They Say: Bacon's Rebellion

The history of Bacon's Rebellion is one that has two clear points of view. One paints Nathaniel Bacon (for which the rebellion was later named) as a hero of the people, a man who was willing to leave his comfortable plantation in order to fight against a government which he saw as unjust towards its people. The other view points to Bacon's darker motives, those of slaughtering the Native Americans who lived near the frontier of the English owned land in America.The article titled 'Whether They Be Friends or Foes.' The Roles and Reactions of Tributary Native Groups Caught in Colonial Conflicts, written by Michael J. Puglisi of Marian College, is evidence of the latter point of view, pointing out that Bacon, "arose to lead an extra-legal band of over 500 men, without commission". The former view point is exemplified in this quote from Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States: Volume One; Columbus to the Spanish-American War, "The frontiersmen felt that the colonial government had let them down. They were angry, and they weren't the only ones. Times were hard. Many Virginians scraped out a living in poverty or worked as servants in terrible conditions. In 1676, these unhappy Virginians found a leader in Nathaniel Bacon."