Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast, episode 193.

I'm your host, Jack Heneman, and I'm recording this episode on September 14, 2025, very early in the morning in Austin, Texas.

We were telling the history of the lands now encompassed by the United States from the beginning

without intentional presentism.

Now that you are all caught up on Virginia in the 17th century,

or at least you are, if you listen to the most recent episode, notes on Virginia in the 17th century, or at least you are if you listen to the most recent episode,

notes on Virginia 1644 to 1675, which you really should.

It's time to jump into Bacon's Rebellion.

Bacon's Rebellion, narrowly construed, took place over nine months in Virginia between March

1676, just as the tide was about to turn in King Phillips' war in New England,

and the end of that same year. Nathaniel Bacon, a newly arrived and somewhat disreputable English gentleman,

let a revolt against the government of Sir William Barclay,

ostensibly because Barclay had refused demands that he commissioned a war

against all the Indians in Eastern Virginia,

including notional allies of the English settlers.

Bacon and his men effectively got control of most of settled Virginia, drove Barclay

and other loyalists into hiding on the eastern shore across the Chesapeake, burned

Jamestown to the ground, looted lots of plantations and such, and killed a lot of

Indians. Bacon died on October 26, 1676 of the bloody flux, probably dysentery, and after that,

the rebellion slowly lost steam. Barclay was able to win control back and

forced surrender of the rebels by the turn of the new year. Bacon's rebellion is famous for all sorts of

reasons, several of which are strangely random. The most frequent is the claim that it was the first civil war among English

...