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Episode 11: Colonial Chaos · Missing Pages

0:01
SPEAKER_01: Hey hey, welcome to Missing Pages.
0:05
SPEAKER_01: This is episode 11, Colonial Chaos.
0:09
SPEAKER_01: As always,
0:10
SPEAKER_01: if you want to give any feedback or comment on this episode,
0:13
SPEAKER_01: head on over to missingpages.substack.com where you can do so.
0:19
SPEAKER_01: You can also find all of my extra writings, my essays, and shorter missives over there.
0:26
SPEAKER_01: And you'll be able to comment on all of the other episodes as well as this one
0:30
SPEAKER_01: And over time,
0:30
SPEAKER_01: I may start posting things that are exclusive to Substack,
0:34
SPEAKER_01: so you won't want to miss out on that.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: With all that said, this is episode 11, Colonial Chaos.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: Where are these missing pages?
0:48
SPEAKER_00: This map, we must have these pages back.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: This one's got pages missing.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: Why are the pages missing?
1:01
SPEAKER_00: with missing pages.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: I've said since the beginning of this season that the year that we're leading to
1:21
SPEAKER_01: 1676 is a turning point in the English colonies.
1:27
SPEAKER_01: While this is true, it is not a perfect breaking point.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: It never really is in history.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: But as I have teased when talking about the French presence in North America,
1:39
SPEAKER_01: major imperial wars mark much of the next century.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: Up until this point,
1:46
SPEAKER_01: other than the Anglo-Dutch Wars,
1:47
SPEAKER_01: there hadn't been many major swaps in the New World.
1:51
SPEAKER_01: However, there were some in Africa and Southeast Asia.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: There were far more small skirmishes, most often with the natives rather than other Europeans.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: That would not be the case in the century before the revolution.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: 1676 is a pivotal year that caused English leadership to understand the gravity
2:13
SPEAKER_01: that the colonies were starting to build.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: They were not merely plantations nor manufacturers.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: They had become fledgling nation-states all their own.
2:25
SPEAKER_01: But these wars flipped this on its head.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: The economy at the end would be in ruins.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: The governments fractured.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: The relations with the Indians was broken beyond repair.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: Their servant class was put down once and for all, and new slaves were replacing them.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: All of these things would have a major impact on the colonies going forward.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: We'll discuss the different policies of the next century in the next season,
2:54
SPEAKER_01: but it is time now for us to discuss why they had to have this conversation in the
2:59
SPEAKER_01: first place.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: The AP notes cover these conflicts pretty substantially.
3:05
SPEAKER_01: We'll start with King Philip's War.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: New Englanders continued to encroach on Native American lands.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: In June 1675,
3:14
SPEAKER_01: three Wampanoag Indians were tried and executed for the murder of a Christian
3:18
SPEAKER_01: Native American who had been acting as an informer to the English.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: In 1675,
3:25
SPEAKER_01: King Philip,
3:26
SPEAKER_01: also known as Medicom,
3:27
SPEAKER_01: who was the chief of the Wampanoags,
3:30
SPEAKER_01: forged an alliance among the Indians of the area and did what in King Philip's war?
3:36
SPEAKER_01: I said,
3:37
SPEAKER_01: the alliance of Indians eventually attacked about 52 New England towns,
3:41
SPEAKER_01: destroying 12 completely in the bloodiest war in American history relative to the population.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, the New England colonists defeated the Indians and
3:51
SPEAKER_01: And we have one last question.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: King Philip had said, End quote.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: but now the indians had in a sense lost their country although they had killed
4:23
SPEAKER_01: around six hundred colonists approximately three thousand indians had been slain
4:28
SPEAKER_01: would the indians have been better off not to make an attack at all why or why not
4:32
SPEAKER_01: and i said no the whites would have attacked them eventually
4:36
SPEAKER_01: the notes also mention bacon's rebellion which is another one of those benchmark
4:39
SPEAKER_01: dates that i have stated sixteen seventy six by the second half of the seventeenth
4:44
SPEAKER_01: century many ex indentured servants were becoming independent tobacco farmers large
4:50
SPEAKER_01: planters known as the tide-water gentry
4:53
SPEAKER_01: I say, Didn't own land.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: As the amount of settlement in the frontier increased,
5:20
SPEAKER_01: it led to the encroachment of Native American land,
5:23
SPEAKER_01: leading to increased conflict with the Indians.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, 36 Virginians were killed by Susquehannock Indians in a revenge attack.
5:31
SPEAKER_01: What was Barclay's solution in dealing with the Indian problem on the frontier,
5:35
SPEAKER_01: and why was this solution criticized?
5:37
SPEAKER_01: I state, building of a series of defensive forts to contain the Indian threat.
5:42
SPEAKER_01: He was criticized because taxes were raised to build the forts, and he wasn't going after the Indians.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: barclay was also criticized regarding the fur trade with the indians why i say he
5:54
SPEAKER_01: set up a fur trade monopoly with a small group and excluded back country farmers
5:57
SPEAKER_01: from this trade including some planters nathaniel bacon was a wealthy planter and a
6:03
SPEAKER_01: cousin of barclay who was excluded from barclay's fur trade monopoly
6:07
SPEAKER_01: and his followers included some disgruntled planters and many poor farmers and ex
6:12
SPEAKER_01: indentured servants what did bacon do in april sixteen seventy six bacon and his
6:17
SPEAKER_01: army led their own unauthorized raids against the indians leading to bacon's arrest
6:21
SPEAKER_01: in may
6:22
SPEAKER_01: When Bacon admitted his guilt, Barclay pardoned him on June 5, 1676.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: Bacon then raised an army of 500,
6:31
SPEAKER_01: led it into Jamestown,
6:32
SPEAKER_01: and surrounded the statehouse where the House of Burgesses met,
6:35
SPEAKER_01: demanding what from Governor Barclay?
6:37
SPEAKER_01: Bacon demanded that the governor commission him all forces against all the Indians,
6:42
SPEAKER_01: and the governor gave in.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: after this there is an account of bacon and his army confronting the house of
6:49
SPEAKER_01: burgesses and after them walked mr bacon with outrageous postures of his head arms
6:55
SPEAKER_01: body and legs often tossing his hand from his sword to his hat and after him came a
7:00
SPEAKER_01: detachment of fusiliers who with their locks bent presented their fusils at a
7:04
SPEAKER_01: window of the assembly chamber filled with faces repeating with menacing voices we
7:09
SPEAKER_01: will have it we will have it and
7:12
SPEAKER_01: However,
7:13
SPEAKER_01: Governor Barkley had second thoughts and repealed Bacon's commission on July 29th,
7:17
SPEAKER_01: after which a civil war ensued between troops loyal to Governor Barkley and troops
7:23
SPEAKER_01: loyal to Nathaniel Bacon.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: I state,
7:27
SPEAKER_01: they drove Barkley out of Jamestown,
7:29
SPEAKER_01: looted the plantations,
7:30
SPEAKER_01: and eventually burned down Jamestown.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: However, Barclay's forces eventually retook Jamestown and Bacon died of dysentery and body lice.
7:39
SPEAKER_01: Governor Barclay then went on to execute more than 20 of Bacon's followers.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: what are three major reasons why Bacon's Rebellion is significant?
7:57
SPEAKER_01: I state,
7:58
SPEAKER_01: it caused plantations to think that ex-indentured servants couldn't be trusted and
8:02
SPEAKER_01: turned to slavery.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: It was the first example of class warfare.
8:07
SPEAKER_01: And finally, those in the western part of Virginia felt lower in power than the tidewater gentry.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: So that is all of the notes.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: And as you can see, it is relatively extensive compared to many of the other episodes.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: One of them is much more extensive than the other,
8:23
SPEAKER_01: as you saw,
8:24
SPEAKER_01: but there are still some things that I would like to go through with both of these.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: There might be some repetition,
8:30
SPEAKER_01: but that has happened before and will happen again,
8:33
SPEAKER_01: as the AP notes do prove sometimes to be quite thorough.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: Regardless, grab your pack of native friends or servant friends, and let's fill in those missing pages.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: We left off last episode with Medicom, also known as Philip, preparing for war.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: He didn't start a war in 1675, but he was close.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: The trial in 1675 following the death of John Sassamon was the spark that ignited the fire.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: Sassamon was a Christian Indian that had warned Josiah Winslow,
9:20
SPEAKER_01: the governor of Massachusetts at that point,
9:22
SPEAKER_01: that an attack was imminent.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: He was killed by three Wampanoag men in his home.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: The trial that occurred played out more like a show trial,
9:33
SPEAKER_01: which was common for known enemies of the Puritan cause.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: The three men were found guilty and hanged, or later shot.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: This was the last straw for Philip, though it is still unknown how much he actually wanted war.
9:49
SPEAKER_01: But he did have lots of grievances.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: He laid them out directly to John Easton.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: In their book,
9:56
SPEAKER_01: King Philip's War,
9:57
SPEAKER_01: the History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict,
10:01
SPEAKER_01: Eric B.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: Schultz and Michael J.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: Tudges lay out John Easton's reporting of what Philip's grievances were.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: Quote,
10:10
SPEAKER_01: When the English first came,
10:12
SPEAKER_01: their king's father,
10:13
SPEAKER_01: this is Massazoit,
10:14
SPEAKER_01: was as a great man and the English as a little child.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: He constrained other Indians from wrongdoing the English and gave them corn and
10:22
SPEAKER_01: showed them how to plant and had let them have a hundred times more land than now
10:27
SPEAKER_01: the king had for his own people.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: But their king's brother,
10:31
SPEAKER_01: Alexander,
10:33
SPEAKER_01: when he was king,
10:34
SPEAKER_01: came miserably to die by being forced to court,
10:37
SPEAKER_01: as they judge,
10:38
SPEAKER_01: poisoned.
10:39
SPEAKER_01: And another grievance was,
10:40
SPEAKER_01: if twenty of their honest Indians testified that an Englishman had done them wrong,
10:44
SPEAKER_01: it was nothing.
10:46
SPEAKER_01: And if but one of their worst Indians testified against any Indian of their king,
10:51
SPEAKER_01: when it pleased the English,
10:52
SPEAKER_01: it was sufficient.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: End quote.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: End quote.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: At this moment,
11:16
SPEAKER_01: the Indian population was not a single unified group,
11:19
SPEAKER_01: so a unified attack was unlikely,
11:23
SPEAKER_01: though each sachem was reaching their breaking point.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: Several of the English on the other side were increasingly paranoid,
11:29
SPEAKER_01: however,
11:30
SPEAKER_01: that a frontal assault was imminent.
11:33
SPEAKER_01: Josiah Winslow did not believe it would happen, though, and did not prepare for a war.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: The New England colonists were mostly busy fighting political battles amongst themselves,
11:45
SPEAKER_01: leaving them just as divided in spite of the creation of the United Colonies.
11:49
SPEAKER_01: For Philip, there was no better time to strike than now.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: In his book Mayflower,
11:55
SPEAKER_01: A Story of Courage,
11:56
SPEAKER_01: Community,
11:56
SPEAKER_01: and War,
11:57
SPEAKER_01: Nathaniel Philbrick lays it out like this,
12:01
SPEAKER_01: Philip had been forced to prepare for war out of political necessity.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: after the disastrous summer of 1671 his survival as sachem had depended on it but
12:11
SPEAKER_01: armageddon had always been in the distant future thanks to the murder trial of
12:16
SPEAKER_01: tobias and others armageddon had arrived
12:21
SPEAKER_01: And what he's talking about there is the Treaty of Taunton and the trial of John Sassamont.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: In Philbrick's eyes, Philip was basically forced to start a war.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: And on June 20th, 1675, when a small group of Poconocat attacked the village of Swansea,
12:40
SPEAKER_01: King Philip's War was underway.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: Josiah Winslow quickly raised a small force in response to protect the English,
12:48
SPEAKER_01: and news spread from there,
12:50
SPEAKER_01: quickly to Boston,
12:51
SPEAKER_01: raising alarms for further attacks.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: Three separate parties were sent to nearby Sachems to try to negotiate,
12:58
SPEAKER_01: one of which involved Roger Williams.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: winslow determined that this was an act of god against the sins of plymouth so he
13:06
SPEAKER_01: set a fasting day to repent they met these sachems with the intention of preventing
13:10
SPEAKER_01: all-out war this was thwarted though when the english shot back at the looting
13:15
SPEAKER_01: pokonoket leading to a retribution attack leaving several english dead
13:21
SPEAKER_01: The war had begun in earnest.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: Both sides amassed troops throughout the colonies.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: Small skirmishes broke out,
13:27
SPEAKER_01: but an open field battle never took place,
13:30
SPEAKER_01: much to the frustration of the English.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: With an army amassed, the English decided to attack the Poconoket capital, but they were too late.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: While the English began a long process of consolidating and planning their next move,
13:42
SPEAKER_01: Metacom found allies in the Pocoset.
13:45
SPEAKER_01: The continual push for peace by the English actively pushed the remaining neutral tribes towards Metacom.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: The resulting conflict transformed from political to racial,
13:55
SPEAKER_01: and the English began to attack any Indians that they saw,
13:58
SPEAKER_01: regardless of affiliation,
14:01
SPEAKER_01: and at this point began enslaving native captives.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: What followed was a series of skirmishes that led to no major victories,
14:09
SPEAKER_01: as the war spread from Plymouth towards Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: The English tried to trap Medicom in the Pocoset Swamp,
14:17
SPEAKER_01: but despite great effort,
14:18
SPEAKER_01: they failed,
14:19
SPEAKER_01: and he escaped,
14:20
SPEAKER_01: though at great cost.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: As the English chased, more and more of the colonies began to get involved in this hunt.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: Over the next month, the English continued and failed to negotiate alliances with neighboring tribes.
14:34
SPEAKER_01: These attempts led to several ambushes,
14:37
SPEAKER_01: including one that led to the death of Edward Hutchinson,
14:40
SPEAKER_01: named Wheeler's Surprise.
14:43
SPEAKER_01: All of these battles so far only resulted in single digit casualties.
14:47
SPEAKER_01: However, they did drive the Indian nations away from the English ever more.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: The English would eventually demand weapons from neutral sachems after raids to
14:56
SPEAKER_01: replenish supplies,
14:58
SPEAKER_01: further pushing them away.
15:00
SPEAKER_01: This conflict spread continuously even to Maine,
15:04
SPEAKER_01: which was attacked by the Abenaki starting in September of 1675 and continued
15:10
SPEAKER_01: through the winter.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: The main coastline was not well defended, and the death toll was high.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: By the end of the summer of 1675, Philip's army was all but lost, but the cause was gaining steam.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: He had the backing of nearly all of the tribes in the region, and the war had only just begun.
15:28
SPEAKER_01: Towns unfit to protect themselves were evacuated across the colonies, oftentimes ambushed in the process.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: The empty towns were then raided and burned down.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: Many of the refugees moved east, overwhelming Boston.
15:42
SPEAKER_01: Many others were forced to stay in their dilapidated towns.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: The constant Indian attacks brought forth attacks by the English, and the death toll continued to rise.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: The hatred of the two groups rose as well, bringing more and more mistrust.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: This mistrust brought mistreatment even among allies.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: Around 300 praying Indians,
16:02
SPEAKER_01: those are Indians who had converted to Christianity,
16:05
SPEAKER_01: were sent to an internment camp on Deer Island.
16:09
SPEAKER_01: Most of them died in the poor conditions.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: By mid-November,
16:13
SPEAKER_01: the attacks had stopped,
16:15
SPEAKER_01: so both sides began to recover,
16:17
SPEAKER_01: regroup,
16:17
SPEAKER_01: reorganize,
16:19
SPEAKER_01: and rebuild.
16:20
SPEAKER_01: This war had grown far beyond Philip at this point,
16:22
SPEAKER_01: and though he became a mythical figure,
16:25
SPEAKER_01: he had almost no control over the many nations fighting the English by the fall of 1675.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: The United Colonies had been trying to avoid war with the Narragansett,
16:35
SPEAKER_01: ironically with help from Roger Williams,
16:38
SPEAKER_01: but negotiations were beginning to stall.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: The English, in a desperate move, sent a thousand troops to try to strike a deal through force.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: To do this, first they would have to invade Rhode Island to gather more troops.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: Benjamin Church led the first group of troops from the sea in search of the
16:55
SPEAKER_01: Narragansett and were able to capture Indians and gain intel on their position.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: After Josiah Winslow arrived and the two armies merged together,
17:03
SPEAKER_01: the weather took a sharp,
17:05
SPEAKER_01: frigid turn,
17:06
SPEAKER_01: and Winslow was unable to wait for an attack.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: After a small initial encounter, the Narragansett Fort was discovered.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: Nathaniel Philbrick describes it like this in Mayflower,
17:18
SPEAKER_01: They had not gone far when they were presented with a truly awe-inspiring sight.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: Ahead of them, looming above the frozen, snow-covered swamp, was a huge wooden fort,
17:28
SPEAKER_01: No one had ever seen anything quite like it.
17:30
SPEAKER_01: Set on a five-acre island and containing approximately 500 wigwams and thousands of Indians,
17:36
SPEAKER_01: the fort combined elements of native and European design.
17:39
SPEAKER_01: In addition to a palisade wall of vertically planted tree trunks,
17:43
SPEAKER_01: the fort was surrounded by a 16-foot thick hedge of clay and brushwork.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: At the fort's corners and exposed points were flankers and what the English
17:51
SPEAKER_01: described as blockhouses,
17:52
SPEAKER_01: structures made of tree branches from which the Indians could fire at anyone
17:56
SPEAKER_01: attempting to scale the wall.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: The fort had a single point of entry where a massive tree trunk spanned a moat-like
18:02
SPEAKER_01: sheet of frozen water.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: Any Englishman who attempted to cross the tree trunk would be picked off by the
18:07
SPEAKER_01: Indians long before he made it to the fort.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: If they had any hope of breaching the wall, they must find another way in.
18:16
SPEAKER_01: Despite these defenses,
18:17
SPEAKER_01: they marched through the dead of winter and attacked this fort on December 19,
18:21
1675.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: The fort was formidable,
18:25
SPEAKER_01: and it took several assaults that cost the English dearly,
18:28
SPEAKER_01: and the close quarters even led to many deaths from English muskets.
18:32
SPEAKER_01: Some of this fighting is described by Benjamin Church himself in Mayflower.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: Church had no sooner entered the fort than he saw,
18:43
SPEAKER_01: quote,
18:44
SPEAKER_01: this is quoting Church,
18:46
SPEAKER_01: many men and several valiant captains lie slain,
18:48
SPEAKER_01: end quote.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: Philbert continues,
18:51
SPEAKER_01: there are also many Indian bodies,
18:53
SPEAKER_01: with more than 50 corpses piled high in a corner of the fort.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: To his left, fighting amid the wigwams, was a friend of Church's, Captain Gardner of Salem.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: Church called out to Gardner,
19:03
SPEAKER_01: and the two men exchanged glances when the captain suddenly slumped to the ground.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: Church ran up to him, and seeing blood trickle down Gardner's neck, lifted up his cap.
19:13
SPEAKER_01: Gardner looked up at Church but, quote, spoke not a word, end quote.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: A bullet had passed through his skull, and before Church could say anything, Gardner was dead.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: Studying the wound,
19:23
SPEAKER_01: Church realized that the bullet had come from the upland side of the swamp,
19:26
SPEAKER_01: and therefore must have come from an English musket.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: As soldiers pulled Gardner's body from the fort,
19:30
SPEAKER_01: Church sent word back to Winslow that English soldiers were being killed by their
19:35
SPEAKER_01: comrades behind them,
19:36
SPEAKER_01: end quote.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: The English eventually captured the fort,
19:39
SPEAKER_01: but this would be their only battle,
19:41
SPEAKER_01: as they licked their wounds and went home.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: The looming threat of further attacks and the Indian hatred that was rampant by
19:47
SPEAKER_01: this point led to the burning of the fort and retreat.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: The burning of the fort led to hundreds more dead near Gansett,
19:56
SPEAKER_01: including women,
19:57
SPEAKER_01: children,
19:57
SPEAKER_01: and the elderly.
19:59
SPEAKER_01: and the quick retreat likely caused dozens more on the English side.
20:03
SPEAKER_01: The total death toll for the Narragansett was around 350 to 600.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: The fighting continued through January, though the tide continued to turn against the English.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: The combined native force with the Narragansett now joining were winning.
20:18
SPEAKER_01: This battle became known as the Great Swamp Fight and led to the casualties of over
20:24
SPEAKER_01: 20% of the English fighting force.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: That is twice that of the American soldiers at D-Day.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: Philip was quickly losing his place as leader of the Indian side of the war.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: At the end of the year, he was leading just a small band.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: Despite this,
20:39
SPEAKER_01: he was able to make a deal with the French in Canada,
20:42
SPEAKER_01: and by the middle of January had a force of several hundred Indians.
20:45
SPEAKER_01: He also tried to ally with the Mohawk, but was beaten by Edmund Andrews, the governor of New York.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: Towns continued to be attacked throughout New England, despite fortifications and even prior knowledge.
20:57
SPEAKER_01: Indian spies tried to warn the English of upcoming attacks of several towns,
21:01
SPEAKER_01: though by the time the English listened,
21:03
SPEAKER_01: it was already taken.
21:05
SPEAKER_01: The English continued to seek a decisive victory against the natives, but it never came.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: March proved to be devastating for the English as hundreds of homes were burned
21:14
SPEAKER_01: down and just as many people killed in raids.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: It seemed there was no safety anywhere in the colonies,
21:19
SPEAKER_01: and even those most friendly to the natives were in danger.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: March 26 marked the beginning of the worst days of the war.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: Over a thousand Indian warriors were roaming southern Massachusetts and ambushing
21:31
SPEAKER_01: any English forces they could find.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: like Captain Pierce, who lost over 60 men.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: Nine of them were tortured later at what is today called Nine Men's Misery.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: These Indians moved on to attack Rehoboth,
21:45
SPEAKER_01: then Providence,
21:46
SPEAKER_01: burning down the villages,
21:47
SPEAKER_01: including Roger Williams' house.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: In a sudden change of events,
21:52
SPEAKER_01: the English were able to capture Canonshet,
21:55
SPEAKER_01: the Narragansett,
21:56
SPEAKER_01: Sachem,
21:57
SPEAKER_01: and attempted to convince him to end the war.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: He wouldn't, so he was executed, with the help of the English, Mohegans, and the Niantics.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: This was a major blow to Indian confidence, though the war was far from over.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: The Indians still had victories over the English, but peace became more and more enticing.
22:17
SPEAKER_01: Furthermore,
22:18
SPEAKER_01: the English began to use more praying Indians,
22:21
SPEAKER_01: again those Christian Indians,
22:23
SPEAKER_01: as scouts,
22:24
SPEAKER_01: and even the most hard-line anti-Indian of the English changed their tune.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: The English leadership in London began once again questioning the colonial efforts and leaders.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: The citizens themselves became more unwilling to leave their homes or farms as no
22:37
SPEAKER_01: progress had been made towards peace.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: Along with that,
22:40
SPEAKER_01: the Indian alliance was able to restock during the spring and continued to raid and
22:45
SPEAKER_01: burn down villages.
22:47
SPEAKER_01: More and more cracks were beginning to form in the Indian army though,
22:50
SPEAKER_01: and food stores were running low because of the English ransacking them.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: The leadership was slowly being captured or killed,
22:59
SPEAKER_01: and some rival natives also became instrumental in turning the tide of the war.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: In the end, this quickly became a war of attrition.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: The English successfully attacked a native camp on May 18th before retreating with significant losses.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: On June 1st,
23:13
SPEAKER_01: the United Colonies continued and created another offensive force of over 400
23:17
SPEAKER_01: English and Allied natives.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: They were attacked only once on June 12th as they marched west, capturing any native they came across.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: They found mostly empty camps on the way,
23:27
SPEAKER_01: but the fleeing Indians had lost any hope of replenishing their food stores.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: This was the beginning of the end of the war.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: The leadership was fractured, and even Philip had lost all favor among the natives.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: battles continued through june and july leading mostly to english victories and the
23:43
SPEAKER_01: native alliance fell apart slowly peace was made with sachems of small tribes and
23:48
SPEAKER_01: the soldiers were marched back to the english colonies but king philip remained
23:53
SPEAKER_01: elusive he was the final prize that the english wanted to capture
23:58
SPEAKER_01: benjamin church led a small group of english and native troops to find him he
24:02
SPEAKER_01: worked with the second at sachem ashawanks to find him they tracked him for just
24:06
SPEAKER_01: over a month starting on july eleventh along the way the troop fought small bands
24:11
SPEAKER_01: of the remaining wampanoag and captured several of them they continued to track him
24:16
SPEAKER_01: through a thick swamp capturing many indian men women and children throughout
24:21
SPEAKER_01: After a couple near misses,
24:23
SPEAKER_01: one of Philip's men,
24:24
SPEAKER_01: or a Pocasset man,
24:26
SPEAKER_01: Alderman,
24:27
SPEAKER_01: gave the English a direct route to his camp.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: After an ambush of the camp on the morning of August 12th,
24:34
SPEAKER_01: Alderman takes the fatal shot and Philip is dead.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: His body is decapitated and brought to Plymouth,
24:39
SPEAKER_01: and his head is placed on the palisade where it stayed for more than two decades.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: The summer of 1676 was the most brutal year of the war.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: The English,
24:51
SPEAKER_01: sensing their victory was coming,
24:52
SPEAKER_01: were relentless in their pursuit of the remaining Indian warriors.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: Those that were not killed were enslaved.
24:59
SPEAKER_01: At this point, most New Englanders were okay with sending the enemy off to plantations in the Caribbean.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: A couple weeks after the death of Philip, the leader of the Wampanoag, Anawan, was captured.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: It is also at this point that the natives began to help the English much more.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: They were ready for the war to be over.
25:21
SPEAKER_01: Small skirmishes continued, but the major conflict was over.
25:25
SPEAKER_01: Most of the captured were executed with their families or sold into slavery,
25:29
SPEAKER_01: and even some of those that had helped the English were not spared.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: In Maine, the conflict continued at full bore.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: Several English forts fell, and frustrations continued to rise.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: This frustration led to some of the leaders of the troops to act savagely towards
25:46
SPEAKER_01: the natives,
25:47
SPEAKER_01: often resulting in mass enslavement and massacres.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: There was often subterfuge conducted to frame the natives as dangerous to justify their treatment.
25:55
SPEAKER_01: One occurrence was during a supposed parlay between the English and the Abenaki.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: There was supposed to be a fake battle that would be ended with a truce and peace.
26:05
SPEAKER_01: Instead, the English used this as an opportunity to capture several hundred natives.
26:11
SPEAKER_01: These battles continued into 1677 with Boston sending troops to the front lines to
26:15
SPEAKER_01: assist the failing English cause.
26:18
SPEAKER_01: The danger of the French taking over the weak colonies forced the Duke of York to
26:23
SPEAKER_01: send a force to put an end to the conflict.
26:25
SPEAKER_01: Talks were had between this new force and the natives,
26:27
SPEAKER_01: and on April 12,
26:28
SPEAKER_01: 1678,
26:29
SPEAKER_01: the Treaty of Casco was signed.
26:32
SPEAKER_01: The war was officially over.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: This war remains the bloodiest conflict that took place on American soil,
26:39
SPEAKER_01: with some 2,500 English and likely more than double that native deaths.
26:45
SPEAKER_01: This war had devastating impacts on the relations between the natives and the English.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: Most natives were either killed or sold into slavery,
26:53
SPEAKER_01: Somewhere in the range of 60-80% of the population of the natives was lost.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: Roughly 8% of the English population were killed or wounded.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: Philbrick tries to lay out this in some comparisons.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: In terms of the percentage of population killed,
27:12
SPEAKER_01: the English had suffered casualties that are difficult for us to comprehend today.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: During the 14 months of the King Philip's War, Plymouth Colony lost close to 8% of its men.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: The pain did not end for the natives.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: Even allied natives were punished and were not given the rights of the English.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: The warring tribes were also punished in the aftermath.
27:45
SPEAKER_01: The Narragansett were nearly wiped from the region.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: The Mohegan were required to give land to Connecticut.
27:51
SPEAKER_01: The Wampanoag were scattered and watched.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: The Ashawanks were wiped from history books.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: The Abenaki were pushed northward into Canada.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: A few sanctuaries remained of Indian culture, but most integrated into English colonial society.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: The native population dropped from 30% of the total in the region in 1670 to 15% in 1680.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: However, this process would be slow.
28:15
SPEAKER_01: In a report written by Edward Randolph,
28:18
SPEAKER_01: he found the following,
28:20
SPEAKER_01: laid out by Schultz and Tudges in King Philip's War.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: Quote,
28:25
SPEAKER_01: When it was finally issued, Randolph's report, biased though it might have been, was devastating.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: He found Governor Leverett to be openly flaunting English law.
28:35
SPEAKER_01: He discovered a militia that was weaker than he had anticipated and poorly trained.
28:40
SPEAKER_01: He discovered animosity between Plymouth and Boston and fear throughout the
28:44
SPEAKER_01: colonies of Massachusetts Bay's aggression.
28:47
SPEAKER_01: and randolph concluded he had found quoting randolph the loyal colonies of new
28:53
SPEAKER_01: plymouth connecticut new hampshire and maine are very desirous of submitting to a
28:57
SPEAKER_01: general governor to be established by his majesty especially if it meant relief
29:03
SPEAKER_01: from the tyranny of puritan boston
29:07
SPEAKER_01: The failure of the colonial leaders,
29:09
SPEAKER_01: along with the other crimes that were uncovered while investigating this war,
29:13
SPEAKER_01: led to King Charles II reasserting his authority over the region.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: Later, King James II would appoint a royal governor to oversee the New England region.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: This would take some time though,
29:25
SPEAKER_01: as the English were also dealing with another conflict down in Virginia,
29:32
SPEAKER_01: Bacon's Rebellion.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: Nathaniel Bacon was born to wealthy parents in England in 1647.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: He went to Cambridge on his father's dime but partied rather than studying.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: He was forced to come home and be tutored by John Ray who took Bacon on a scientific tour of Europe.
29:51
SPEAKER_01: Bacon then returned to Cambridge and graduated in 1668 and went on to study law in London.
29:57
SPEAKER_01: While there, Bacon married Elizabeth Duke against her father's wishes.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: She was even left out of the will for this.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: And after a small legal scandal, was sent to Virginia to avoid any more trouble.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: He arrived in Jamestown with about 1,800 pounds to his name and put it to quick use
30:16
SPEAKER_01: to buy a plantation along the James River and another near the falls.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: He had some family connections here as well, which helped him.
30:23
SPEAKER_01: He was the cousin of William Barclay's wife,
30:26
SPEAKER_01: Frances,
30:27
SPEAKER_01: and a prominent member of the council,
30:29
SPEAKER_01: Nathaniel Bacon.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: the elder.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: He was also a kinsman of Francis Bacon.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: They are first cousins three times removed.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: Upon arrival,
30:40
SPEAKER_01: Bacon was granted a seat on the council,
30:42
SPEAKER_01: but was not well liked by many as he was incredibly arrogant and ambitious.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: He was also seen as dark, moody, and atheistic.
30:51
SPEAKER_01: He got into trouble quickly when he captured several friendly Appomattox,
30:55
SPEAKER_01: who he thought were stealing from him,
30:57
SPEAKER_01: further driving a wedge between the Indians and the English in the region.
31:01
SPEAKER_01: Bacon's plantation was the target of a raid by the Susquehannock in January of 1676.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: Along with his neighbors,
31:08
SPEAKER_01: he began to stockpile weapons and defenses to protect them against future attacks.
31:15
SPEAKER_01: On March 7th,
31:16
SPEAKER_01: the full assembly,
31:17
SPEAKER_01: many of whom traveling many miles to reach there,
31:20
SPEAKER_01: packed into the upper floor of the three-story state house in Jamestown.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: William Barclay stood at the front of the chamber and called for a declaration of
31:27
SPEAKER_01: war against all of the enemy Indians.
31:30
SPEAKER_01: Along with that,
31:30
SPEAKER_01: he called for the building of several forts along the rivers,
31:33
SPEAKER_01: new patrols between the forts,
31:35
SPEAKER_01: and allowed for any and all protection necessary against attacks.
31:39
SPEAKER_01: He made it clear that direct attacks were not allowed unless authorized by him.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: and all allied Indians were to be well-armed, trained, and compensated.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: It was approved quickly by the Burgesses.
31:51
SPEAKER_01: The farmers did not approve of this plan,
31:52
SPEAKER_01: though,
31:53
SPEAKER_01: believing it was a waste that did not deal with the actual crisis they were facing.
31:58
SPEAKER_01: Nathaniel Bacon took it a step further and described it as a plot,
32:02
SPEAKER_01: however unfounded,
32:03
SPEAKER_01: to monopolize trade with the Indians.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: After the hearing, the assembly agreed to fortify the colony, but not attack any settlements."
32:12
SPEAKER_01: Bacon was now prepared to attack any native that did harm to his community without seeking permission.
32:17
SPEAKER_01: Unbeknownst to him,
32:18
SPEAKER_01: he had even inspired several of his other fellow planters to take matters into
32:22
SPEAKER_01: their own hands.
32:23
SPEAKER_01: They formed a small army and prepared for an attack.
32:27
SPEAKER_01: During a dinner, the leaders asked Bacon to lead the army against the Indians.
32:32
SPEAKER_01: Despite his surprise, he was more than prepared to take on this role.
32:36
SPEAKER_01: He went on to recruit more settlers and reached an armed force of about 300.
32:41
SPEAKER_01: to take on the Indians.
32:43
SPEAKER_01: Barkley heard news of this army and directed him to stand down, but Bacon refused.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: Barclay had only one choice at this point.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: He would have to stop him by force.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: He raised an army of a few hundred men on his own and began tracking down Bacon.
32:58
SPEAKER_01: However, this failed quickly as they could not track down Bacon's army.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: However, he was successful in removing him from the council.
33:06
SPEAKER_01: Barclay then called for an election to replace this seat as well as a replacement
33:11
SPEAKER_01: for himself as governor.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: At the May council meeting, Bacon's army was declared a rebellion.
33:18
SPEAKER_01: During the reading of this indictment,
33:20
SPEAKER_01: Bacon's friend,
33:21
SPEAKER_01: James Chew,
33:22
SPEAKER_01: arrived at the statehouse and demanded Bacon's seat back.
33:26
SPEAKER_01: Bacon claimed in a letter that his actions derived from his duty to see the colony
33:30
SPEAKER_01: prosper and put an end to Indian influence in the region.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: He was elected as one of the burgesses in the council, but Barclay was not prepared to let him serve.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, Bacon approached the Okinichis for help in finding the Susquehannock.
33:45
SPEAKER_01: Before he reached the fort itself,
33:47
SPEAKER_01: he was gifted the captives of an Okinichi raid on the Susquehannock fort.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: He had them all killed.
33:54
SPEAKER_01: He insisted that the two groups split the plunder despite not fighting.
33:59
SPEAKER_01: The leader of the forts, Pasa Clay, agreed merely to avoid a fight.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: However, this did not work.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: The two groups aimed at each other until an Okanichi shot at and killed one of Bacon's men.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: A battle ensued that ended in the destruction of the three forts and the killing of
34:16
SPEAKER_01: almost every inhabitant,
34:18
SPEAKER_01: man,
34:19
SPEAKER_01: woman,
34:19
SPEAKER_01: or child.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: In his book, Tales from a Revolution, James D. Rice lays out this incident.
34:27
SPEAKER_01: Quote, At last one of the Indians snatched up his gun and killed one of Bacon's volunteers.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: The Indians and English jostling at the fort's entrance were now terribly exposed.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: As the English tried to retreat,
34:39
SPEAKER_01: five were overwhelmed by the crowd of Indians rushing to get into the fort,
34:43
SPEAKER_01: quote,
34:44
SPEAKER_01: hacking and hewing and cutting down many parts of their Indian enemies,
34:47
SPEAKER_01: end quote,
34:48
SPEAKER_01: before being trampled by the panicked townspeople.
34:52
SPEAKER_01: outside the fort english soldiers gunned down women and men children and elderly
34:56
SPEAKER_01: okaniches and visitors from other indian nations the relief of those who found
35:00
SPEAKER_01: shelter in the forts lasted only as long as it took the englishmen flattened
35:04
SPEAKER_01: against the walls to swing their guns up to the port-holes and fire inside
35:09
SPEAKER_01: The groans of men,
35:10
SPEAKER_01: women,
35:10
SPEAKER_01: and children could be heard even above the din of the gunfire,
35:13
SPEAKER_01: the howling of frightened and anguished villagers,
35:16
SPEAKER_01: and the singing of Okinichis as they fortified themselves for battle or for death.
35:21
SPEAKER_01: Inside the two smaller forts,
35:22
SPEAKER_01: many burned to death,
35:23
SPEAKER_01: asphyxiated as they crowded together to escape the flames,
35:26
SPEAKER_01: or were blown up when the flames reached the powder stores.
35:30
SPEAKER_01: Those who escaped were met by gunfire as they burst from the
35:36
SPEAKER_01: Once back in Virginia, the terror campaign continued.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: Bacon had a prisoner in the Appomattox Fort stolen at gunpoint,
35:43
SPEAKER_01: and then he made his way to Jamestown for the council meeting.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: When Bacon finally arrived in Jamestown,
35:48
SPEAKER_01: he was captured by the governor's men,
35:50
SPEAKER_01: jailed,
35:51
SPEAKER_01: and brought before the council to confess and apologize.
35:54
SPEAKER_01: Bacon did apologize,
35:56
SPEAKER_01: and Barclay accepted the apology and offered his seat back after a probationary period,
36:00
SPEAKER_01: though he ended up being reinstated by the end of the day.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: Barclay then called for a continuation of the war against the Susquehannock,
36:08
SPEAKER_01: but not full extermination,
36:09
SPEAKER_01: as Bacon requested.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: But this did not satisfy Bacon.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: Having a seat as a Burgess was not enough.
36:15
SPEAKER_01: Bacon wanted his war.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: He had no allies,
36:18
SPEAKER_01: though,
36:19
SPEAKER_01: and was actively rebuked by Barclay at every turn,
36:22
SPEAKER_01: despite his promise of a commission to invade the Indian territory.
36:25
SPEAKER_01: By this point,
36:27
SPEAKER_01: he had had enough,
36:28
SPEAKER_01: so he left Jamestown in the night of June 21st and returned the next day with his
36:32
SPEAKER_01: 400-man army.
36:35
SPEAKER_01: He surrounded the statehouse with the Burgesses inside.
36:38
SPEAKER_01: He was demanding a commission.
36:40
SPEAKER_01: Barclay had enough and came outside to confront Bacon head-on.
36:43
SPEAKER_01: The tension rose to near disaster when a Burgess surrendered from within the assembly room.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: Barclay was forced to sign a commission, and Bacon got his wish.
36:53
SPEAKER_01: To solidify his place in history,
36:55
SPEAKER_01: Bacon wrote letters to King Charles II describing his side of the proceedings,
37:00
SPEAKER_01: ensuring it was not to be seen as a rebellion.
37:03
SPEAKER_01: He portrayed himself as the savior of the colony, not its destroyer.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: With this new commission, Bacon departed to begin his preparations.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: Barclay also wrote a letter to King Charles II describing the events,
37:17
SPEAKER_01: but obviously from the opposite direction of Bacon.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: Barclay dissolved the council soon after this event,
37:24
SPEAKER_01: but not before Bacon finished his officer's commission.
37:27
SPEAKER_01: At this point, there were two factions forming, though not many were on Bacon's side.
37:32
SPEAKER_01: When Bacon left shortly after making camp on his commission,
37:36
SPEAKER_01: he heard that Barclay was raising a militia to take him on.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: So he marched back towards Jamestown again, with his militia in tow.
37:45
SPEAKER_01: On top of this threat, Bacon released his manifesto in an attempt to delegitimize Barclay.
37:52
SPEAKER_01: He called out the governor's alliance with several Indian nations and his continued trade with them.
37:58
SPEAKER_01: He called for the most prominent men to meet with him to discuss future terms at
38:01
SPEAKER_01: risk of their plantations being raided.
38:05
SPEAKER_01: He requested that they do not attack him so he can complete his commission, to which they all agreed.
38:11
SPEAKER_01: The 70 men even signed an oath to protect Bacon against Barclay.
38:15
SPEAKER_01: This oath was further administered house by house, and dissidents were taken prisoner.
38:21
SPEAKER_01: But Barclay wouldn't take this sitting down.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: He was prepared to fight.
38:24
SPEAKER_01: He did assemble his own militia to take on Bacon,
38:27
SPEAKER_01: though he found his soldiers were not keen on attacking a fellow Virginian during such a tense moment.
38:33
SPEAKER_01: To avoid direct conflict and wait out the storm,
38:36
SPEAKER_01: Barclay moved into his allies' plantation across the Chesapeake Bay.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: Bacon's loyalists overtook several ships,
38:43
SPEAKER_01: creating a small fleet,
38:44
SPEAKER_01: and were determined to hunt Barclay down.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: At the end of August, William Carver and Giles Bland led a militia towards Barclay's location.
38:53
SPEAKER_01: He defended the plantation and sent a small force to take back the stolen ships.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: this mutiny was successful because many of the people on the ship were still
39:02
SPEAKER_01: overwhelmingly loyal to berkeley and carver was forced to surrender he was
39:06
SPEAKER_01: eventually hanged the rest of the stolen ships were retaken and berkeley retook
39:11
SPEAKER_01: control of the chesapeake
39:13
SPEAKER_01: From here, he made his way back to Jamestown as well.
39:17
SPEAKER_01: Along the way, Bacon took over Barclay's estate along with those of 19 enemy planters.
39:22
SPEAKER_01: To prevent the appearance of a peer rebellion, Bacon took his militia and turned it toward the Pamunkey.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: The incompetence of this militia, though, allowed the Pamunkey to escape.
39:33
SPEAKER_01: though their camp was destroyed in the process.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: The rain made pursuit impossible, so Bacon split his army.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: Luck befell this militia,
39:41
SPEAKER_01: though,
39:42
SPEAKER_01: and in pursuit,
39:43
SPEAKER_01: they stumbled into the Pamunkey camp and captured most of the inhabitants,
39:47
SPEAKER_01: selling them into slavery,
39:49
SPEAKER_01: even the leader,
39:50
SPEAKER_01: Kakakoke.
39:52
SPEAKER_01: This endeavor led the militia bruised and battered,
39:54
SPEAKER_01: but upon receiving word that Barclay had retaken Jamestown,
39:58
SPEAKER_01: Bacon was not prepared to surrender.
40:00
SPEAKER_01: Arriving on September 13th,
40:02
SPEAKER_01: Bacon's men,
40:03
SPEAKER_01: now with the promise of freedom for slaves and servants,
40:06
SPEAKER_01: dug trenches outside the town.
40:08
SPEAKER_01: They even took the wives of the Loyalist soldiers hostage to buy them more time.
40:14
SPEAKER_01: The first attack by the Loyalists was a disaster, but Bacon's militia was not able to take advantage.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: Their poor conditions made their morale plummet.
40:23
SPEAKER_01: In Tales from a Revolution, James D. Rice states, quote, Yet Bacon's situation remained perilous.
40:29
SPEAKER_01: While the Loyalists rested in townhouses,
40:31
SPEAKER_01: tents,
40:32
SPEAKER_01: or below decks on the ships anchored off Jamestown,
40:35
SPEAKER_01: Bacon and his men pinned down most of the time in muddy,
40:38
SPEAKER_01: open-air trenches,
40:39
SPEAKER_01: could neither shelter themselves from the wet and damp,
40:42
SPEAKER_01: nor dry off properly between rain showers in the close crowded quarters
40:47
SPEAKER_01: infestations of lice spread from soldier to soldier several small detachments of
40:53
SPEAKER_01: bacon's men assaulted other parts of the colony taking small victories and drawing
40:57
SPEAKER_01: loyalist troops away from jamestown the public had no idea who to back at this
41:02
SPEAKER_01: point as they risked being hanged if the side that they chose lost
41:08
SPEAKER_01: bacon began to shell the defending ships and fortifications of jamestown denting
41:12
SPEAKER_01: the morale of the loyalists he was not aware though that one of his leaders giles
41:16
SPEAKER_01: brent one of those that attacked berkeley earlier had flipped sides and was making
41:20
SPEAKER_01: his way to jamestown he awoke to the surprise on september seventeenth that
41:25
SPEAKER_01: jamestown had been abandoned
41:27
SPEAKER_01: He learned of Brent's approaching army and decided that the situation was untenable.
41:31
SPEAKER_01: He ordered his men to burn the city down.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: His most loyal leaders,
41:34
SPEAKER_01: William Drummond and Richard Lawrence,
41:37
SPEAKER_01: started the first fires to rally the reluctant troops.
41:40
SPEAKER_01: From Jamestown, Bacon led his army towards the approaching Brent army.
41:44
SPEAKER_01: The story of Bacon taking Jamestown and reaching this army
41:48
SPEAKER_01: So the soldiers were unwilling to take on such a fearsome foe and dissolved quickly.
41:53
SPEAKER_01: Bacon then began forcing county after county to subscribe to his oath.
41:58
SPEAKER_01: Then he began ransacking plantations across the colony to arm his men.
42:03
SPEAKER_01: The poor conditions caught up to Bacon,
42:05
SPEAKER_01: the lice that infested his body and clothes had spread a deadly bacteria to him.
42:10
SPEAKER_01: He had contracted typhus and for the next week suffered terrible headaches, a fever, and delirium.
42:16
SPEAKER_01: He succumbed to the disease on October 26, 1676.
42:22
SPEAKER_01: But this fight was far from over.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: Upon his death, Joseph Imgram took over as the leader of the rebellion.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: However, important holdings were taken back by Barclay along the New York River.
42:33
SPEAKER_01: Some of those that had supported Bacon were even attacked,
42:36
SPEAKER_01: such as Thomas Hansford,
42:37
SPEAKER_01: who was hanged for treason upon his capture.
42:41
SPEAKER_01: This was followed by many successful captures,
42:43
SPEAKER_01: but despite the victories,
42:44
SPEAKER_01: the rebellion was no closer to being put down.
42:47
SPEAKER_01: The victories were matched with major defeats and neither side was giving away.
42:52
SPEAKER_01: Worse,
42:52
SPEAKER_01: Maryland leadership had decided to abstain from any trade with Virginia until the
42:56
SPEAKER_01: war was over,
42:58
SPEAKER_01: but morale was quickly increased with the arrival of arms from London.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: One of the pilots of this ship that brought these arms,
43:05
SPEAKER_01: Thomas Grantham,
43:06
SPEAKER_01: was instrumental in negotiating peace during Bacon's rebellion.
43:10
SPEAKER_01: He was friends with Bacon and Richard Lawrence, but sided with Barclay.
43:15
SPEAKER_01: He worked with Joseph Ingram, the new leader, to settle a ceasefire.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: though this only lasted three days.
43:21
SPEAKER_01: During the peace talks,
43:22
SPEAKER_01: a successful attack on the rebels on the James River finally gave the loyalists a
43:26
SPEAKER_01: foothold on land.
43:28
SPEAKER_01: The rebel leaders were beginning to lose steam.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: Grantham facilitated surrender of most of the rebel forces during the winter of 1676.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: The surrender gave the condition that the rebels would be pardoned.
43:40
SPEAKER_01: He made his way around the country making peace offerings,
43:44
SPEAKER_01: and during this peace tour even offered freedom to a militia made up of slaves and servants.
43:49
SPEAKER_01: However,
43:50
SPEAKER_01: this proved to be a ruse,
43:51
SPEAKER_01: as he returned them all to their masters after using them as bait for further surrender.
43:57
SPEAKER_01: Richard Lawrence and William Drummond were the last to surrender,
44:00
SPEAKER_01: but their fighting force began to dwindle in 1677.
44:03
SPEAKER_01: Drummond was eventually hanged after being brought to Berkeley,
44:07
SPEAKER_01: and Lawrence simply disappeared from the record.
44:09
SPEAKER_01: Over the next year, rebels were hanged, starved, and let decompose all on the side of the public.
44:15
SPEAKER_01: Barclay wanted to make sure it was known what would happen to any new rebels.
44:20
SPEAKER_01: A delegation was sent to Jamestown to try to figure out what was going on.
44:26
SPEAKER_01: Barclay received these English ships and reported the news that the rebels were no
44:29
SPEAKER_01: more and Bacon was dead.
44:32
SPEAKER_01: there was a growing concern about what King Charles would do in response.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: Would he intervene or trust the leadership to fix the problem?
44:41
SPEAKER_01: In order to ensure his authority and prove himself worthy to remain governor,
44:45
SPEAKER_01: Barclay compiled several accounts of Bacon's conversations and wrote of the
44:49
SPEAKER_01: rebellion from his point of view.
44:51
SPEAKER_01: He portrayed himself as the stalwart savior against the evils of Nathaniel Bacon and
44:56
SPEAKER_01: and a loyal servant to the crown.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: Before this reached the king,
44:59
SPEAKER_01: however,
45:00
SPEAKER_01: a different narrative was forming among the commissioners sent to sort out the conflict.
45:05
SPEAKER_01: They found Barclay obstinate and vengeful.
45:08
SPEAKER_01: He was arbitrary in his judgment of rebels and undermined the king's decrees.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: He raided rebel houses and executed even those who had repented and proved to be loyal.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: And further, he did so in peacetime.
45:21
SPEAKER_01: To the commissioners,
45:22
SPEAKER_01: many of the rebels were coerced or threatened to join Bacon,
45:26
SPEAKER_01: not through belief in the cause.
45:28
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, King Charles recalled Barclay to England to answer for these accusations.
45:33
SPEAKER_01: Barclay wrote his response to these accusations during his time in London while waiting to see the king.
45:38
SPEAKER_01: He rebuked each one with evidence to the contrary and clarifying details to ensure
45:42
SPEAKER_01: he was seen as purely innocent.
45:44
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately,
45:45
SPEAKER_01: the journey across the Atlantic proved too much for the old man,
45:48
SPEAKER_01: and Barclay became ill on the way and never fully recovered.
45:52
SPEAKER_01: Before he could speak to the king directly, he died on July 9, 1677.
45:59
SPEAKER_01: This event was not just a personal squabble between Bacon and Barclay.
46:06
SPEAKER_01: James D.
46:06
SPEAKER_01: Rice in Tales from a Revolution puts it like this,
46:12
SPEAKER_01: Barclay's death put an end to his problems,
46:14
SPEAKER_01: but not to Virginia's or the Crown's,
46:17
SPEAKER_01: let alone to those of the Indians.
46:19
SPEAKER_01: The rebellion had been fought over far more serious matters than the mere personal
46:23
SPEAKER_01: struggle between Barclay and Bacon.
46:25
SPEAKER_01: Fundamental issues remained unresolved,
46:27
SPEAKER_01: and the people with the most at stake in the conflict still did not know their fates.
46:32
SPEAKER_01: What would become of the Susquehannock, Okaniches, Pamunkeys, and Piscataways?
46:37
SPEAKER_01: how would the indians from the five nations in the north to the westoes and other
46:41
SPEAKER_01: carolina nations in the south withstand the combined onslaught of land hungry
46:45
SPEAKER_01: planters english slavers and genocidal militias the war had started with the
46:49
SPEAKER_01: indians and no one had more at stake in these events than the indians
46:53
SPEAKER_01: There could be no real resolution to the conflict that did not resolve the Indians'
46:57
SPEAKER_01: problems or the colonists' problems with Indians.
47:00
SPEAKER_01: He continues,
47:24
SPEAKER_01: They still believed that Indians were being coddled and allowed to threaten the colony,
47:28
SPEAKER_01: and their hunger for Indian land and slaves was far from satisfied.
47:31
SPEAKER_01: For these planters,
47:32
SPEAKER_01: gaining control of Indian land and labor remained the key to establishing personal independence,
47:38
SPEAKER_01: attracting a wife,
47:39
SPEAKER_01: supporting a family,
47:40
SPEAKER_01: and otherwise achieving full manhood.
47:42
SPEAKER_01: Servants and slaves,
47:43
SPEAKER_01: of course,
47:43
SPEAKER_01: labored under an even greater weight,
47:46
SPEAKER_01: perhaps all the more so after the failed promise of freedom that had drawn many of
47:50
SPEAKER_01: them into Bacon's army."
47:53
SPEAKER_01: So this rebellion was unsuccessful in a lot of ways.
47:58
SPEAKER_01: It didn't just leave Bacon dead and Barkley dead.
48:02
SPEAKER_01: It left the colony in shambles with no clear solutions going forward.
48:08
SPEAKER_01: In his book,
48:09
SPEAKER_01: American Slavery,
48:09
SPEAKER_01: American Freedom,
48:11
SPEAKER_01: Edmund S.
48:12
SPEAKER_01: Morgan lays it out like this,
48:15
SPEAKER_01: "...it was a rebellion with abundant causes but without a cause.
48:18
SPEAKER_01: It produced no real program of reform, no revolutionary manifesto, not even any revolutionary slogans.
48:25
SPEAKER_01: Bacon had probably never intended it to turn into a rebellion."
48:29
SPEAKER_01: Considering the grievances of Virginia's impoverished free men,
48:33
SPEAKER_01: it is surprising that he was able to direct their anger for so long against the Indians.
48:37
SPEAKER_01: Barclay either did not perceive or chose not to exploit the opportunity presented
48:42
SPEAKER_01: by the hatred of white Virginians against Indians.
48:45
SPEAKER_01: But for those with eyes to see, there was an obvious lesson in the rebellion.
48:49
SPEAKER_01: Resentment of an alien race might be more powerful than a resentment of an upper class.
48:55
SPEAKER_01: End quote.
48:57
SPEAKER_01: So here we are.
48:57
SPEAKER_01: We've arrived.
49:00
SPEAKER_01: in 1676, at the end of this era from 1492 to 1676.
49:06
SPEAKER_01: I know the first episode was a little bit earlier than that, but we'll forget that.
49:13
SPEAKER_01: The state of the world of the English colonies is pretty dire.
49:17
SPEAKER_01: Along with the French colonies, conflict seemed to follow them wherever they went.
49:24
SPEAKER_01: Despite the fact that the English colonies had been left a smoldering ruin after
49:31
SPEAKER_01: King Philip's War and Bacon's Rebellion,
49:33
SPEAKER_01: the colony was not in the same danger as half a century before,
49:37
SPEAKER_01: though.
49:38
SPEAKER_01: The slapdash fashion of the colonies early on led to many failures and close calls,
49:42
SPEAKER_01: but as time went on,
49:43
SPEAKER_01: more experience and funding led to far fewer failed colonies.
49:47
SPEAKER_01: The infrastructure required to uphold a society was built up over the decades to
49:52
SPEAKER_01: deal with the ever-growing population.
49:54
SPEAKER_01: The momentum that had been built up by this point would be difficult to stop, regardless of the conflict.
50:01
SPEAKER_01: Now this momentum was felt most readily by the nearby natives.
50:05
SPEAKER_01: They were becoming more and more of a minority player in the land which was once theirs.
50:10
SPEAKER_01: So despite the large loss of life in the English colonies during this time,
50:15
SPEAKER_01: especially in New England,
50:17
SPEAKER_01: the colony was able to recover,
50:20
SPEAKER_01: but the natives were not.
50:22
SPEAKER_01: And this was true in New England and the Chesapeake and the French colonies and the Spanish colonies.
50:28
SPEAKER_01: It was no different in any of them.
50:30
SPEAKER_01: We have the basic elimination of Indians as a trade partner to becoming merely the
50:37
SPEAKER_01: object of subjugation at this point.
50:40
SPEAKER_01: So from now on, the expansion would continue unabated and even accelerate.
50:46
SPEAKER_01: It was around this time that the English government also started to realize the
50:49
SPEAKER_01: importance of the colonies.
50:53
SPEAKER_01: Earlier on in the era,
50:54
SPEAKER_01: this prompted the Navigation Acts to be enforced to ensure that the wealth of the
50:58
SPEAKER_01: colonies was restricted to the motherland,
51:01
SPEAKER_01: England.
51:02
SPEAKER_01: But the chaos of the conflicts was felt by King Charles and later King James.
51:08
SPEAKER_01: They both felt that they needed to take more control of the colony themselves to
51:12
SPEAKER_01: ensure the profits continued.
51:14
SPEAKER_01: Beyond that, the Spanish, and much more strongly the French, presence was felt as the colonies expanded.
51:20
SPEAKER_01: So these colonies,
51:21
SPEAKER_01: which were once trading posts and religious enclaves,
51:24
SPEAKER_01: were beginning to become bases for military operations.
51:29
SPEAKER_01: The different social classes would become more antagonistic now that the slaves and
51:33
SPEAKER_01: servants proved that they could be roused to rebellion.
51:37
SPEAKER_01: More and more laws were written to keep them down.
51:40
SPEAKER_01: Over time,
51:41
SPEAKER_01: though,
51:41
SPEAKER_01: slaves would prove to be more valuable,
51:44
SPEAKER_01: and the racial animus would overtake class struggle,
51:48
SPEAKER_01: perhaps fulfilling the goals of those in the upper class.
51:52
SPEAKER_01: Despite these many contingents, nearly everyone still had something in common.
51:57
SPEAKER_01: Loyalty to the crown.
51:59
SPEAKER_01: The English Civil War put this to the test, but the Restoration assuaged many of these concerns.
52:05
SPEAKER_01: The colonists were relatively insulated from the fights at home,
52:09
SPEAKER_01: but as I stated,
52:10
SPEAKER_01: that would begin to change.
52:13
SPEAKER_01: the English colonies and the French colonies would become more and more involved
52:17
SPEAKER_01: with politics of their empires,
52:20
SPEAKER_01: as they began to grow in influence.
52:23
SPEAKER_01: The growth of the European empires was in full swing by this point,
52:28
SPEAKER_01: and it would take a massive blunder for any of them to collapse.
52:32
SPEAKER_01: So this next era begins in a time of fear, and a time of
52:39
SPEAKER_01: where it's now understood how easily things can go wrong.
52:43
SPEAKER_01: And though the tales of revolution from Bacon will eventually leak into the
52:51
SPEAKER_01: American story as a source of inspiration,
52:55
SPEAKER_01: at this point,
52:56
SPEAKER_01: it is merely a source of major frustration.
53:03
SPEAKER_00: The smoke is clear Sit alone
53:10
SPEAKER_00: through the rubble months of trouble in the end the tears on your face the sight of
53:22
SPEAKER_00: you walking away and the memories dropping ring like bombs in my head and I don't
53:32
SPEAKER_00: know
53:36
SPEAKER_00: If I could have done more And I don't know If it was my fault or yours So I'm still
53:49
SPEAKER_00: fighting After the war
54:11
SPEAKER_00: It's just my phone and I can start the war again.
54:15
SPEAKER_00: Pull the trigger, press send and go.
54:21
SPEAKER_00: Catch a plane before sunset.
54:24
SPEAKER_00: Kneel down and say come back.
54:28
SPEAKER_00: Say baby I was wrong.
54:39
SPEAKER_00: If I love you anymore And I don't know If I loved you before So I'm still fighting
54:54
SPEAKER_00: after the war Well there should be parties in the street
55:02
SPEAKER_00: We had our victory.
55:04
SPEAKER_00: But loneliness had been waiting for you to leave to ambush me.
55:12
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if I can take this on my own.
55:20
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if I want a child of love that
55:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'll keep fighting.
55:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm still fighting this day and more.