders.  Over Virginian's took this as a moment of Berkeley taking sides with the Indian's and not with a fellow white Virginian.  Several hundred men sided with Bacon and several hundred men sided with Berkeley.  Bacon wanted to take matters in his own hands and Berkeley wanted to take matters his own way.  

 

     During one of Bacon's temper tantrums over who had control over the colony he ended up setting Jamestown on fire and destroyed several buildings.  Shortly after Bacon ended up dying.  Berkely gathered up over 20 of Bacon's main supporters and had them hung. 

 

     I was thinking Bacon was one of the good guys of America's notable past.  Upon further reading he really wasn't all that great.  He was rebellious and unyielding.  After reading different sites the relationship between Berkeley and Bacon seemed more than an annoying spat.  After reading about it I was ready to send them both to a time-out chair.