ness, nor
Berkeley's folly, nor the Indian war suffice to explain the rebellion.
When the news of the uprising reached Charles II, he thought it past
belief that "so considerable body of men, without the least grievance
or oppression, should rise up in arms and overthrow the government." He
was quite right. Had there been no grievances and oppression there would
have been no uprising.

That Bacon's Rebellion is explained in part by poverty and suffering is
clear. Philip Ludwell said that the rebel army was composed of men
"whose condition ... was such that a change could not make worse." The
men who fought so valiantly against the Indians and Berkeley's forces,
braved the King's anger, faced death on the gallows were called in
contempt "the bases of the people," "the rabble," the "scum of the
people," "idle and poor people," "rag, tag, and bobtail." The Council
reported that there were "hardly two amongst them" who owned estates, or
were persons of reputation. Berkeley complained that his was a miserable
task to govern a people "where six parts of seven at least are poor,
indebted, discontented, and armed."

So when Bacon sent out his agents to every part of Virginia to denounce
the governor for not permitting an election for a new Assembly, accusing
him of misgovernment, and complaining of the heavy and unequal taxes,
they "infested the whole country." Berkeley stated that the contaigion
spread "like a train of powder." Never before was there "so great a
madness as this base people are generally seized with." When, in panic,
he dissolved the Long Assembly and called for a new election, all except
eight of those chosen were pro-Bacon men.

One cannot but ask why. Surely the voters would not have sided with this
young man who had been in Virginia but a few months had he not taken the
lead in protesting against the many wrongs to which they had been
subjected. And had those who rushed to arms, risking their property, if
not their necks, done so merely because of a quarrel between Bacon and
Berkeley, they would have been more than base, they would have been
fools.

What these wrongs were Bacon and his followers tell us in what they
called the Declaration of the People. Berkeley and his favorites they
denounced "for having upon specious pretences of public works raised
great unjust taxes upon the commonalty for the advancement of private
favorites and other sinister ends...; for having abused and rendered
contemptible