Historian James D. Rice joins us for our kick off program on April 15th at Jamestown Settlement with a colorfully detailed account of the rebellion, highlighting how the central events of Bacon’s Rebellion and its aftermath are woven into the founding story of America.
Join us at Bacon’s Castle for our May Bacon’s Rebellion at 350 Years Program – a garden salon featuring a panel of expert historians and archaeologists as they discuss how women participated in, and were affected by, Bacon’s Rebellion 350 years ago. Bacon’s Castle will also be open before and after the lecture for an open house style tour with featured stops with our panel experts.
Join us for a lecture from Dr. Michael Blakey, National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology, Africana Studies, and American Studies at the College of William & Mary, as he examines how the first opportunity for an America unblemished by the immorality of racial slavery and the injustices of class inequity was lost with Bacon’s 1676 Rebellion in Virginia, and had a long lasting effect on efforts to achieve an America with equal rights for all.
Rarely acknowledged in historical narratives, Virginia’s Indigenous nations shaped American history in countless ways, including the events surrounding Nathaniel Bacon’s 1676 insurrection. Our panel brings together the project team, drawing on traditional ecological knowledge alongside military history, environmental and archaeological evidence, and both traditional and non-traditional documents to highlight the Indigenous perspectives of what is now known as Bacon’s Rebellion. This event will take place on at 6PM on Wednesday, July 15th at Jamestown Settlement (2110 Jamestown Rd, Williamsburg, VA 23185).
Bacon’s Rebellion began as a campaign of violence against the region’s Indigenous people carried out in defiance of the royal governor. The elite instigators of the insurrection garnered broad support by stoking prejudice and exploiting the desperation of struggling and marginalized groups, including many in the colony’s growing, and increasingly oppressed African population who saw in the uprising a chance for self-liberation.