Rough Draft #1: Were Bacon's Actions Justified?

In 1676, a man named Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion known as Bacon’s Rebellion. According to Howard Zinn, Bacon’s Rebellion “was not a war of American colonists against the British. Instead, Bacon’s Rebellion was an uprising of angry, poor colonists against two groups they saw as their enemies. One was the Indians. The other was the colonists’ own rich and privileged leaders.” (A Young People’s History of the United States Pg. 35) Although many people believe that Nathaniel Bacon’s actions were justified by his motivations, I think the opposite. After the government declined Nathaniel Bacons request to fight back against the Native Americans, he wrote a Declaration discussing his reasons for siding with the colonists and his reasons for rebelling. Bacon talked about Governor William Berkeley and the government. They had assumingly unjustly taxed the poor colonists and farmers. Native Americans were attacking the colonists and the government was siding with the Natives by not protecting the farmers. Because Bacon’s heart was in the wrong place, he nullified his reasons.

According to Governor Berkeley- “Indian attacks on the frontier, economic depression, bad weather, high taxes—all created discontent and desire for relief”. These were the reasons Bacon was able to take control over the poor farmers. Without these, Bacon would just be a regular man with nothing to fight for.

Of course, Bacon took advantage of the poor colonists. Because Bacon treated the colonists like he was on their side, they elected him into the House of Burgesses. Telling the colonists that he wanted to help them fight back against the natives, Bacon found their trust. “Bacon owned a good bit of land. He probably cared more about fighting Indians than about helping the poor. Still, the common people of Virginia felt that he was on their side.” –Howard Zinn (A Young People’s History of the United States) A few years before, one of Bacon’s friends had been killed by the Natives, giving Bacon a reason to want to fight the Natives. I think that even though Nathaniel Bacon showed his good intentions to the colonists, all he really wanted to do was get back at the Natives for his friend.

When the colonies began running out of room, the government started pushing the poor colonists out into the Natives’ land. Obviously, the Natives were not happy with the arrangement, and began fighting with the colonists. Colonists became upset by the fact that the government would not give them weapons to fight back. Once, Rev. Robert Gray said “By what right or warrant we can enter into the land of these Savages, take away their rightfull inheritance from them and plant ourselves in their places, being unwronged or unprovoked by them.” Gray was talking about the inhabitants land like it was not the colonists to take. I think Gray is correct. The government should have given the farmers weapons to protect themselves, but on the other hand, the government should not have pushed the farmers towards the Natives land in the first place. Because of these reasons, the poor colonists were already upset and ready to trust anyone. Bacon was ready to lead them and knew it would be a good reason to fight the Natives.

The colonists had been treated badly by the government not only by them siding with the Natives but by taxing the poor for the governments own good. In his declaration, Bacon says “Great unjust taxes upon the commonalty for the advancement of private favorites and other sinister ends, but no visible effects in any measure adequate.” The government is the target of this part of the declaration. Bacon is saying that the government is taxing the poor, without giving anything back to the colonists. Even though the issues of taxes are an important part of government, I don’t believe it has anything to do with the Native Americans. Therefore, Bacon had no reason to go to war against them.

Unquestionably, William Berkeley did not approve Bacon’s request to fight the Natives. “so he begged of the Governor for a commission in several letters to him, that he might go out against them, but he would not grant one, so daily more mischief done by them, so your brother not able to endure any longer, he went out without commission”, wrote Elizabeth Bacon-Nathaniel Bacon’s wife- in a letter to Bacon’s sister back in England. Finally, Bacon had enough of the government not letting him do what he wanted with the Natives. Without government consent, Bacon and the colonists rebelled. Sadly, Bacon died suddenly never getting to finish his movement. But the rebel had no lasting effects, proving even more my point that is Bacon was only being selfish and his actions of killing the Natives were not justifiable.