Bacon, Nathaniel (redirected from Nathaniel Bacon (Jesuit))

Bacon, Nathaniel, 1647–76, leader of Bacon's Rebellion in colonial Virginia. An aristocrat (he was kin to Francis Bacon, had been educated at Cambridge and Gray's Inn, and was a member of the governor's council), Bacon nevertheless became the champion of the discontented frontiersmen after only two years' residence in the colony. When he died suddenly from the effects of malaria, the revolt collapsed.

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Bacon, Nathaniel

Nathaniel Bacon, detail of an engraving

(credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born Jan. 2, 1647, Suffolk, Eng.—died October 1676, Virginia Colony) British-born American colonial planter, leader of Bacon's Rebellion. He emigrated from England in 1673 and acquired land in Virginia, where he was appointed to the council of William Berkeley, the British governor. After a dispute over Indian policy, he defied Berkeley's orders and organized an expedition against the Indians in 1676. He then turned his forces against Berkeley, captured Jamestown, and briefly controlled most of Virginia. His death at age 29 of influenza, at the height of his power, ended the rebellion.

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Bacon, Nathaniel (1647–76) colonial leader; born in Suffolk, England. He emigrated to Virginia c. 1674. A landowner and planter, he opposed Governor Sir William Berkeley's Indian policies. In 1676, Bacon attacked the Pamunkey, Susquehanna, and Occaneechi tribes without a commission from Berkeley. After Berkeley denounced him as a traitor, Bacon marched on Jamestown. When a compromise settlement failed, Bacon captured and burned Jamestown. At one point he controlled nearly all of Virginia, but troops were on their way from England to support Berkeley. Bacon died of influenza in October 1676 and the rebellion soon collapsed.

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Bacon, Nathaniel 

Born 1642 or 1647; died 1676. Leader of an uprising by farmers in the English colony of Virginia in North America.

Bacon was born in England into an impoverished aristocratic family. In 1673 he immigrated to North America and founded two small plantations. In 1676 he headed an uprising against the English colonizers, thus becoming a herald of later actions by the North American colonies in their demands for independence. Bacon died at the height of the uprising. (According to recent evidence of American historians, he was poisoned by hired assassins.)