Moving - Accomac, Virginia

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Enjoy our brief history of the Accomac, VA, area.

A Brief History of Accomac. Virginia

By general consent, the most important event in the history of the Colony of Virginia prior to the American Revolution was the rebellion ]ed by Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., against Sir William Berkeley, the Royal Governor of the Colony. It was the first armed resistance offered by Americans to the constituted authorities of the mother country, and interest in the movement is still further enhanced by the fact that it occurred just one hundred years before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

The ideas prevailing at that time among the English people were not very favorable to the heroic enterprise of the dauntless young rebel and his liberty-loving followers; yet the doctrine of the divine right of kings, so prevalent in the days of James the First, had received a rude shock in the execution of Charles the First, and in the iron rule of Cromwell and the Roundheads. Bacon's Rebellion occurred in Virginia at a time when the reaction against Puritanism was at its height, and when the withering invective and merciless ridicule heaped upon the Puritans by Samuel Butler in Hudibras was in the mouth of every cavalier in America as well as in England. The great principle had, however, been boldly proclaimed and successfully established that the English people would not again submit to the arbitrary and tyrannical rulers, and that the divine right to rule is inherent not in kings, but in the people.

Bacon's Rebellion was not an attempt to establish a new or independent form of government. It was an armed opposition to the policy of Sir William Berkeley, his Sacred Majesty's Governor and CaptainGeneral of Virginia, having for its object the redress of certain pressing grievances under which the people of the Colony were then suffering. The Indian massacres on the frontiers and the governor's persistent refusal to take measures to punish the savages fanned into the flame of rebellion the discontent felt by the colonists in consequence of the oppressive navigation laws, by which England had created for herself a monopoly of the trade in all the Anglo-American colonies. With these two causes of discontent removed, the Rebellion of 1676 would have found but few adherents in any section of Virginia. There was one part of the Colony, which by reason of its remote and isolated situation and its peculiar geographical conditions suffered but little annoyance from the navigation laws and was entirely free from Indian incursions and massacres. This was the Eastern Shore of Virginia, frequently called by the old chroniclers "The Kingdom of Accomack." The purpose of this paper is to show by extracts from the early records of Accomac county court the part played by the people of that county in Bacon's Rebellion.

Our Virginia historians, following the highly-colored contemporaneous account of the Rebellion contained in the famous "T. M." manuscript,¹ have without exception misconceived and mis-stated the attitude of the Eastern Shore in this stirring episode of our colonial history. It is known that Sir William Berkeley, during the short period of the Rebellion, was twice driven from Jamestown, then the seat of government in the Colony, and forced to take shelter among his friends in Accomac, which he considered the last refuge of the loyal cause in Virginia. All the historians of Virginia agree in stating that Sir William Berkeley on arriving in Accomac, found all the people disaffected towards him except a few fellows of the baser sort, 'longshoremen and adventurers, whom a desire for plunder drew to follow the fortunes of the impetuous old governor; and even Mr. George Bancroft, evidently following our Virginia authorities, informs us in his monumental work that "Sir William Berkeley collected in Accomac a crowd of base and cowardly followers, allured by the passion for plundering, promising freedom to the servants and slaves of the insurgents if they would rally to his banner" (Vide Bancroft's Hist., Vol. I, p.465). An examination of the records of Accomac county court, covering the periods of Bacon's Rebellion, and the subsequent year will controvert the foregoing view and convince any unbiased mind that the people of Accomac received the Royal Governor with open arms, and hazarded their lives and fortunes for the success of his cause.

From these ancient records we learn that when the news of the Rebellion reached Accomac, steps were taken to increase the military forces of the county, and commissaries were commissioned and sent out to collect supplies for maintaining the governor's troops. The men engaged in these operations were among the best, wealthiest and most influential in the Colony, and the readiness with which the people responded to their demands shows how loyal the people of the Eastern Shore were to their governor, who, in their eyes at least, was more sinned against than sinning. With the exception of the orders for the raising of troops and the impressment of provisions, no mention is made of the Rebellion in the records that cover the period of hostilities. As Sir William Berkeley was present in Accomac the greater part of the time, he evidently took affairs into his own hands, and adopted such measures as he deemed best adapted to insure his own safety and the ultimate triumph of his fortunes. Hence we find that during the Rebellion the court records of Accomac are scanty. Of the proceedings of Sir William Berkeley and his council while on the Eastern Shore no record has been preserved, and it is not probable that any was made. As soon, however, as the Rebellion collapsed by reason of Bacon's untimely and mysterious death, and the civil courts resumed their duties, the old county records of Accomac teem with entries that fix the attitude of the Accomackians in the great struggle and attest the services rendered by them to the royal cause.