government, drive the governor
into exile, defy the King, make ready to resist his forces, and risk
death on the gallows. Philip Ludwell said that the rebel army was made
up of men "whose condition ... was such that a change could not make
worse." Had not the English trade laws, misgovernment, and injustice
practically eliminated the middle class there would have been hundreds
to whom the maintaining of law and order was the first consideration.
They would have supported Berkeley's Indian policy, however unwise,
rather than risk their estates. As it was, the governor found himself
practically deserted. Never before was there "so great a madness as
this base people are generally seized with," he complained.

No one will contend that the firing on Fort Sumter was the cause of
the War between the States, or that the murder of the Archduke
Ferdinand was the cause of the first World War. These were but the
matches thrown into the powder kegs. The kegs had been filling up for
many years, and sooner or later explosions were inevitable. So in
Virginia had there been no powder keg, the lighted match of the Indian
war would probably have flickered and burnt itself out.

In most great upheavals men have mixed motives. Of course Bacon and
his men rose in arms partly to protect themselves and their families
from the Indians. They said so repeatedly. But we have abundant
evidence from both sides that they were determined also to put an end
to oppression and misgovernment. "As for Bacon's designs of
prosecuting the Indian war it is most evident that he never intended
anything more in it than a covert under which to act all his
villanies," wrote Philip Ludwell. "If these had not been the chief
motives they had certainly understanding enough to have led them a
fairer way to presenting their grievances than on their swords'
points."

The Council, in a long statement, written when the uprising was but a
few weeks old, declared that Bacon's "only aim has always been and is
nothing else but of total subversion of the government." Thomas
Ludwell and Robert Smith, who at the time were in England, on
receiving reports of the rebellion, said that when the Indian raids
began "some idle and poor people made use of the present conjunction
for their ill designs." William Sherwood, an eyewitness of what took
place, testified that "it is most true that the great oppressions and
abuses of the people by the governor's arbitrary will hath been the