1676 Editorial: Bacon’s Rebellion – A Justified Action or Personal Power Grab?
Many of you understandably sympathize with Nathaniel Bacon and his supporters. Bacon does present some legitimate gripes: for certain, Governor William Berkley has been unfairly favoring his own ilk in the creation of lucrative trading partnerships and coalitions with the local Indian population. While targeting the root cause of corruption in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the methods being used by Mister Bacon are untenable, ill advised, inappropriate, unethical, and contrary to the values we hold dear. It is time to take a stand against Bacon and condemn his rebellion for what it is: a personal power grab by a belligerent elite posing as a populist.
Let us consider the bad blood between our Governor Berkley and Mister Bacon. Did you know the two are related, albeit not by blood but by marriage? These two men are from the same social class (Beverly). Bacon is not the man of the people as you might have been led to believe, but a member of the very same elite as Berkley, albeit a jealous and childish one. Yet unlike our honorable governor, Nathaniel Bacon “was a troublemaker...
References
Beverly, Robert. “Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676.” http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/power/text5/BaconsRebellion.pdf
Declaration of Nathaniel Bacon in the Name of the People of Virginia, July 30, 1676,"Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 4th ser., 1871, vol. 9: 184–8
McCully, Susan. “Bacon’s Rebellion.” National Park Service, 1987. https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/bacons-rebellion.htm
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