They Say: Bacon's Rebellion

In documents concerning Bacon's Rebellion, one debated issue has been about who the victims are and who is to blame in this rebellion: the Indians or the white colonists; the poor or the rich; Nathaniel Bacon or William Berkley? Bacon, in his “The Declaration (1676)”, insists that himself and the colonists he is speaking for (the lower classes), are being made victims by Berkley (the governor of Virginia) and the Indians. Bacon accuses Berkley, “For having protected, favored, and emboldened the Indians against his Majesty's loyal subjects, never contriving, requiring, or appointing any due or proper means of satisfaction for their many invasions, robberies, and murders committed upon us.” In “Whether They Be Friends or Foes”, Michael J. Puglisi contradicts Bacon, believing that, “the natives faced situations beyond their control, experienced abuses and even violent attack from their supposed white allies, and suffered humiliating treatment by the colonial governments to whom they pledged their allegiance.” In “A Young People's History of the United States”, Rebecca Stefoff questions the standing of the Indians, but seems to place blame on the upper classes when she suggests, “They [the settlers] wanted the colony's leaders to fight the Indians, but the politicians and big landowners who ran the colony wouldn't fight-- maybe because they were using some of the Indians as spies and allies against the others.” My own view on this is that part of the blame would have to go to every class of white colonist, and partly to Berkley, and partly to Bacon also, but the true victims were the Indians who were an innocent and naive people whose lands were suddenly being invaded by the ever-increasing strangers that were the colonists.