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012 - Chapter 12 · Chronicles of America Volume 05 - Pioneers of the Old South

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve of Pioneers of the Old South by Mary Johnston.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, Chapter twelve
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  Speaker 1: Nathaniel Bacon. To add to the uncertainty of life in Virginia,
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  Speaker 1: Indian troubles flared up again in and around the main settlements.
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  Speaker 1: The white man was safe enough from savage attack, but
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  Speaker 1: it was not so on the edge of the English world,
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  Speaker 1: where the white hue ran thin, where small clusters of
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  Speaker 1: folk and even single families built cabins of logs and
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  Speaker 1: made lonely clearings. In the wilderness. Not far from where
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  Speaker 1: now rises Washington, the Susquehannocks had taken possession of an
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  Speaker 1: old fort. These Indians, once in league with the Iroquois
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  Speaker 1: but now quarreling violently with fat Confederacy, had been defeated
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  Speaker 1: and were in a mood of undiscriminating bitterness and vengeance.
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  Speaker 1: They began to waylay and butcher white men and women
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  Speaker 1: and children. In self protection. Maryland and Virginia organized in
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  Speaker 1: common and expedition against the Indian stronghold in the deep
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  Speaker 1: woods beyond the Potomac. Red men and white came to
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  Speaker 1: a parley. The Susquehannocks sent envoys. There was wrong on
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  Speaker 1: both sides. A dispute arose. The white men, waxing angry,
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  Speaker 1: slew the envoys an evil deed which their own color
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  Speaker 1: in Maryland and in Virginia reprehended and repudiated. But the
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  Speaker 1: harm was done. From the Potomac to the James, Indians
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  Speaker 1: listened to Indian eloquence, reciting the evils that from the
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  Speaker 1: fir the white man had brought. Then the Red Men,
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  Speaker 1: in increasing numbers, fell upon the outlying settlements of the
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  Speaker 1: pioneers in Virginia. There soon arose a popular clamor for
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  Speaker 1: effective action. Called out the militia of every county march
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  Speaker 1: against the Indians. Act. But the governor was old of
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  Speaker 1: an ill temper now, and most suspicious of popular gatherings
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  Speaker 1: for any purpose whatsoever. He temporized, delayed, refused all appeals
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  Speaker 1: until the Assembly should meet. Dislike of Berkeley in his ways,
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  Speaker 1: in a growing sense of injury and depression began to
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  Speaker 1: quiver hard in the Virginian frame. The king was no
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  Speaker 1: longer popular, nor Sir William Barkley, nor were the most
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  Speaker 1: of the council, nor many of the burgesses of that
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  Speaker 1: long assembly. Rose allowed demand for a new election and
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  Speaker 1: for changes in public policy. Where a part of Richmond
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  Speaker 1: now stands, There stretched at that time attractive fields and
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  Speaker 1: hills and a clear, winding creek, held by a young
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  Speaker 1: planter named Nathaniel Bacon, an Englishman of that family which
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  Speaker 1: produced the wisest, greatest, meanest of mankind. The planter himself
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  Speaker 1: lived farther down the river, but he had at this
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  Speaker 1: place an overseer and some indentured laborers. This Nathaniel Bacon
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  Speaker 1: was a newcomer in Virginia, a young man who had
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  Speaker 1: been entered in Gray's Inn, who had traveled, who was
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  Speaker 1: rumored to have run through much of his own estate.
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  Speaker 1: He had a cousin, also named Nathaniel Bacon, who had
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  Speaker 1: come fifteen years earlier to Virginia, a very rich politic
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  Speaker 1: man and childless, and whose presentations had perhaps drawn the
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  Speaker 1: younger Bacon to Virginia. At any rate, he was here,
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  Speaker 1: and at the age of twenty eight, the owner of
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  Speaker 1: much land and the possessor of a seat in the council.
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  Speaker 1: But though he sat in the council, he was hardly
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  Speaker 1: of the mind of the governor and those who supported him.
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  Speaker 1: It was in the spring of sixteen seventy six, that
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  Speaker 1: there began a series of Indian attacks directed against the
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  Speaker 1: plantations and the outlying cabins of the region above the
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  Speaker 1: falls of the Far West. Among the victims were men
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  Speaker 1: of Bacon's plantation, for his overseer and several of his
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  Speaker 1: servants were slain. The news of this massacre of his
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  Speaker 1: men set their young master afire. Even a less hideous
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  Speaker 1: tale might have done it, for he was of a
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  Speaker 1: bold and ardent nature. Riding up the forest tracks, a
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  Speaker 1: company of planters from the threatened neighborhood gathered together. Let
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  Speaker 1: us make a troop and take fire and sword among them.
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  Speaker 1: Their lock to commander, mister Bacon. You command very good,
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  Speaker 1: And mister Bacon, who is a born orator, made a
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  Speaker 1: speech dealing with the grievances of the times. Very good indeed,
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  Speaker 1: But still their lack the Governor's commission, send a swift
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  Speaker 1: messenger to Jamestown for it. The messenger went and returned
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  Speaker 1: no commission. Mister Bacon had made an unpleasant impression upon
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  Speaker 1: Sir William Barklay. This young man, the governor said, was
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  Speaker 1: popularly inclined, had a constitution not consistent with all that
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  Speaker 1: Berkley stood for Bacon, and his neighbors listened with bent
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  Speaker 1: browse to their envoys report. Murmurs began and deepened. Shall
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  Speaker 1: we stand idly here, considering fories, while the Redskins murder
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  Speaker 1: commission or no commission? They would march, and in the
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  Speaker 1: end march they did a considerable troop to the upriver country,
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  Speaker 1: with the tall, young eloquent man at their head. News
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  Speaker 1: reached the governor at Jamestown that they were marching in
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  Speaker 1: a tight lipped rage. He issued a proclamation and sent
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  Speaker 1: it after them. They and their leader were acting illegally,
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  Speaker 1: usurping military powers that belonged elsewhere. Let them disband, disperse
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  Speaker 1: to their dwellings, or beware action of the rightful powers.
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  Speaker 1: Troubled in mind, some disbanded and dispersed, But three score
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  Speaker 1: at least would by no means do so, Nor would
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  Speaker 1: the young men of precipitate disposition who headed the troop.
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  Speaker 1: He rode on into the forest after the Indians, and
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  Speaker 1: the others followed him. Here were the falls of the
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  Speaker 1: far west, and here on a hill the Indians had
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  Speaker 1: a fort. This the Virginia planters attacked the hills above
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  Speaker 1: the James echoed to the sound of the small, desperate fray.
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  Speaker 1: In the end, the red men were routed, some were slain,
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  Speaker 1: somewhare taken prisoner. Others escaped into the deep woods stretching westward.
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  Speaker 1: In the meantime, another force of horsemen had been gathered.
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  Speaker 1: It was headed by Berkeley, and was addressed to the
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  Speaker 1: pursuit an apprehension of Nathaniel Bacon, who had thus defied authority.
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  Speaker 1: But before Berkley could move far, fire broke out around him.
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  Speaker 1: The grievances of the people were many and just, and
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  Speaker 1: not without a family resemblance to those that precipitated the
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  Speaker 1: Revolution one hundred years later. Not Bacon alone, but many
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  Speaker 1: others who were in the spare of any good under
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  Speaker 1: their present masters, were ready for heroic measures. Berkley found
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  Speaker 1: himself ringed about by a genuine popular revote. He therefore
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  Speaker 1: lacked the time now to pursue Nathaniel Bacon, but spurred
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  Speaker 1: back to Jamestown, there to deal as best he might
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  Speaker 1: with dangerous affairs at Jamestown, Willy Nilly, the old governor
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  Speaker 1: was forced to promise reforms. The Long Assembly should be
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  Speaker 1: dissolved in a new assembly more conformable to the wishes
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  Speaker 1: of the people should come into being ready to consider
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  Speaker 1: all their troubles. So Ritz went out, and there presently
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  Speaker 1: followed a hot and turbulent election in which that restricted
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  Speaker 1: franchise of the Long Assembly was often defied and in
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  Speaker 1: part set aside, and then without property, presented themselves, gave
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  Speaker 1: their voices and were counted. Bacon, who had now achieved
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  Speaker 1: an immense popularity, was chosen burgess for Henrykus County in
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  Speaker 1: the June whether. Bacon sailed down to Jamestown with a
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  Speaker 1: number of those who had backed him in that assumption
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  Speaker 1: of power to raise troops and go against the Indians.
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  Speaker 1: When he came to Jamestown, it was to find the
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  Speaker 1: high Sheriff waiting for him. By the governor's orders, he
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  Speaker 1: was put under arrest. Hot discussion followed, but the people
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  Speaker 1: were for the moment in the ascendant and Bacon should
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  Speaker 1: not be sacrificed. A compromise was reached. Bacon was technically
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  Speaker 1: guilty of unlawful, mutinous and rebellious practices, if on his
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  Speaker 1: knees before Governor, Council and burgesses, he would acknowledge as
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  Speaker 1: much and promise henceforth to be his Majesty's obedience, Sir,
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  Speaker 1: he and those implicated with him should be pardoned. He
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  Speaker 1: himself might be readmitted to the Council, and all in
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  Speaker 1: Virginia should be as it had been. He should even
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  Speaker 1: have the commission he had acted without to go and
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  Speaker 1: fight against the Indians. Bacon thereupon made his submission upon
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  Speaker 1: his knees, promising that henceforth he would demean himself dutifully, faithfully,
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  Speaker 1: and peaceably. Formally forgiven, he was restored to his place
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  Speaker 1: in the Virginia Council, and eyewitnessed reports that presently he
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  Speaker 1: saw mister Bacon on his quondom seat with the Governor
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  Speaker 1: and Council, which seemed a marvelous indulgence to one whom
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  Speaker 1: he had so lately proscribed as a rebel. The Assembly
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  Speaker 1: of sixteen seventy six was of a different temper and
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  Speaker 1: opinion from that of the Long Assembly. It was an
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  Speaker 1: insurgent body, composed to a large degree of mere freemen
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  Speaker 1: and small planters, with a few of the richer, more
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  Speaker 1: influential sort, who nevertheless queried that old divine right of rule.
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  Speaker 1: Berkeley thought that he had good reason to doubt this
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  Speaker 1: Assembly's intentions. Once it gave itself rain. He directs it,
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  Speaker 1: therefore to confine its attention to Indian troubles. It did,
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  Speaker 1: indeed legislate on Indian affairs by passing an elaborate act
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  Speaker 1: for the prosecution of the war. An army of a
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  Speaker 1: thousand white men was to be raised, Bacon was to
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  Speaker 1: be commander in chief. All manner of precautions were to
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  Speaker 1: be taken. But this matter disposed of the Assembly thereupon
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  Speaker 1: turned to the redressing several grievances the country was then
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  Speaker 1: laboring under, and motions were made for inspecting the public revenues,
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  Speaker 1: the collector's accounts, and so forth. The governor thundered. Friends
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  Speaker 1: of the old order obstructed, But the Assembly went on
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  Speaker 1: its way, reforming here and reforming there. It even went
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  Speaker 1: so far as to repeal the preceding assemblies legislation regarding
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  Speaker 1: the franchise. All white males who are freemen were now
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  Speaker 1: privileged to vote together with the freeholders and housekeepers. A
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  Speaker 1: certain member wanted some detail of procedure retained because it
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  Speaker 1: was customary. Tis true, it has been customary, answered another.
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  Speaker 1: But if we have any bad customs amongst us, we
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  Speaker 1: are come here to mend them. Whereupon, says the contemporary narrator,
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  Speaker 1: the house was set in a laughter. But after so
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  Speaker 1: considerable an amount of mending, there threatened a standstill. What
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  Speaker 1: was to come next? Good men go further as they
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  Speaker 1: had gone further in England not so many years ago,
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  Speaker 1: reform had come to a parent in pass. While it
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  Speaker 1: thus hesitated, the old Party gained in life. Bacon, now,
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  Speaker 1: petitioning for his promised commission against the Indians, seems to
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  Speaker 1: have reached the conclusion that the Governor might promise but
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  Speaker 1: meant not to perform, and not only so, but that
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  Speaker 1: in Jamestown his very life was in danger. He had
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  Speaker 1: intimation that the governor's generosity in pardoning him and restoring
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  Speaker 1: him to his place in the council were no other
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  Speaker 1: than previous wheedles to amuse him. In Jamestown lived one
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  Speaker 1: whom a chronicler paints for us as thoughtful mister Lawrence.
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  Speaker 1: This gentleman was an Oxford scholar, noted for wit, learning
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  Speaker 1: and sobriety, nicely, honest, affable, and without blemish in his
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  Speaker 1: conversation and dealings. Thus friends declared, though foes said of
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  Speaker 1: him quite other things. At any rate, having emigrated to Virginia,
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  Speaker 1: and made buried there. He had presently acquired because of
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  Speaker 1: a lawsuit over land, in which he held himself to
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  Speaker 1: be unjustly and shabbily treated through influences of the governor.
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  Speaker 1: An inveterate prejudice against that ruler. He calls him, in
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  Speaker 1: short and old treacherous villain. Lawrence and his wife, not
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  Speaker 1: being rich, kept a tavern at Jamestown, and their Bacon lodge,
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  Speaker 1: probably having been thrown with Lawrence. Before this, Persons are
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  Speaker 1: found who hold that Lawrence was the brain, Bacon the
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  Speaker 1: arm of the discontent in Virginia. There was also mister
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  Speaker 1: William Drummond, who will be met within the account of Carolina.
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  Speaker 1: He was a sober Scotch gentleman of good repute, but
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  Speaker 1: no more than Lawrence, on good terms with the Governor
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  Speaker 1: of Virginia. On a morning in June, when the Assembly met,
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  Speaker 1: it was observed that Nathaniel Bacon was not in his
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  Speaker 1: place in the council. Was he to be found in
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  Speaker 1: the building, nor even in Jamestown itself. Though Berkeley had
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  Speaker 1: Lawrence's inn searched for him, he had left the town,
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  Speaker 1: gone up the river in his sloop to his plantation.
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  Speaker 1: At Curl's neck to visit his wife, who, as she
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  Speaker 1: informed him, was indisposed. In truth, it appears that Bacon
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  Speaker 1: had gone for the purpose of gathering together some six
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  Speaker 1: hundred upriver men, or perhaps they themselves had come together, and,
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  Speaker 1: needing a leader, had turned naturally to the man who
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  Speaker 1: was under the frown of an unpopular governor, and all
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  Speaker 1: the governor's supporters in Virginia. At any rate, Bacon was
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  Speaker 1: presently seen at the head of no inconsiderable army for
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  Speaker 1: a colony of less than fifty thousand souls. Those with
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  Speaker 1: him were only uprivermen, But he must have known that
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  Speaker 1: he could gather besides from every part of the country.
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  Speaker 1: Given some initial success, he might even set all Virginia ablaze.
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  Speaker 1: Down the river he marched, he and his six hundred,
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  Speaker 1: and in the summer heat, entered Jamestown and drew up
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  Speaker 1: before the Capitol. The space in front of this building
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  Speaker 1: was packed with the Jamestown folk, and with the six
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  Speaker 1: hundred Bacon a guard behind him advanced to the central
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  Speaker 1: door to find William Barkley standing there, shaking with rage.
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  Speaker 1: The old royalist has courage. He tears open his silken
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  Speaker 1: vest and fine shirt and faces the young man, who,
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  Speaker 1: though trained in the law of the realm, is now
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  Speaker 1: filling that law with a hundred wounds. He raises a
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  Speaker 1: passionate voice. Here shoot me for God, A fair mark,
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  Speaker 1: a fair mark. Shoot. Bacon will not shoot him, but
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  Speaker 1: will have that promised commissioned to go against the Indians.
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  Speaker 1: Those behind him him lift and shake their guns. We
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  Speaker 1: will have it, We will have it. Governor and counsel
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  Speaker 1: retire to consider the demand. If Berkley is passionate and
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  Speaker 1: at times violent, so is Bacon in his own way.
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  Speaker 1: For an eyewitness has to say that he displayed outrageous
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  Speaker 1: postures of his head, arms, body, and legs, often tossing
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  Speaker 1: his hand from his sword to his hat, and that
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  Speaker 1: outside the door he had cried, damn my blood. I'll
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  Speaker 1: kill Governor, Counsel, assembly and all, and then I'll sheathe
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  Speaker 1: my sword in my own heart's blood. He is no doer,
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  Speaker 1: determined unworthy revolutionists like the Scotch Drummond, nor still subtle
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  Speaker 1: like the thoughtful mister Lawrence. He is young and hot,
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  Speaker 1: a man of oratory and outward acts. Yet is he
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  Speaker 1: a patriot and intelligent upon broad public needs? When presently
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  Speaker 1: he makes a speech to the excited assembly. It has
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  Speaker 1: for subject matter preserving our lives from the Indians, inspecting
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  Speaker 1: the public revenues, the exorbitant taxes, and redressing the grievances
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  Speaker 1: and calamities of that deplorable country. It has quite the
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  Speaker 1: ring of young men's speeches in British colonies. A century later,
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  Speaker 1: the governor and his party gave in perforce. Bacon got
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  Speaker 1: his commission and an active indemnity for all chance political
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  Speaker 1: offenses general and commander in chief against the Indians. So
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  Speaker 1: was he styled. Moreover, the Burgesses, within an alarmed thought
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  Speaker 1: toward England, drew up an explanatory memorial for Charles the
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  Speaker 1: second's perusal. This paper journeyed forth upon the first ship
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  Speaker 1: to sail, but it had for traveling companion a letter
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  Speaker 1: secretly sent from the Governor to the King. The two
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  Speaker 1: communications were painted in opposite colors. I have, says Barkley,
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  Speaker 1: for above thirty years governed the most flourishing country the
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  Speaker 1: sun ever shone over, but am now encompassed with rebellion
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  Speaker 1: like waters. End of Chapter twelve.