Henrico Mecklenburg Virginia United States

A group of so-called "freeholders" or yeomen farmers on the Virginia frontier, in outlying locations such as those in Henrico and the Northern Neck (the northernmost of three peninsulas on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay), have had frequent conflicts with natives.

They had demanded in 1674 that those living on treaty-protected lands be driven out or killed.

A group of Doeg had in September 1675  'stolen' some hogs from planter Thomas Mathews, in retaliation for his failure to pay them for trade goods, after which colonists had killed several natives in the raiding party.

Doeg warriors killed Mathews' herdsman Robert Hen in another round of retaliation.

Two Virginia militia captains (both with a history of aggression toward the natives) go after the Doeg, but with little discrimination, also kill fourteen friendly Susquehannock in the process; a series of retaliatory raids ensues.

When Berkeley refuses to go against the Native Americans, farmers gather around at the report of a new raiding party.

Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy English planter, arrives with a quantity of brandy; after it is distributed, he is elected leader.

Against Berkeley's orders, the group strikes south until ...

Bacon and his followers discover upon their return that Berkeley has called for new elections to the Burgesses in order to better facilitate the Indian problem.

The seventy-one-year-old Berkeley, slow to act to attacks by natives, is viewed by many colonists as incompetent, making his authority easy to undermine.

Bacon accuses Berkeley of corruption and, when Berkeley refuses to grant Bacon a military commission to attack the natives, musters his own force of dour hundred to five hundred men and attacks the Doeg and Pamunkey tribes, who previously had not been involved in the conflict.