Kilted in the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the US

[Kilted Karl]

Again, correct: the burning of Jamestown happened during Bacon's Rebellion in the 1670's; Oglethorpe didn't found the colony of Georgia until the early 1700s.

T.

Aye, Bacon's Rebellion. I think that was the first example of that kind of resistance to tyrants in American and colonial history.

Your Obedient Servant,

Karl

[macwilkin]

Aye, Bacon's Rebellion. I think that was the first example of that kind of resistance to tyrants in American and colonial history.

Your Obedient Servant,

Karl

Well, uh...no. Bacon's Rebellion really wasn't the first shots in the American Revolution, as conventional wisdom and old history texts would have us believe. Yes, Gov. Berkley of Virginia wasn't the most honest civil servant, but Nathaniel Bacon was no George Washington.

Mostly the rebellion centered around the fact that Bacon was upset for not being included in Berkley's circle for kickbacks on frontier fortifications, and Bacon then used the threat of First Nations on the western frontier as a justification for rebellion against Berkley. Virginia at that time contained a fairly large population of landless white males (mostly former indentured servants that had survived) and to be landless was to be nothing in colonial society. Bacon stoked this group by stating that Berkley was denying them frontier lands and that he would drive the Indians from them to allow these folks to settle. The Rebels did burn Jamestown, but Bacon died before anything else could come of it. After Bacon's Rebellion, the gentry turned more to African slaves to work their plantations.


Apologies for the mini-lecture, but it's good practice for next semester.

T.

[Kilted Karl]

Dear Cajun Scot,

No apologies needed. I always like to learn.... but now I will have to study that more as I have not heard about that in depth. But whether or no Bacon was any good it would be hard to beat Mr. Washington.

Your Obedient Servant,

Karl

[macwilkin]

Dear Cajun Scot,

No apologies needed. I always like to learn.... but now I will have to study that more as I have not heard about that in depth. But whether or no Bacon was any good it would be hard to beat Mr. Washington.

Your Obedient Servant,

Karl

Oh, I don't know...he lost more battles than he won...he won by keeping the army in the field.

No disrespect meant to His Excellency, although I tend to lean toward the Loyalist camp.

T

[Kilted Karl]

Oh, I don't know...he lost more battles than he won...he won by keeping the army in the field.

No disrespect meant to His Excellency, although I tend to lean toward the Loyalist camp.

T

AHA!

Mr. Washington did loose many battles but "The race goes not to the swift nor the battle to the strong." History is not often made by majorities but by small and dedicated minorities, whether they be good or bad.

Your Obedient Servant,

Karl

[macwilkin]

AHA!

Mr. Washington did loose many battles but "The race goes not to the swift nor the battle to the strong." History is not often made by majorities but by small and dedicated minorities, whether they be good or bad.

Your Obedient Servant,

Karl

True indeed. Don Higginbotham, in his excellent work George Washington and the American Military Tradition discusses how one of Washington's greatest desires was to obtain an officer's commission in the British Army. One wonders how different history would have been had the young officer of the Virginia Regiment obtained it?

I jest about being a Tory, but I do agree with William Pitt and Edmund Burke that the American colonies were lost due to gross mismanagement and stupidity, although it must be said that the average Englishman paid almost double the taxes the average American colonist did...but that's for another forum.

T.