In this slim monograph, historian Ethan Schmidt connects two familiar topics from seventeenth-century colonial Virginia. The first topic concerns the violent relationship between the Powhatan Confederacy and the English settlers. The second topic is Bacon’s Rebellion, the social conflict between the colonial elite and landless settlers that plunged Virginia in a brief civil war in 1676. Surprisingly, no scholars have so far linked these two topics. Most historians have viewed Bacon’s Rebellion as an event that accelerated Virginia’s shift away from English servitude to African slavery. According to Schmidt, the roots of Bacon’s Rebellion are in the violent conflicts between the Powhatans and the English. The three Anglo-Powhatan wars not only led to the emergence of a planter elite which controlled most lands and political offices but also fostered widespread hatred of Indigenous peoples within all social ranks of colonial society. When social unrest erupted in the 1670s, the recently arrived aristocrat Nathaniel Bacon used the long-standing feelings of Indian hatred to unite landless settlers, middling colonists, and small planters in a campaign against Indigenous communities as well as against Governor Sir William Berkeley.
The first three chapters give a concise overview of Powhatan-English relations from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to the end of the Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1622–1632). Utilizing ethnohistorical studies, Schmidt shows how English-Powhatan interactions quickly became hostile due to each side’s different conceptions of their relationship. While the powerful Powhatan Confederacy viewed the small English outpost as a potentially useful ally, the English envisioned the Powhatans as submissive Christianized workers. Peaceful relations broke down in 1608, barely one year after the English had landed in the Chesapeake Bay. During the First Anglo-Powhatan War from 1609 to 1614, the English resorted to brutal violence to force the Powhatans into submission. English settlers realized that the indiscriminate killings of Indigenous men, women, and children was permissible and even encouraged by the colonial leaders. After the establishment of peace in 1614, thanks to the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, Anglo-Powhatan relations soon broke down again because the English had discovered tobacco as a valuable export crop. The cultivation of tobacco required large amounts of land which made conflict with the Powhatans inevitable. As part of a pre-emptive strike, Powhatan warriors struck against unsuspecting English settlers in 1622. The English responded furiously and again resorted to the mass killing of Indigenous people. The English also acquired large amounts of Powhatan lands, most of which ended up in the hands of the tobacco planters. By the early 1630s, a tobacco elite was firmly in control of land, labour, and political power in colonial Virginia.
Chapters 4 and 5 examine respectively the experiences of the poor English servant-migrants in the early seventeenth century and the challenges faced by Governor William Berkeley from his arrival in the colony in the early 1640s to the outbreak of social unrest in Virginia in the 1670s. Propaganda produced by the Virginia Company promised economic opportunity, a healthy climate, and a docile Indian population. All three promises turned out to be false. The constant stream of poor English settlers arriving in Virginia faced miserable living conditions, a monotonous diet, dysentery, the powerful Powhatan Confederacy, and harsh masters. Courts often also extended the duration of servitude, diminishing prospects of freedom and economic opportunity for many settlers. Despite these problems, the English servant population did not rebel, mainly out of fear for attacks from the Powhatans. English fears for Indian attacks became real again in 1644 when the now desperate Powhatans launched a third war against Virginia. However, by this time the military balance of power was heavily in favour of the English. In 1646, the remnants of the Powhatan Confederacy were forced to accept tributary status and were relegated to small reservations. The continuing presence of small Powhatan communities inside the colony fostered resentment amongst the poor and ordinary settlers who felt that the colonial elite gave preferential treatment to the Indians. Compounding this problem for Governor Berkeley were tensions with the Susquehannocks, an Indigenous people on the northern border of Virginia, political instabilities caused by the English Civil War and the royal restoration, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the mid-1660s. Berkeley and the Virginia Assembly, controlled by the tobacco elite, responded to these challenges by raising taxes and by further curtailing the rights of freemen and servants. These policies created conditions favourable for social unrest.
In the last chapter, Schmidt details the origins and development of Bacon’s Rebellion. Although many settlers were restive due to the unpopular policies of Berkeley and the Assembly, it was not until the outbreak of a war with the Susquehannocks in the summer of 1675 that large segments of the Virginia population were willing to revolt against the colonial government. Berkeley’s attempts to resolve the war with the Susquehannocks through diplomacy infuriated frontier settlers who were desperate to get their hands on Indigenous lands. Likewise, wealthier colonists such as Nathaniel Bacon were frustrated that Berkeley and the Assembly controlled the lucrative trade in furs, deerskins, and slaves with Indian groups located to the west and south of Virginia. In the spring of 1676, Bacon quickly obtained popular support by calling for attacks against the tributary Powhatans who many suspected of aiding the Susquehannocks. When Berkeley refused, Bacon organized raids against neutral tributary Indians in the colony. Encouraged by the widespread support, Bacon turned against Berkeley and pronounced himself to be the true protector of the Virginia people against the Indians. Bacon’s Rebellion quickly fizzled out after the sudden death of Bacon to a disease in October 1676. In the brief epilogue, Schmidt discusses the legacy of Bacon’s Rebellion in colonial Virginia. The colonial elite, concerned about further social upheaval, accommodated settler concerns by organizing military raids against Indigenous groups on the borders of the colony. Additionally, conquered Indian lands got distributed to settlers. At the same time, the tributary Powhatans survived by acting as loyal subjects of the Virginia government.
Schmidt’s linking of the Anglo-Powhatan wars with Bacon’s Rebellion is compelling, and his focus on Indian hating as a unifying force among settlers is convincing. One weakness is the little-developed concept of “Indian hating”. Surprisingly, the author does not supply a clear definition of it. He also treats it as an unchanging phenomenon from the 1620s to the 1670s. Moreover, Schmidt does not connect the concept of “Indian hating” with early modern English conceptualizations of Indigenous peoples. It also remains unclear to what extent Indian hatred in Virginia was exceptional or typical of other English or European colonies. Another weakness of the book, although not at all the author’s fault, is the small print of the text. However, Schmidt’s analysis is well-researched and based on the relevant manuscript and printed primary sources as well as on the rich historical scholarship about seventeenth-century Virginia. Particularly impressive is Schmidt’s consistent detailing of Powhatan actions and motives in their interactions with the English. The brevity of the text and the compelling argument makes The Divided Dominion attractive for undergraduate courses in American history and American Indian history. It is a great tragedy that this book will be his last. Sadly, Schmidt got killed in his campus office of Delta State University in Mississippi in 2015.
