by Wilcomb E. Washburn 



The Effect 



OF BAcoN'f Rebellion 



ON CoVERNMENT 



IN England and Virginia 



Bacon' s rebellion, f ami liar to all students of the In story of 17th- 

 century colonial Virginia, influenced both directly and indirectly 

 governmental institutions in Virginia and in England. 



The Virginia ttirmoil may well have influenced the change in 

 English foreign policy whereby Charles II allied himself with the 

 Dutch and broke his secret alliance with Louis XIV of France. 



However, the evolution toward self-government in the Virginia 

 colony is seen to be not a result of rebel striving during the uprising, 

 but mainly a product of the loyalists' reaction, after the rebellion 

 had been put down, to the heavy-handed policy of the commissioners 

 sent by the King to investigate its causes. 



The Author: Wilcomb E. Washburn is curator of political 

 history in the United States National Museum, Smithsonian 

 Institution . 



Bacon's rebellion burst with a flash across the 

 pohtics of 17th-centur\- England and America. 

 It had important effects on the executive, judicial, 

 and legislative branches of government on both sides 

 of the Atlantic. In the e.xecuti\-e sphere it re\ealed the 

 incompetence of kingly rule of a distant colony in 

 crisis. It proved, furthermore, the inability of the 

 King's governor-on-the-scene to command obedience 

 among an armed, angered, and scattered populace. 



Note. — This paper was read at a session of the American 

 Committee of the International Commission for the History of 

 Representative and Parliamentary Institutions, at the annual 

 meeting of the American Historical Association in Washington, 

 D.C., December 29, 1958. 



In the judicial sphere it showed that the King's legal 

 advisers were uncertain as to how the King could deal 

 with rebellion by his colonial subjects. In \'irginia 

 the result of this uncertainty was judicial chaos and 

 internal bitterness. In the legislatix'e sphere the re- 

 bellion caused a financial pinch in England, which 

 seriously weakened the position of Charles II in his 

 dealings with Parliament. In Mrginia the rebellion 

 led to an assertion on the part of a loyalist, not rebel. 

 House of Burgesses of the right of a colonial assembly 

 to privileges identical to those enjoyed by Parliament. 

 In the past Bacon's Rebellion has been thought of 

 as a re\-oiution for independence and democracy that 

 failed because it began too soon. Bacon has tradi- 



PAPER 17: THE EFFECT OF B.ACON S REBELLION 



137 



