JAMESTOWN — Jamestown Rediscovery will commemorate the 350th anniversary of Bacon’s Rebellion on Saturday, Sept. 19, with living history programs, walking tours, historic trades demonstrations and its annual “Burning of Jamestown” evening tour.
Bacon’s Rebellion began in 1676 under the leadership of Nathaniel Bacon and is widely regarded as the first revolutionary movement in America. However, Willie Balderson, Jamestown Rediscovery’s director of Living History & Historic Trades, and Amy Stallings, an adjunct history professor at William & Mary, said the rebellion was more complicated than the traditional narrative suggests.
“Virginia textbooks up through the ‘60s were simplifying to the point of idiocy [on] the conflict between Nathaniel Bacon and Gov. Berkeley,” Stallings said. Berkeley served as governor of Virginia during Bacon’s Rebellion. “He’s really presented as, you know, the evil king figure in every fairy tale … and that that is not the case at all.”
The five programs examine different events surrounding the rebellion. They include a recounting by Thomas Matthew of events earlier in 1676; an imagined interaction between Gov. Berkeley and Nathaniel Bacon’s uncle, a colonel who shared the same name and is presumed to have served on the governor’s council; and a discussion between Lady Frances Berkeley and the governor about sending her away before Bacon returned to Jamestown.
The programming also includes a conversation between Jamestown resident Ann Cotton and the wife of a loyalist held hostage by Bacon’s men, as well as a deposition by Col. Thomas Swann against several men, including enslaved Black men and white indentured servants, accused of looting his estate.
The first four events have passed, while the fifth, called “Civil Unrest,” is scheduled for Oct. 24 and Oct. 31.
Saturday’s programming will include an 11 a.m. lecture with public historian Mark Summers on event prior to Bacon’s Rebellion, a 12:30 p.m. reenactment of Lady Berkeley’s interrogation following the rebellion, a 2 p.m. Bacon’s Rebellion walking tour and the annual “Burning of Jamestown” walking tour at 7 p.m. Historic Jamestowne will close at 5 p.m. and re-open at 6:30 p.m. for the final event. The Bacon’s Rebellion walking tour also happens every Saturday.
Balderson noted that funding from the Jamestowne Society made the programming possible this year.
“The funding they’ve given us has allowed us tremendous latitude to examine five different events along a timeline of just less than a year that reveal how Virginians were trying to cope with all the economic and social pressure, much like we experienced today,” Balderson said.
Admission is $30 for adults 16 and older, $5 for children ages 6 to 15 and free for children younger than 6. The ticket includes admission to Historic Jamestowne and is required to visit the site.
