Nathaniel Bacon (diplomat)
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{{otheruses|Nathaniel Bacon}}
'''Nathaniel Bacon''' (c. [[1640]] – [[October 26]], [[1676]]) was a wealthy diplomat of the [[Virginia Colony]] and also the cousin of Governor Berkeley, famous as the instigator of [[Bacon's Rebellion]] of 1676, which collapsed when Bacon himself died of [[dysentery]].<ref name="worldbook-nb">{{cite encyclopedia | year = 1992 | title = Bacon, Nathaniel | encyclopedia = The World Book Encyclopedia | publisher = World Book | id = ISBN 0-7166-0092-7 |pages = 18}}</ref>
==Early life==
While the exact year of Bacon's birth is debated, he was born in the [[1640s]], in [[Suffolk, England]]. Bacon was educated at the [[University of Cambridge]], and left England for the Virginia colony in 1673,<ref name="worldbook-nb"/> in response to a property dispute with his wife's family.<ref name="brit">{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9011662/Nathaniel-Bacon |title=Nathaniel Bacon |accessdate=2007-07-06 |format=HTML |work=Encyclopædia Britannica }}</ref>
When he arrived in Virginia, Bacon settled on the frontier near [[Jamestown, Virginia]], and was appointed to the council of Governor [[William Berkeley]].<ref name="amer-hist">{{cite book |author=James A. Henretta |authorlink= |coauthors=David Brody, and Lynn Dumenil |title=America's History: Volume 1: To 1877 |year=2007 |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-312-45285-8 |edition=6th edition |pages=53-54}}</ref>Some sources have claimed that Berkeley's wife, Francis Culpeper was a cousin of Nathaniel Bacon.<ref>[[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/bacon.htm]]</ref>
==Bacon's Rebellion==
{{main|Bacon's Rebellion}}
Before the "Virginia Rebellion," as it was then called, began in earnest, in 1674, a group of so-called "[[freeholders]]" on the Virginia frontier demanded that [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] living on treaty-protected lands be driven out or killed.<ref name="amer-hist"/> Later that same year, a group of Virginia [[militia]]men raided a settlement and killed some thirty natives. Acting against Berkeley's orders, a larger force surrounded and attacked a fortified [[Susquehannock]] village, killing the chiefs whom Berkeley had persuaded to negotiate.
<ref name="nps">{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html |title=Bacon's Rebellion |accessdate=2007-07-06 |format=HTML |work=Jamestown Historic Briefs }}</ref> The Susquehannocks retaliated in force, attacking plantations and killing several hundred settlers.<ref name="amer-hist"/>
Seeking to avoid war, Berkeley advocated a policy of containment, proposing the construction of several defensive fortifications along the frontier. Dismissing the plan as expensive and inadequate, settlers on the frontier also questioned the plan as a possible excuse to raise tax rates.<ref name="amer-hist"/>
In the meantime, Bacon had emerged as a rebel leader, accusing Berkeley of corruption.<ref name="worldbook-br">{{cite encyclopedia | year = 1992 | title = Bacon's Rebellion | encyclopedia = The World Book Encyclopedia | publisher = World Book | id = ISBN 0-7166-0092-7 |pages = 19}}</ref> When Berkeley refused to grant Bacon a military commission to attack the natives, Bacon mustered his own force of 400-500 men and attacked the [[Doeg]] and [[Pamunkey]] tribes, who previously had not been involved in the conflict. Berkeley had Bacon removed from his governing council and arrested; Bacon's men quickly secured his release, and forced Berkeley to hold legislative elections. The recomposed [[House of Burgesses]] enacted a number of sweeping reforms, limiting the powers of the governor and restoring [[suffrage]] rights to landless [[Freeman (Colonial)|freemen]].<ref name="amer-hist"/>Berkeley had refused to authorize retaliation against the natives. One of his main motivations in this decision was that he was invested in a fur trading business with the Native Americans which would have been jeopardized if relations had gone sour.
On [[July 30]], [[1676]], Bacon and his makeshift army issued a ''[[Declaration of the People of Virginia]]'',<ref name="nps"/> demanding that natives in the area be killed or removed, and an end of the rule of "parasites."<ref name="amer-hist"/> The declaration also criticized Berkeley's administration, accusing him of levying unfair taxes, of appointing friends to high positions, and of failing to protect outlying farmers from Indian attack. After months of conflict, Bacon's forces burned Jamestown to the ground on [[September 19]], [[1676]].<ref name="nps"/>
Before an English naval squadron could arrive, Bacon's death on [[October 26]], [[1676]], from [[dysentery]], led to the collapse of the rebellion. Governor Berkeley returned to power, seizing the property of several rebels and hanging 23 men.<ref name="amer-hist"/> After an investigative committee returned its report to [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]], Berkeley was relieved of the governorship, and returned to England.<ref name="nps"/> Charles II later commented, "That old fool has put to death more people in that naked country than I did here for the murder of my father."
== Identification controversy ==
No one knows for certain when he was born. An earlier attribution of him as the Nathaniel Bacon born in 1646 or 1647 appears to be spurious, based on no firm foundation, although widely repeated in later literature including ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. The 1922 edition of the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'' does not give him a specific birthdate but does say he was "of [[Friston Hall]]". Although, from a contemporary document, his father is said to be "Thomas Bacon", his mother is not named and is unknown. She is not Elizabeth Brooke (even though this is repeated in many books), who in fact married a man named Nathaniel Bacon although that Nathaniel was a generation older than the one whom this article is about.
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
*Bailey, T., Kennedy, D., & Cohen, L. (eds.). (2002). ''The American Pageant'', 12th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-10349-X.
Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (1975), pp. 250-279.
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[[Category:1640s births]]
[[Category:1676 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Virginia colonial people]]
[[es:Nathaniel Bacon]]
[[no:Nathaniel Bacon]]
[[uk:Бекон Натаніел]]