Why did the poor colonists of Virginia take their frustrations out on the Indians?
I Governor Berkeley was not protecting the colonists and was suspected of favoring the Indians.
__A)Elizabeth Bacon stated in a letter to her sister that "the Indians killing the people(English colonists) daily, the Governor not taking any notice of it to hinder them, but let them daily do all the mischief they can; I am sure it the Indian were not cowards, they might have destroyed all the upper plantation and killed all the people upon them; the Governors so much their friend, that he would not suffer any body to hurt one of the Indians... he (Nathaniel Bacon) begged of the Governor for a commission in several letters to him, that he might go out against them, but he would not grand one."
__B)The article A True Narrative of the Late Rebellion in Virginia, by the Royal Commissioners, 1677, excerpt. says "the [Colonists were] jealous that the Governor for the lucre of the Beaver and other trade etc. with the Indians, rather sought to protect the Indians than them. Since after public Proclamation prohibiting all trade with the Indians (they complain) he privately gave commission to some of his Friends to truck with them, and that those persons furnished the Indians with Powder, Shot etc.., so that they were better provided than his Majesty's Subjects."
__C) Mrs. William Bird states in the article Royal Commissioners Narrative, that "there was said to be above two hundred of the English murdered by the barbarous Indians, and posts [messages] came in daily to the Governor, giving notice of it, and yet no course was taken to secure them."
II The Indians were blamed for disaster that happened to the Colonists.
__A)Puglisi states in the article "Whether They be Friends of Foes," "When several residents[Praying Indians] of Hassenamesitt were accused of being involved in an attack on the town of Lancaster the previous August. The suspicion against them resulted from their 'Singing and Dancing, and having Bullets and Slugs, and much Powder hid in their Baskets.' Captured and put on trial in Boston, they were acquitted; that fact not withstanding, the General Court decided that 'for their own & the country's security.' the Praying Indians should be moved to islands in Boston Harbor, from which 'none of the said Indians shall presume to goe off... voluntarily upon praine of death.'"
__B)Another statement from the article "Whether They be Friends of Foes," is that "as attacks on New England towns continued unabated, and as more and more homes went up in flames, some colonists sought to vent their frustrations on the Praying Indians of Deer Island.
__C) "those Praying Indians who were allowed to stay on the mainland felt the brunt of the colonists' suspicions first-hand. During the fall of 1675, when the white residents of Chelmsford suffered from a series of mysterious fires in baystacks, barns, and houses, they immediately suspected the neighboring Wamesit Indians."
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