Part 18 (2/2)
And now the Virginians were made to pay dearly for their part in this ill-managed affair. Early in January, 1676, the Susquehannocks crossed the Potomac and came plundering and murdering through the frontier counties.[487] Separating into small bands, the Indians fell upon the more isolated plantations, and in a few days had killed no less than thirty-six persons. Those whose wretched fate it was to be captured, were put to death with all the tortures that devilish ingenuity could devise. Some were roasted, others flayed alive. The sufferings of the victims were long and protracted, while the savages knocked out their teeth or tore off their nails or stuck feathers and lighted wood into their flesh.[488]
In terror the people of the frontier began to desert their homes, seeking shelter in the more populous settlements.[489] In a few weeks one parish, upon the upper waters of the Rappahannock, was reduced from seventy-one plantations to eleven.[490] Those that remained were concentrated upon the largest farms, which they fortified with palisades and redoubts.[491]
When the news of these atrocities reached Sir William Berkeley, hasty preparations were made for an expedition against the invaders. Sir Henry Chicheley was put at the head of forces of horse and foot, with orders to give immediate pursuit to the savages. But just as all was in readiness and the command to march hourly expected, the Governor decided that the expedition should be abandoned. Chicheley's commission was annulled, his forces disbanded and the soldiers sent to their homes.[492]
What induced Berkeley to take this strange step none could tell. The murders of the savages were continuing. The frontier was defenseless.
Messages were coming from the exposed plantations imploring aid. Why should he desert the people and expose them to the fury of the Indians?
It is possible that he detected symptoms of mutiny among the troops and thought it better to abandon the expedition than to run the risk of a rebellion. He was well aware of the discontent of the people, and his letters to England show that he dreaded an insurrection.[493] The unhappy planters ascribed the Governor's strange conduct to avarice. He and his friends had a monopoly of the Indian trade, and it was hinted that he preferred to allow the atrocities to continue rather than destroy his source of revenue. He was determined, was the cry, ”that no bullits would pierce beaver skins”.[494] More probable seems the explanation that Berkeley hoped to prevent further depredations by the help of the Pamunkeys and other friendly tribes, and feared that an invasion of the Indian lands might defeat this purpose.[495]
But an a.s.sembly was summoned in March and instructed by the Governor to take immediate measures to secure the frontier.[496] Acting, no doubt, under Berkeley's influence, the a.s.sembly resolved not to carry the conflict into the enemy's territory, but to wage a defensive war. Forts were to be erected upon the upper waters of the great rivers, and manned with regular troops as a protection to the outer plantations. To defray the cost, new and heavy taxes were put upon the people.[497]
This last act of the Long a.s.sembly caused bitter dissatisfaction. The border counties had hoped that provision would be made for an expedition against the Indians. No headway could be made unless the whites took the offensive and hunted down the savages in their own villages. The erection of forts was useless.[498] The Indians would experience no difficulty in avoiding them in their murderous raids. They could approach the remote plantations, or even those far within the frontiers, without fear of detection by the soldiers, for the numerous swamps and dense woods afforded them ample covert. It was not intended that the forts should be used as bases for expeditions into the enemy's country; nor could the soldiers leave them to pursue and punish the plundering savages. What then, it was asked, could be the value of fortresses, if they were to defend only the ground upon which they stood?[499]
The event proved the people right. The forts, when built, were but slight obstacles to the invasions of the Indians. The murders became more frequent than before. The impotency of the defenses of the colony seems to have inspired them to more terrible and vigorous attacks. The cry against the forts became more bitter. ”It was a design,” the people thought, ”of the grandees to engross all their tobacco into their own hands”.[500] As the cries of their women and children grew more piteous and distressing, the men of the frontier spoke openly of disobedience.
Rather than pay the taxes for the accursed forts they would plant no more tobacco. If the Governor would not send an expedition against the Indians, they themselves would march out to avenge their wrongs. The forts must be dismantled, the garrisons dismissed.[501]
From all parts of the colony came the insistent demand that the a.s.sembly, which had so long been but a mockery of representative government, should be dissolved and the people given a free election.[502] But Berkeley was not the man to yield readily to this clamor. Never, in all the long years that he had ruled over Virginia, had he allowed the rabble to dictate his policies. He would not do so now. When pet.i.tions came from the frontiersmen, asking leave to go out against the Indians, he returned a brusk and angry refusal.[503] A delegation from Charles City county met with a typical reception from the irritable old man. As they stood humbly before him, presenting their request for a commission, they spoke of themselves as the Governor's subjects. Upon this Berkeley blurted out that they were all ”fools and loggerheads”. They were subjects of the King, and so was he. He would grant them no commission, and bade them be gone, and a pox take them.[504] Later he issued a proclamation forbidding under heavy penalties all such pet.i.tions.[505]
Unfortunately, at this juncture came news that large bodies of Indians were descending upon the upper waters of the James, and that another b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sault might soon be expected.[506] In terror and anger the people of Charles City county seized their arms, determined to repel this threatened storm, with or without the Governor's permission.
Parties went about from place to place beating up volunteers with the drum. The magistrates were either in sympathy with the movement, or were unable to prevent it.[507] Soon a considerable body of rough, determined men were a.s.sembled, awaiting only a leader to march out against the enemy.
This leader they found in one of the most interesting and picturesque characters in Virginia history. Nathaniel Bacon is depicted as twenty-nine years of age, black-haired, of medium height and slender, melancholy, pensive, and taciturn. In conversation he was logical and convincing; in oratory magnetic and masterful.[508] His successful expeditions against the Indians and the swift blows he directed against the loyal forces mark him as a military commander of no mean ability.[509]
Bacon was almost a stranger in Virginia, for he had left England less than two years before.[510] He was fortunate, however, in having a cousin, also named Nathaniel Bacon, high in the favor of Sir William Berkeley.[511] It was doubtless through the influence of this relative that the young man attained a position of great influence, and was appointed to the Council itself.[512] But submission to the will of the imperious Governor was the price paid by all that wished to remain long in favor in Virginia. Bacon did not approve of Berkeley's arbitrary government; he disliked the long continuation of the a.s.sembly, the unjust discriminations, the unusual taxes, the incapacity of officials; and it was not in his fiery temper to conceal his opinions. Soon, it would seem, the frowns of the Governor began to fall upon him, and he grew weary of coming to Council.[513]
Bacon had made his home in Henrico, at that time one of the extreme frontier counties. His marked ability, his liberal education, his place in the Council soon gave him a position of great influence among his rough but hardy neighbors. None could be better suited to a.s.sume command over the desperate volunteers that had gathered in Charles City county.
But it was a very serious step to accept the leaders.h.i.+p of this band which had taken arms in defiance of the Governor's commands. It would expose him to the charge not only of disobedience, but of open rebellion. Bacon, however, like all that dwelt upon the frontiers, was angered at the inadequate protection given by the government. When news came to him that depredations had been committed upon one of his own plantations, and that his overseer had been killed, he was eager to take revenge.[514]
Now some of Bacon's friends, as anxious as he for an Indian expedition, and thinking him most proper to conduct it, suggested his name to the volunteers. The men were quite willing to accept so influential a commander, but it was not so easy to persuade Bacon to take the dangerous place. He consented, however, to row across the river, and visit the soldiers in their camp. Here the men gathered around him, and with joyous shouts of, ”A Bacon! A Bacon!” proclaimed him their leader.
His friends pressed him to accept. They would, they said, accompany him on his expedition. If the Governor ordered them to disband, they would defy him. ”They drank d.a.m.nation to their souls”, if they should prove untrue to him. Touched by these proofs of confidence, and fired perhaps with ambition, the young man yielded, and Bacon's Rebellion had begun.[515]
From the very first the movement a.s.sumed the character of an insurrection.[516] Amid the hearty applause of his rough followers, Bacon spoke of the negligence, the incapacity and wickedness of the government. Their betrayal into the hands of the savages was but one of many grievances. The laws were unjust, the taxes oppressive. Something must be done to redress these wrongs and to end misgovernment.[517] And as the poor people flocked in to him, he listed their names in a huge round-robin and bound them to him by an oath of fidelity.[518]
A message was dispatched to the Governor to request a commission authorizing the expedition against the Indians.[519] But Bacon promised his men that if Sir William withheld his a.s.sent, he would lead them forth without it; and in the meanwhile, without waiting for the Governor's reply, he crossed over into New Kent, ”a county ripe for rebellion”, where he expected to strengthen his position and perhaps attack the Pamunkeys.[520] This nation had for many years been friendly to the English, and had more than once given them invaluable a.s.sistance against other Indian tribes. Their present queen was the widow of Tottopottomoi, who had been killed while fighting as the ally of the white men against the Richahecrians.[521] They now occupied land allotted them by the a.s.sembly, upon the frontier of New Kent, where, it was supposed, they would act as a protection to the colony against the raids of hostile tribes.[522] When the Susquehannocks began their depredations Governor Berkeley expected valuable a.s.sistance from these allies, whom he termed his ”spyes and intelligence” to search out ”the b.l.o.o.d.y enimies”.[523] But the Pamunkeys not only failed to check the invasion of the Susquehannocks, but seem to have joined with them in the work of bloodshed and pillage. The people of the frontier believed that almost all the Indians were leagued together for their ruin. The Pamunkeys, they were sure, had taken part in the recent atrocities. And as they were their close neighbors, knowing all their customs and all their habitations, they were especially fitted for the work of destruction. The New Kent planters were now impatient to march out against them to take revenge for the recent horrible murders. But the Pamunkeys, upon hearing of Bacon's approach, deserted their reservation and took refuge in the wilderness.[524]
It is not hard to imagine the Governor's anger when he heard of these proceedings. Despite the testimony of the frontiersmen, he had refused to believe the Pamunkeys guilty, and he still relied upon them for a.s.sistance against the Susquehannocks. Bacon's proceedings, in frightening them from their lands, upset all his plans of defense. Yet had the volunteers contented themselves with attacking the Indians, it is conceivable that Berkeley would have yielded. But when they took up arms without his permission, put themselves under the command of a discontented Councillor, and demanded redress of grievances from the government, it was necessary for him to resort to repression. The commission was refused and a proclamation issued denouncing Bacon's conduct as illegal and rebellious. He and his men were offered pardon, but only on condition that they lay down their arms, and return immediately to their obedience.[525]
But the mutineers would not obey. Are we, they complained, to return pa.s.sively to our homes, there to be slaughtered by the savage foe? The Governor has given us no protection. The Indians are coming. Already the blood of our butchered relatives cries aloud to Heaven. We hope we have still enough English blood in our veins to think it more honorable to die in fair battle with the enemy, than to be sneakingly murdered in our beds. If we lie still, we are destroyed by the heathen; if we defend ourselves, we are accounted rebels and traitors. But we will fight. And if we must be hanged for killing those that will destroy us, let them hang us, we will venture that rather than lie at the mercy of our barbarous enemies. So, turning their backs upon the plantations, they struck out into the dense woods.[526]
When Berkeley heard that his authority was still defied, and his pardon rejected, he was resolved at all hazards to compel obedience. Gathering around him a party of three hundred gentlemen, ”well armed and mounted”, he set out, on the third of May, to intercept the rebels.[527] But learning, upon his arrival at the falls of the James, that Bacon had crossed the river and was already far away, he decided to encamp in the frontier counties and await his return.[528]
But he sent out a party under Colonel Claiborne to pursue the Pamunkeys, and induce them, if possible, to return to their reservation. The savages were found entrenched in a strong; position, ”encompa.s.sed with trees which they had fallen in the branch of an Impa.s.sable swamp”.[529]
Their queen refused to abandon this retreat, declaring that since the Governor had not been able to command the obedience of Bacon, he could not save her people from his violence. But she promised that the Pamunkeys should remain peaceable and should take no part in the raids of the Susquehannocks. ”Of this the Governor was informed, who resolved not to be soe answered but to reduce her and the other Indians, soe soone as Bacon could be brought to submit.”[530]
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