ablished areas south of the indentures did not have a
realistic understanding either of the struggles and trials of these
men who were pioneering the Indian infested areas farther north.
This lack of understanding led to dissension and, in some instances,
rebellion.

[Illustration]

II. REBELLION

When the wealthy land-owners of the southern part of the colonized
area started buying up land in lower Fairfax County for speculation,
they did not buy out the title of the Doeg Indians, who occupied
this area at that time. (The white man established no relations with
the Doeg except to hold him off whenever possible). A series of
murders were committed on the frontier by Doegs and in retaliation
the colonists mistakenly killed Indians who were not Doegs. By 1675,
through a series of hot-headed misunderstandings the Susquehannock
Indians became involved and they struck whenever and wherever they
could. Captain John Smith described the Susquehannocks as having
booming voices, being seven feet tall and treading on the earth with
much pride, contempt and disdain.

Although no records were kept at the time, we can assume that many
homes were burned, women and children killed, etc. It is a known
fact that thirty-six people were killed on the Rappahannock in one
raid and that Indian retaliations of one nature or another caused
the English settlements that had reached Hunting Creek to recede to
Aquia, where they stayed for the next ten years.

Sir William Berkeley in order to help the frontiersmen, unwisely,
and at great expense to the people, commanded a fort to be built at
the mouth of each head river; e.g., one was built at Colchester on
the Occoquan. These forts proved of no value, being made of mud and
dirt. Other precarious forts were built in place of the mud ones.
These proved useless too and the governor and gentry declined to do
more.

Taking matters into their own hands, two hundred men (including men
from the Fairfax County area) joined under the leadership of
Nathaniel Bacon. They incited the Occannechi to massacre the
Susquehannock. Then, having disposed of the worst enemy, they turned
on the Occannechi and murdered them. The few Indians who survived
stabbed at the colonists occasionally but gradually drifted into
Pennsylvania taking the Doegs with them. The frontiersmen and
governing gentry, however, still remained at odds and another
cleavage began to appear. This one was centered around the men's
l