Transcription
While slavery and the slave trade were an important source of conflict and violence in colonial society, there were certainly other kinds of violence and conflict as well. And in this lecture, we want to spend some time exploring some other facets of colonial society. Again, with the idea that, in the remembrance that, um, life in colonial society could be very difficult, violence and conflict were very much a reality. Um, you know, the the kind of romantic recollections that many people have of colonial society are in many ways unfounded. It is important to remember that violence and conflict were very much part of um life in Britain's North American colonies.
So let's focus now on Virginia, first of all, and an important rebellion that took place in the 1670s in Virginia. It's called Bacon's Rebellion. Before getting into that, I'll refresh your memory; remember that Virginia was founded in 1607 when Jamestown was founded. And if you look at the map, remember that the area in the lower um James River valley, the area around Jamestown down to Hampton and Williamsburg, this was the Tidewater region that had become heavily populated by tobacco planters. For roughly 50 years then, remember that these tobacco planters had become quite established; they had a representative voice in the House of Burgesses. And for that reason, they had considerable influence over the governor and were able to influence um the decision-making process as it related to a variety of different, especially economic activities.
On the other hand, as new planters, new farmers began to arrive in Virginia, increasingly they were forced to seek lands further up the James River valley as the Tidewater region became filled and lands were no longer available. They moved upstream, up above Richmond, which means up above the um fall line, up into the Piedmont region. And these Piedmont farmers then uh began to plant um and they began to plant rather uh successfully. But because they were newcomers, relative newcomers, they didn't have the power and influence that the Tidewater planters had. And in many cases, they tended to have much smaller um establishments, smaller farms uh, if you will. Right, they were not the wealthy and powerful planters; they were more farmers. Okay. Now that's not to say that there weren't plantations on the Piedmont; there certainly were. But even plantations on the Piedmont didn't have the power and influence of the Tidewater planters.
And so, while Bacon's Rebellion is going to start as a Native American conflict, as we'll see, it is ultimately going to unfold as a social conflict within the British Empire itself, that is, within British Virginia itself. It's going to be a class struggle between these Tidewater planters and their alliance with the governor versus the Piedmont farmers. Now the governor in Virginia was a man by the name of William Berkeley. Okay. William Berkeley, remember, was a an appointee of the crown, and he represented the crown in Virginia. And ultimately, it was his job to make sure that Virginia operated um smoothly, peacefully, but especially profitably, because remember, colonies were designed to make money for the crown. And so ultimately, it was his job to assure that this colony ran smoothly, especially economically.
Now, in addition to raising tobacco, which of course was very important in colonial Virginia, Virginians also engaged in Indian trade. Okay, that is, very often the same planters who raised tobacco were also able to secure licenses, and it cost money to to be able to to buy a license or purchase a license. But if you purchased the license, then that would allow you to go out into the Indian country and to conduct trade. It was usually fur trade, but it could be very, very profitable. All right. But again, all of that trade was taxed by the crown, and the way that the crown taxed the trade was through the administration of these licenses. If you didn't have a license, you couldn't go out into the into the frontier uh and conduct Indian trade. All right, you had to have a license, and ultimately, it was William Berkeley's intention that all of this trade should be very peaceful; the more peaceful the trade, the more profitable the trade. The problem is, as more farmers began to arrive out into the Piedmont, that began to upset um the Native American way of life. Okay. The reality is that um those uh hunting and gathering societies found their way of life um threatened increasingly as more and more farmers took up residence. And the net result then was conflict out on the uh frontier. Okay. And it was uh it was um violence that um the British directed at various Native Americans uh and that Native Americans returned. All right. The point being that um it was um by by the by 1675, it was the site of an Indian war, an Indian uprising, as the British called it. Okay.
Now, the farmers out on the frontier demanded that the governor do something about this: the governor must do something to punish Indians who had been um attacking um and bringing harm to British colonists. They demanded the protection of the governor. The problem, from the governor's perspective, is that if he started punishing Native Americans, then he was ultimately hurting the Indian trade that he relied upon. And so Governor Berkeley found himself in something of a of a dilemma in how to handle this. Well, Barclay decided the best way to deal with this situation was to build a string of forts along the fall line. Okay. These forts then could be used to defend uh the farmers. If a Native American uprising was imminent, then farmers could immediately go to a fort, and they would be able to find protection, defense there. That, however, wasn't satisfactory for the farmers, and the man who was principally upset about this was a man by the name of Nathaniel Bacon. Okay. Nathaniel Bacon had been a recent arrival on the frontier uh in Virginia. He had come from England recently; he'd actually come from a rather landed family. The problem is that he was one of the younger brothers and never stood to inherit the family's land. And so, if Nathaniel Bacon wanted to be a landowner, he would have to to to leave England. And so he came to Virginia, and on the Piedmont he had begun to uh assemble a very large uh estate um out on the Piedmont. And he also had uh become kind of the leader of farmers in the in the region in their efforts to um combat um Indian violence.
And so Nathaniel Bacon had petitioned the governor for assistance. When the governor came back with this plan to build forts, Nathaniel Bacon's response was, "Well, that simply uh is inadequate; you've got to go out and stop the violence before it starts. Running to a fort is not something that you can do if an uprising or an attack happens very suddenly." The way to to stop um this conflict on the on the frontier, according to Nathaniel Bacon, was to go out and pursue um the various Indian groups that were engaging in violence. So he petitioned the governor um to organize a frontier militia to go out and and find uh perpetrators of violence. Well, initially the governor was reluctant, uh but he did finally concede to allow Bacon to muster a militia force uh and go out and punish a or find uh locate and punish a group of Indians who had recently committed an especially heinous act. Right. So Nathaniel Bacon ultimately um is now going to go out, and he and his men, some 400 strong, are now going to to participate um and and contribute to the bloodshed uh by going out and and slaughtering um Native Americans. And now um the the frontier has become awash, literally, um in a full-scale uh Indian war, and the the governor cannot allow this to to go on. So he immediately sends word to to Bacon that he's to disassemble his militia, to which Bacon responds, "No, he cannot do that because we're at war, uh and if we uh disassemble this militia, we are now going to be um the victims of Indian assaults." So Bacon refuses to disband his his militia, and now, rather than conceding to the power of the the governor, ultimately the governor gives him an order: he must disband. Nathaniel Bacon decided that the time was right to turn his men uh and march downstream um to Jamestown.
And so, in the summer of 1676, um Nathaniel Bacon and his 400 men arrive in Jamestown, and they occupy the colonial state house. They basically send William Berkeley into refuge; he gets on a boat and sails across Chesapeake Bay to the eastern shore of Virginia. And now Nathaniel Bacon and his rebels have effectively taken over, and they are running um the colony, and the governor and the crown um are incensed and and and furious, and and planning now is underway um on, you know, how to basically reclaim um the capital, to to reclaim Jamestown. Well, as it turned out, nature um was now going to intervene uh in this process, because as Nathaniel Bacon arrived in the lower James River valley, he drank water there, and that is likely what contributed to a parasitic intestinal disease that gave him uh diarrhea, okay, dysentery. And and dysentery um today is something that um we kind of poke fun at; it's something that that we don't take um real seriously, because the fact of the matter is, at least in the more developed part of the world, dysentery isn't a considerable threat to life, but it's not that way all over the world. In the less developed part of the world, dysentery is very, very dangerous, and certainly in 17th-century North America, dysentery was very dangerous. If you can't rid yourself of diarrhea, you will ultimately, your body can't retain moisture, and you will die, or I should say, can't retain fluids, and you will ultimately die from dehydration. And that's what happened: Nathaniel Bacon died in the summer of 1676, having contracted this intestinal uh parasite and and consequent dysentery. When he died then, it left his rebellion in in a state of uncertainty, unclarity, and and ultimately that allowed um Berkeley and the royal forces and especially the Tidewater planters to regain power uh in Jamestown. When they did, 23 of Berkeley—excuse me—of Nathaniel Bacon's Bacon supporters, 23 important ringleaders in this, were rounded up; they were tried and very publicly hanged as a statement that the crown would not tolerate rebellion from and among its own citizens. Right. So Bacon's Rebellion, again, it started as a conflict between Native Americans, but over time, very definitely, it became a class conflict between the British colonists themselves.
And even as that conflict was unfolding in Virginia, up in Massachusetts at roughly the same time, and basically at the same time, uh an Indian war um was taking place that would bring about um the worst uh loss of life of any war um in the colonial period prior to the American Revolution itself. Um, that is, okay, so let's spend a little bit of time talking about a conflict that took place in Massachusetts that's that's referred to as King Philip's War; um, sometimes it's called Metacom's War. Okay. And I'll tell you a little bit about the principal protagonists, I should say antagonists, uh in this in this conflict. They were the governor of Massachusetts, a man by the name of Josiah Winslow, uh and a man by the name of Metacom, who was the um was popularly known as King Philip. Okay. These two men, Metacom and Josiah Winslow, were actually sons of previous leaders within Massachusetts. Okay. Josiah Winslow's father, Edward Winslow, had been one of the founding leaders of the Plymouth Plantation, and Edward Winslow at one time had been a governor of Massachusetts. So Josiah Winslow, his son, had been groomed for a role of leadership, and and ultimately um yes, he became the governor of Massachusetts by 1675. He was the governor of Massachusetts. Metacom, on the other hand, was the son of a very prominent um Wampanoag chief; his name was Massasoit. Massasoit is one of the most powerful and remembered Native American chiefs of the colonial period, and um Edward Winslow and Massasoit um had managed, for the most part, to maintain peaceful relations between um the Wampanoag people and and the English colonists um during their terms uh and so, for the most part, prior to 1675 or thereabouts, um the Wampanoags, which is the primary Native American tribe, and the British colonists, for the most part, had gotten along um relatively peacefully. And in fact, um in many cases—I shouldn't say in many—in some cases, there were members of the Wampanoag tribe that had actually begun to blend into British society. In fact, there was some degree of assimilation that was starting to take place among some Wampanoags as they were starting to become um, you know, kind of blending into um British society. Okay.
And so the biggest issue probably that that came about, and in many ways was the underlying cause of King Philip's War, is the fact that these two men, Metacom and Josiah Winslow, didn't trust one another. Okay. They hadn't trusted one another. Winslow saw concessions being made to the Wampanoag people uh as being dangerous. Metacom uh increasingly saw Josiah Winslow as a threat. And so these two men um very clearly did not get along with one another, and they did not trust one another. And so, because of that situation, it was going to be hard to resolve um differences between them. By 1675, Josiah Winslow, the governor, uh and others um within Massachusetts, English colonists, began to hear rumors of an uprising taking place among the Wampanoag people, that Metacom was organizing a war against the people of Massachusetts with the intention of driving um the people of Massachusetts out of Massachusetts, the British colonists out of Massachusetts altogether. Okay. Now those stories were being reinforced by a man named John Sassamon. Okay. John Sassamon was what the British called a "praying Indian," that is, he was a member of the Wampanoag tribe, right, but he was also a man who had been baptized in the by the Church of England and was a member of the Church of England. He attended one of the Anglican congregations uh and he was, for all intents and purposes, now a Christian. All right, he was Christian; he was what the um British called a praying Indian. He had attended Harvard University, and he was well respected. Okay. And so, when John Sassamon began um hinting that there were um there was a movement afoot among the Wampanoag and especially among Metacom um to launch this this uprising against the British, well, Winslow and other Massachusetts leaders now took John Sassamon very seriously. Now, in the spring of 1676, John Sassamon's body was found um in a frozen pond. Okay. John Sassamon had drowned, and the way the ice had been broken um it looked as though John Sassamon had been murdered. Okay. Immediately, three Wampanoag men were taken into custody, and they were charged with the murder of John Sassamon, and they were to be charged and tried now in an English court. Now, for Metacom and for the Wampanoag, that was simply unacceptable. If these three men were guilty of a crime, first of all, they were Wampanoags; John Sassamon was Wampanoag, and therefore justice should be administered not by the English but rather by the Wampanoags, and specifically by Metacom. All right. So Metacom and the Wampanoags were angry about this. In spite of their demands that that the three men be tried in a Meta—in a Wampanoag court—basically, the three men were were tried, they were convicted, and they were executed uh by the British. Okay. It was the execution then of these three men that touched off King Philip's War, because in the aftermath of that execution, now you're going to see Metacom and the Wampanoags rise up against the British presence more generally, and initially in the outlying areas of Massachusetts, this is where the conflict takes place. Now, as as the the Wampanoags rise up, certainly um the the Massachusetts, the British in Massachusetts, the colonists were very uh much up to the task, and for roughly a year, from the summer of 1675 to the summer of 1676, this this war um just absolutely destroyed uh Massachusetts. In the summer 16—excuse me—in the winter 1675-1676, um the destruction of crops uh had become a major problem, and starvation and disease began to set in. Native Americans died in large numbers; English colonists began to die uh in large numbers. And in the spring of 1676, now um the fighting, the violence, uh resumed. Finally, in the summer of 1676, um the the the governor reported that Metacom uh had been captured. Metacom was not only captured but he was um executed uh for fomenting a war, a rebellion against the crown, and ultimately he was shot, uh he was beheaded; his head was actually placed on a pike um outside of Boston as a reminder to all um Wampanoags that um they would not uh or that that any kind of rebellion would not be tolerated by uh Britain. So um with the execution of Metacom, the rebellion finally began to die down, but in the meantime, something like a thousand colonists uh had died. Okay. And as many as 2,000 Wampanoags were dead. The loss of life had been terrible; not only had the loss of life been terrible, but the economy of of New England had been destroyed, both for Native Americans uh and for the British. So King Philip's War um was absolutely devastating, and it was an event that would be remembered; it was not something that would quickly be forgotten. And that's significant because, believe it or not, King Philip's War now is going to have an important part to play in the escalation of perhaps the most infamous of of social conflicts in American colonial history, and that of course is the witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. So I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the Salem witch trials um and and I first, before I go any further, I I need to um emphasize something, and it is this: that few events in American history have been more scrutinized than the Salem witch trials. The fascination that exists um with respect to Salem um is immense. Okay. It seems like everybody everybody's heard of Salem, and everybody on some level is is interested in Salem because of this idea of witchcraft, and witchcraft fascinates Americans. All right. Before I go any further, I need to ask you to try and wipe the slate clean. If you've ever read about Salem, if you've ever studied Salem, one of the the works that you might have read over the years is actually a play; it's called *The Crucible*, that was written by a man named Arthur Miller in the 1950s. Okay. *The Crucible* is a very popular play; it is a very political play, and it is very inaccurate. Okay. It does not represent what happened in Salem very accurately. Okay. The reason I stress that is because some of the um culprits that are uh most visible—in fact, one of the the principal culprits in this was a a young woman; okay, her name was Abigail Williams. We'll talk about Abigail Williams in a second, but the point to be made is that Abigail Williams was 11 years old at this time. She comes across um in *The Crucible* as being much older than that and much more capable of manipulation than she almost certainly was. All right. So the point is, it is important to try and understand Salem based on the evidence that we have, not based on a play that was written, you know, um three centuries later, two and a half centuries later—you know, three centuries later, yeah, two and a half. Okay. All right.
So let's talk a little bit about the origins of the Salem witch trials. It started in January of 1692, and it started in the house of the Puritan minister in Salem Village; his name was Samuel Parris. Okay. Samuel Parris was the minister at the Puritan um meeting house, and he, like many Puritans, was concerned about changes taking place in Massachusetts society. Remember, John Winthrop had pledged that that Massachusetts would be a shining city on a hill, and this shining city on a hill had to maintain loyalty and commitment to its Puritan mission. And Parris and other Puritan leaders were concerned that the arrival of more and more non-Puritans in Massachusetts was taking the the colony away from its religious purpose, its religious mission. And so, consequently, Samuel Parris and others were very concerned about the threat that newcomers were posing um to Puritans in Massachusetts. It's important that you understand that if you want to understand what happened in Salem. All right. Now Samuel Parris had a daughter; her name was Betty, uh and he had, I think, a niece; her name was Abigail Williams. Okay. And in January of 1692, apparently Abigail Williams and Betty Parris were playing a game, and they started um behaving in bizarre ways; at least that's how it was reported uh by Samuel Parris's house servant, and she was a slave. Okay. Her name was Tituba. Okay. Tituba was um from the West Indies, and she was identified in all of the court records as an Indian. Okay. She was from the West Indies; she was probably very dark-complexioned; she was from um the West Indies, most recently, but beyond that we know little about Tituba. Okay. But because she was identified as an Indian, she was associated with the very people who had organized um the the um King Philip's War um 17 years earlier. All right. So the fact that she was considered Indian is very important because there was still a very strong, powerful, lingering anti-Indian sentiment that existed um within Salem uh in 1692. Tituba was very much a reflection of that anti-Indian sentiment. Okay. Well, Tituba reported um or Tituba observed um the uh behavior of these two girls, uh and she uh then proceeded basically to try and find a remedy. She believed that the two girls were under a spell of witchcraft, and so she tried to try to concoct a remedy. She basically fabricated or concocted what's called what was called a witch's cake. A witch's cake was actually made out of various um grains and included um urine, the girls' urine even, and and basically the idea was you feed this witch cake to a dog, and somehow this is supposed to um allow Tituba to identify if they've been ca—if a spell has been cast on them or or not. The point being, um, when Samuel Parris learned what had gone on, he in turn blamed Tituba for being a witch. Okay. And and Tituba now found herself in a position where she ultimately either faced um execution for witchcraft or she began identifying the people who she could identify as witches. And so that's essentially what she did. Tituba began accusing other people of witchcraft, and once one set of people—once one—and they were women mostly—once one woman was accused of witchcraft, she might in turn implicate others as well. And so throughout the spring and summer of of 1692, a mass array of accusations followed. And by spring of—by late spring of 1692, the governor of Massachusetts basically um realized that that Salem was in a state of upheaval. So William Phips, the governor, set up a court, and that court convened for the first time in June of 1692. It was basically a court designed to identify witches, to find the witches, and to to punish the witches. Now the reality was there was no witchcraft. Okay. This was a lot of of of accusations that were being made, especially initially by Tituba, but later by other people in an attempt to save their lives and in an attempt to punish people who were seen as a threat to um more conservative, conventional Puritan society. All right. So Governor Phips um organized trials. Okay. And then he himself kind of just removed himself from the scene; he left it to um these um judges that he brought in, and the judges very quickly allowed the accusers to take control of of the trial. Okay. The accusers now began trying and convicting um citizens of of Salem. Okay. How did they secure convictions? Well, in the court of law, very controversially, there were a variety of ways that evidence could be used to convict somebody. The first of these was a confession. Okay. Confessions did happen. The reason why confessions happen? Well, because torture was a way of extracting confessions. Okay. It was perfectly legal; it was perfectly legitimate to torture somebody and force them to divulge information that the questioner wanted. Okay. And if you put somebody in enough pain, okay, if somebody is suffering enough, they will tell you anything you want to hear in order to get you to stop the pain. Okay. So, you know, it's something that we know today. Okay. That's why we frown on the use of torture for extracting answers. Okay. It's not a way of extracting answers; it's a way of extracting information that you want to hear. Nevertheless, confessions did lead to convictions. Okay. And executions. Okay. Physical exams. Physical exams um frequently happened. A physical exam of a witch basically involved looking for something called the witch's teat. The witch's teat was um any kind of of mole or wart or any kind of malformity of the skin, if you will, that that basically um looked unusual, um that could be identified as um something that the the so-called witch or the alleged witch was using to suckle um the devil. Okay. And and so the witch's teat um was used as evidence um that somebody um was a witch. Okay. Which ultimately meant that if you had a wart, if you had any kind of a mole, some kind of skin malformity—could be just a discoloration of the skin—okay, that could be cited as evidence um that you are a witch. Okay. And you could be executed for that. Okay. Physical exams were humiliating; they were an egregious invasion of of the privacy, mostly of of women, and especially of women. Okay. But ultimately these physical exams could also lead to death. The most damning form of evidence that was used in these trials to convict is what we call or what was known as spectral evidence. Okay. In order to understand spectral evidence, it's important to remember that um witchcraft—people, people believed um that that that the devil could send out what's called the spectra, the the the um spirit, if you will, to to take over the bodies of other other people, especially those who were under um, you know, who were effectively being recruited um to to come into a coven of witches. Okay. The spectra would go in; they would haunt and take over the body. Okay. And according to um contemporary notions of witchcraft, then that's what Tituba and and others uh had been—had been doing; they had been casting spells on people, and and um the spectra had taken over. Okay. Ultimately then, the spectra controlled the individual, usually, you know, the the the individuals who were being um so-called bewitched, okay, or having spells cast upon them were young girls. And so, during the the witch trials themselves, young girls were taking the stand and basically um being manipulated to effectively demonstrate that the spectra had control over them. Okay. So basically what would happen is young girls would take the stand, um they would then uh begin to exhibit erratic behavior: fits and seizures, spasms, biting themselves, pulling their hair. Okay. And then the accused would walk over and would be told to go over and lay hands on on that individual, and if, after laying hands on that individual, um the girl calmed down, then that was evidence that that woman controlled the spectra. Okay. That was what was called spectral evidence; it's actually called what's called the touch test. Okay. And if a if a girl just suddenly calmed down, which they often did, that was evidence that um the person who laid on hands controlled the spectra; that was evidence of witchcraft and could be—and could lead to execution. Okay. So, as a result of these witch trials, now, by September of 1692, 19 women had been charged, and all 19—well, I should say 19—19 people had been charged; there were actually a couple of men in there. Okay. And there were other men who had died as well. Okay. 19 people had been charged, and the conviction rate was 100 percent. All trials led to conviction, especially because of the type of evidence that was being used. Okay. Which was absolutely astounding. Okay. Even in this age. Okay. The idea that you'd have a 100 percent conviction um was just absolutely astounding. Now Tituba herself was never charged or was never tried, uh and she was ultimately released. She was basically seen as—because she had been the informant about other witches—she actually was never um never executed; she actually kind of disappeared altogether. We don't know what happened to Tituba after she was released, but she ultimately was released. Okay. Finally, by September of 1692, the governor, William Phips, realized that something had to be done because there were still 150 people awaiting trial, and the number of accusations were growing. If this continued to proceed as it had been, we would be talking about mass executions of people based on really um questionable evidence. In the end, basically William Phips shut down the court. By January of 1693, he had shut down the court, and he basically said that if the court reopens, it will be without spectral evidence; there will be no spectral evidence admitted. And ultimately he shut down the court altogether, and that brought the um Salem witch trials to an end. They lasted—the period lasted for about a year—and after 1693 the court had been shut down. Okay.
So what caused this hysteria that plagued Salem in 1692 and led them to do this? It is important to remember that yes, people at this time believed in witchcraft, but the reality is this kind of of fear of witchcraft seldom, if ever, escalated to the point where 19 people were executed with a 100 percent conviction. All right. So this was an exceptional, very exceptional situation; it was not common at all. All right. It was something that was very much a product of the environment that existed in Salem more generally. Okay. Again, if you look at this map, hopefully what you can see is this: the people who are doing the accusing, okay, the A's, okay, this is where they live; they tended to gravitate to the older part of Salem, Salem Village, the agricultural town near the meeting house. These were where the accusers lived. Okay. On the other hand, the people who were defenders of the charged, and the people who were charged with witchcraft more generally, the D's and W's, they tended to congregate more on the eastern end of town, and they tended to be um they tended to live in the newer part of Salem. Okay. These were people who were not as likely to have ties to the Puritan meeting house, and in fact, most of them did not. All right. So what we know is that to a very large degree the accusers lived in the older Puritan part of town; the defenders and the people who were um accused of witchcraft, they tended to be more recent arrivals. All right. There was very definitely social discord that existed in Salem at this time. Okay. And it got out of hand; the governor let it get out of hand. Okay. William Phips did not carefully oversee what was going on in Salem; he let it go on for uh several months, and it wasn't until several months later that he finally intervened and did something about it. All right. So the Salem witchcraft trials, in my mind, very much a byproduct of the social discord that existed within um Salem more generally. And I put up this map or this painting just real quickly uh as um just a reminder of how witch trials worked. Okay. This um painting is called *The Examination of a Witch*. Basically what you're looking for is what you're looking at is a woman who's being disrobed, uh and you know, a case is being made that something on her back, this mark on the back, is is the witch's teat, uh and that she is um clearly a witch. Therefore, in the case of Salem in in 1692, that would have been enough evidence to execute her. Okay. I'll wrap it up there. When we come back in our next lecture, we're going to start talking about the events that led up to the American Revolution.