In my Collective Violence class at WVU, we cover Bacon’s Rebellion to illustrate some of the fault lines of social distance and social status in colonial America. It’s also useful to contrast the nature and severity of violence in internal conflicts versus external ones. Here I give a more detailed account of the rebellion. To give some context, this episode also covers the Anglo-Powhatan Wars and the expansion of Virginia Colony.
Below I include some maps that might be helpful, followed by links to my reading list.
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Reading List
Tales from the Revolution: Bacon’s Rebellion and the Transformation of Early America by James D. Rice.
Plain Paths and Dividing Lines: Navigating Native Land and Water in Seventeenth Century Chesapeake by Jessica Lauren Taylor.
"Fighting" Fire" With Firearms: The Anglo-Powhatan Arms Race in Early Virginia," by Frederick J. Fausz, J., in American Indian Culture and Research Journal.
“Bacon’s Rebellion,” by Ethan Schmidt, in Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History, edited by Steven L. Danver.
“The Causes of Bacon’s Rebellion,” by Warren Billings, in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
"Bacon's Rebellion, the Grievances of the People, and the Political Culture of Seventeenth-Century Virginia,” by Tarter Brent, in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
And yeah, I also looked up stuff on Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Virginia.
Collective Violence in American History 3: Bloody Tidewater