Bacon's Rebellion

During the 1650s and 60s, the English population increased dramatically in Virginia. Economic situations and the addition of new arrivals caused conflicts with the Native people. Raiding from both sides resulted, and the colonists were either confused or didn't care as to which tribes were friendly. Governor Berkeley gathered a force to deal with the situation, but the colonists murdered five chiefs who had requested peace. The governor pleaded for restraint from the colonists.

Nathaniel Bacon, an owner of Indian and African slaves, captured some friendly Appamattuck Indians for "allegedly" stealing corn. This set the seeds for the rebellion, at a time when the colonists wondered which man was taking the right action.

As a result, the governor feared a complete Indian rebellion. In March 1676, the English declared war on the Indians with their Acts of Assembly, and laws were enacted to build forts for protection from the Indians. Farmers requested a force to suppress the Indians, but when they were ignored, they took matters into their own hands with Bacon as their leader.

Berkeley labeled them as rebels and attempted to control the situation by riding to Bacon's headquarters with 300 armed men. Bacon fled into the forest.

The governor issued pardons for Bacon's men if they went home peacefully. Instead, Bacon marched on the friendly Occaneechi tribe. He convinced them to attack the Susquehanock. When the Occaneechi returned with captives, Bacon and his men killed the captives. They then turned their fire on the Occaneechi, killing most of the people of the town.

In order to try and keep the peace, Berkeley agreed to pardon Bacon if he turned himself in. Ironically, Bacon was elected to the House of Burgesses due to sympathy from his Indian attacks. When he appeared in Jamestown for the June Assembly, he was captured. Tensions flared between Berkeley and Bacon, but in the end, Bacon became the commander-in-chief to fight the Indians. He lead a revolt and drove the friendly Pamunkey from their lands, killing and capturing many of them in doing so.

Soon after, the governor declared Bacon's commission void. Bacon returned to Jamestown, and Berkeley immediately fled. Each of the men tried to gain support, promising freedom to the slaves that would join in their cause. In September, Bacon set fire to Jamestown.

The rebellion ended when a royal force arrested many of the rebels, and it failed completely soon after Bacon died from dysentery in October 1676.

Kim Murphy
www.KimMurphy.net

In Search of the Appamattuck Indians

In Virginia and for those who study the American Civil War, Appomattox usually means the town where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, ending a long and bloody war. However, the name of the town comes from an Algonquian speaking Indian tribe that lived nearby. While writing the sequel to The Dreaming: Walks Through Mist, I began a quest in search of the tribe. In the first book, I had a little easier time locating the modern day areas of the tribes mentioned because both tribes, the Paspahegh and Arrohatteck, had a re-creation of their towns near where they had lived at Jamestown Settlement and Henricus Historical Park.

Initially in my search for the Appamattuck, I had two 17^th-century maps. In the beginning, I found it difficult correlating where the tribe had lived to present-day locations. Fortunately, I discovered a couple of historical markers through a web search. Opposunoquonuske was a weroansqua (female chief) in 1610. After the destruction of the Paspahegh, her men ambushed English soldiers. They retaliated by burning her town and seized the land for their own.

The Appamattuck moved their settlement until the English attacked them again, where they relocated yet again to the area along the Appomattox river. A hillside that is now home to Virginia State University was an English fort in the 17^th- century, and nearby, I found a river trail that at one time was the northern most part of a Native American trail that ran all the way to South Carolina. Here, I traveled to find the Appamattuck.

Except for a few birds singing and dragonflies hovering about, the river banks were quiet, but I could easily imagine the mat-covered houses and people bustling with their everyday chores. Because I visited in summer, the men would have likely been hunting or fishing, and the women foraging for greens and berries, unless they were in town weeding.

The scene would have been completely shattered in 1644 when the Powhatan chiefdom was defeated, and the tribes, including the Appamattuck became subjects to the King of England. In 1645, Fort Henry was built across the river from the tribe, and it was the only point where Indians could legally travel eastward into white territory and vice versa. Virginia Indians had to wear a badge of striped cloth to show they had been allowed into the territory or risk being killed.

During Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, the Appamattuck town was once again destroyed, and few of the tribe remained. In 1691 the weroansqua, Perecuta requested permission to live among the English. By 1705 only seven families remained, and the tribe vanished from the historical records.

Kim Murphy
www.KimMurphy.net