What was the incident between Thomas Mathew and Doeg Indians started the
events that led to Bacon's Rebellion? How did the Susquehannocks get involved,
and what situation did events put them in? How did Governor Berkeley respond,
and why? What issues about tobacco, labor, land, and taxes bothered Virginians?
What problems did the ruling Calverts face in Maryland? Who attacked the
Susquehannock fort, and why? Who were William Wood, the Occaneechees, and
William Byrd? What sort of person was Nathaniel Bacon?
Note: "Doeg" (also spelled "Dogue") is pronounced with a long
"o." Also, "locust" was the colonists' name for the 17-year cicada.
Describe the Susquehannocks' retreat and revenge. How did Bacon get involved? What was Berkeley's response, and how did events in New England shape it? How were his proposals received by the House of Burgesses? By the people? By Bacon?
How did the Occaneechees get involved? What was the outcome for them? What were Bacon's actions after the battle? How did Berkeley respond?
How did actions of the Maryland Assembly affect Indians? How was Bacon taken prisoner? How did Berkeley treat him? If the Burgesses supported Berkeley, how did Bacon get his commission?
Why did Berkeley flee to Arlington Plantation? How was a Bacon-style rebellion in Maryland stopped? Why did Bacon move his army against the Pamunkeys? How did Berkeley capture, and then lose Jamestown? Why did Bacon burn the town?
How did Bacon die? How did London respond to conflicting news from Virginia? Why didn't the rebellion die with Bacon? How were the rebels finally defeated? How did Berkeley show the rebels the price of their rebellion?
How did the arrival of King Charles II's instructions cause problems for Berkeley? How did the commissioners portray his actions in their report to the king? How did Berkeley defend himself, and with what success?
Why did people see the Indian problem as an Indian-and-Catholic problem? What Indian problems remained? What was the cause of the turmoil? What was the Popish Plot?
Describe the attempted actions of Fendall, Coode, and Godfrey, and their outcome. What was the tobacco-cutting "rebellion," and how was it put down? What were the effects of Charles II's death?
How did William and Mary take the throne from James II? How did the Virginia government handle events, and with what outcome? What rumors were flying? How did the Maryland government handle events, and with what outcome?
Why did Coode get away with rebellion, where Bacon had not? What made Francis Nicholson such a successful governor of Virginia and Maryland? Describe changes to Indian life, Indian slavery, and African slavery in the decades after Bacon's Rebellion.
How have historians portrayed Bacon's Rebellion at different times in history? Why did Rice tell the story the way he did? What is the significance of the title he chose for the book, compared to those of previous histories? How did Bacon foreshadow future Southern white relations with Indians? How did anti-Catholicism serve to unite colonists? How did race also serve to unite free white colonists and shape their society?
What, in the end, is the significance of Bacon's Rebellion?