* * *

Meantime Virginia was the scene of a memorable struggle between the
aristocrats and the people, the royalists led by the Governor, Sir
William Berkeley, and the republicans marshaled by Nathaniel Bacon, a
wealthy lawyer, deeply attached to the popular cause. The character of
Berkeley can best be judged by a communication which he sent to England
in 1665: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing in Virginia,
and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years; for learning has
brought heresy and disobedience and sects into the world, and printing
hath divulged them and libels against the best government; God keep us
from both!" It is not strange that a man who felt like this should have
cared but little for the safety and welfare of the common people. He
himself reveled in riches, accumulated at the cost of the colony, and he
had in sympathy with him the large landholders, who sought to imitate in
their Virginia mansions the pomp and circumstance of the English
nobility, while they looked down on the mass of poor whites as vassals
and inferiors. The immediate provocation for the so-called Bacon
Rebellion was the failure of Governor Berkeley to protect the settlers
from Indian depredations, the governor having a monopoly of the
fur-trade, and being inclined by motives of self-interest to propitiate
the savages. An armed force assembled and chose Bacon as their leader.
They first repulsed the Indians, and then demanded from the governor a
commission for Bacon as commander-in-chief of the Virginia military.
Berkeley, although urged by the newly-elected House of Burgesses, which
was in sympathy with the people, to grant the commission, for some time
hesitated, but at length consented. Bacon marched against the Indians,
and Berkeley proclaimed him a traitor. This hostile action of the
governor excited Bacon and his followers, in whose numbers were included
many of the best men in the colony, to an open and resolute stand for the
rights of the people. Berkeley fled to the eastern shore of Chesapeake
Bay, and sought to raise an army to maintain his authority. He proclaimed
that the slaves of all rebels were to free; he aroused the Indians to
join him, and several English ships were placed at his service. With this
following the governor went back to Jamestown, and again proclaimed Bacon
a traitor.

The popular leader hastened to accept the challenge, and at the head