Ohio History Journal

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ing food and supplies. She quoted the words of President Lincoln that

without the women of the north the union could not have preserved.

The speaker dwelt at some length on the honors that Ohio women

had won in various pursuits and callings, that over one hundred of them

had been given medals for their part in great achievements. She gave a

number of important actions benefiting womankind in which the initiative

was taken by Ohio women.

Mrs. Sherwood spoke of the suffrage movement for women and

said there was a class of men who were afraid to give women the right

of suffrage because they were afraid that they would get the offices.

In speaking of the suffrage movement she said the finest country in the

world was getting to be a back number as far as women was concerned.

She told of the rights that women had in voting, notably in Finland.

Mrs. Sherwood advocated organizations of women in the towns,

villages and state, for the benefit of women. She impressed upon them

the necessity of taking an active part in the work of uplifting mankind.

"We must answer the question, 'Am I my Brother's Keeper?' There

is only one answer for the women of Ohio, and that is 'Yes, I am my

brother's keeper.'"

Mrs. Sherwood's address was listened to with much interest and she

was frequently interrupted with applause.

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

BY ELROY M. AVERY- VOL. III.

The Jamestown Episode.

The Jamestown Exposition now in progress located in Princess Anne

County, Virginia, at the mouth of the James River, while not drawing

the crowds of visitors that were expected and that its merits deserve is

certainly attracting the attention of historical readers and students through-

out the country, and reviving among them the accounts of the memorable

events connected with the establishment of the first permanent Anglo-

Saxon settlement on this continent. Though the Exposition commemora-

ting the event, for reasons of accessibility is situated as above noted, the

scene of the actual historical occurrence is at Jamestown Island some

thirty miles up the James River.

The Norseman had invaded New England several centuries before,

and the Spaniards had explored the territory all along the Gulf. There

had been vain attempts at English colonization.  Sir Walter Raleigh's

"lost colony of Roanoke" had been started and had disappeared from

the shores of North Carolina, when on May 13 (old style), 1607, the

three little ships, the "Susan Constant," the "Goodspeed" and the "Dis-

covery" landed on the little island called James Towne--from the

510        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

massive golde; and for rubies and diamonds, they go forth in Holydayes

and gather them by the seashore.' And so to give full roundness to the

picture, he promises, 'no more law than conscience and not too much of

eyther.' Christopher Newport was commander of the fleet; with him

were Bartholomew Gosnold, who had sailed to and from Cuttyhunk, and

Captain John Smith, an indomitable adventurer, who had set up a dubious

claim to glory won in the wars against the Turks." After describing the

entering into the Chesapeake Bay, the touching at "good Comfort" -Old

Point - Mr. Avery describes their going up the river as far as the mouth

of the Appomattox and returning till towards the end of the fortnight

the ships came to the chosen place "'where our ships do lie so near the

shore that they are moored to the trees in six fathom of water.' The

next day, 'we landed all our men which were set to work about the

fortifications, and others some to watch and ward, as it was convenient.'

In honor of the king, this first firm settlement of Raleigh's 'Englishe

nation' was named James Towne. The site chosen was a little more

than thirty miles from the mouth of the river and on a low peninsula

that was then connected with the mainland by a narrow neck that con-

stituted an isthmus only at ordinary tides. The site was unhealthful, the

selection was unfortunate. As this isthmus was submerged when the

tide was above its normal level, most of the early references to the locality

speak of it as an island. For instance, early in 1609, Captain John Smith

'built a Blockhouse in the neck of our Islet,' as a protection against the

Indians. What appears to be traces of the isthmus are still found one

or two feet below low tide. Owing to the long-continued encroachments

of the river, part of the original town is now under water." The fortunes

of the colony are graphically recited by Mr. Avery, we refer the reader

to his chapter in the volume named (2) under the title "Virginia under

the Charter." In his third volume, recently issued and now before us,

Mr. Avery continues the story of this settlement in chapter two under the

heading "Virginia- Bacon's Rebellion." Few events in early American

history are more dramatic or more fraught with significant Americanism

than this same Bacon's Rebellion. The longest rule of one man in our

colonial history was that of Sir William Berkeley, who became royal

governor of Virginia in 1642 and continued to hold the office till 1677,

with the exception of a few years under the Cromwellian commonwealth

(1653-1660). This appointee of the gay Charles I. over the destinies of

the Jamestown settlement was, says Mr. Avery, "a courtly, well bred,

merciless zealot, who 'believed in monarchy as a devotee believes in his

saint,' and had the courage of his convictions."  Berkeley carried his

authority with a high hand. He was a Royalist to the core, greedy,

grasping and a grafter of the most pronounced type. Mr. Avery says:

"For thirty years, the Virginia Indians had been peaceful and the beaver

trade had been profitable. About this time, the Iroquois drove the Sus-

quehannas southward along both sides of the Potomac. Disputes and

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depredations followed, and, in the summer of 1675, the Virginia and

Maryland militia pursued and punished the heathen.' A score or more

of the Indians were killed, some of them in disregard of a flag of truce,

and others escaped to the mountains. One night in January, 1676, nearly

twoscore whites were murdered in the upper settlements. Lieutenant-

governor Chicheley prepared to take the field with a force of five hundred

men. At the moment of his departure, the force was disbanded by the

governor. Berkley's action was unaccountable to the people except on

the ground of self-interest, for he held the profitable monopoly of the

Indian traffic. In his account of the troubles in Virginia, Nathaniel

Bacon says that the governor 'granted licenses to others tc trade wth ym

for wch hee had every 3rd skinne.' The exasperated populace declared

that if the governor would not defend them they would defend themselves.

"While the King Philip war was raging in New England, the

Susquehannas and their allies were doing bloody work along the Rappa-

hannock and the James. In seventeen days, one parish was reduced from

seventy-one plantations to eleven. In March, 1676, the Virginian assembly

met; it 'was the old and rotten one chosen fourteen years before,' and

it continued to do 'what the governor desired and what the people detested.'

The settlers vainly begged the governor to appoint a commander to lead

them against the foe. When they heard that a large body of Indians was

within fifty miles of the plantations, the citizens of Charles City County

beat their drums for volunteers. Here is a cause; this is the time;

where is the leader?

"Nathaniel Bacon had been nursed in the fierce strifes of the Crom-

wellian era. His address was pleasing and his speech was eloquent. At

the age of about twenty-six, he came with wealth of worldly goods to

make Virginia his home. He had an estate at Curles, just below the

old city of Henricus, and another at Bacon Quarter Branch, a small

stream within the suburbs of the present city of Richmond. In spite of

his youth and recent coming, he was soon honored with a seat in the

colonial council, of which his second cousin, Nathaniel Bacon the elder,

had long been a member. Although he had never seen a hostile Indian,

the younger Bacon's neighbors sought for him a commission to lead them

against the Indians but no commission came. In the spring of 1676, when

Bacon had been in Virginia less than three years, the Indians killed three

servants of his neighbor, Captain Byrd, one of his own servants, and

the overseer of his upper estate. Bacon swore vengence for the murders

and resolved to march against the Indians with or without a commission.

"As a leader, Bacon was distinctively of the frontier type-pas-

sionate, forceful, wilful-the avant-courier of Sevier, Robertson, and

Jackson. He was now persuaded, perhaps easily, to cross the James River

to see the volunteers assembled on the other side. As he came near,

they, after the old English fashion, set up a sudden shout, 'A Bacon, a

Bacon !' Elected thus by acclamation, he consented to lead in the defense

512        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

of threatened homes and in the recovery of lost liberties. The three

hundred volunteers wrote their names in a round-robin and took an oath

to stick fast to one another and to him. They sent once more to

Berkeley for a commission and gave notice that if it did not come by

a special day they would march without it. The day but no final com-

mission came. Bacon was as good as his word and the expedition moved.

He was at once proclaimed a rebel, a price was set upon his head, and

they who followed him were put under ban."

We wish space might permit the quoting in full of Mr. Avery's ac-

count of the Bacon Rebellion. In defiance of Berkeley's orders Bacon

marched against the Indians, inflicting on them a stinging defeat. Berkeley,

greatly incensed at the insolent insubordination of this young rebel, started

after him with a troop of horse; but scarcely had he left Jamestown

when he learned that the colonists had risen against him. Hastening back,

he found that he must do something to regain his authority and so

dissolved the long colonial assembly which had been his abject tool and

ordered a new election. This was duly held and Bacon was elected to

the new house of Burgesses. He was its controlling spirit and this as-

sembly passed a series of reform acts known as "Bacon's Laws." The

old governor, desperate over the state of affairs, dissolved the assembly

and proclaimed Bacon a traitor, while the latter was at the head of

another expedition against the Indians. Bacon, after attending to the red

skins, marched at the head of several hundred followers upon Jamestown

and burned it to the ground. He had become the chosen champion of the

people's rights when death, resulting from the terrible fever so prevalent

on the island, conquered him. Thus passed from the stage of action the

first rebel in American annals. He was a most picturesque and potent

character. The vindicative and merciless Berkeley wreaked his vengence

on the leaderless followers of Bacon, until he had hanged more than a

score. Not even the King could stand for Berkeley's cruel stupidity.

"The old fool has taken more lives in that naked country than I have

taken for the murder of my father," said the second Charles. Berkeley

was recalled (1677) to England. He was broken hearted and disgraced

and "dyed soon after without having seen his majesty; which shuts up

this tragedy." We have dwelt upon the Jamestown colony in connection

with Mr. Avery's history because it is the subject of the hour and the

completeness, in his elegant style and accurate adherence to the facts,

of this episode ilustrate the character of Mr. Avery's History of the

United States. This third volume, as Mr. Avery says in his preference,

"is devoted to the period between the active colonization and the final

struggle for the conquest of New France. As a whole, the period herein

treated, 'the neglected period of American history;' lacks the dramatic

characteristics of the years that went before and of those that come after."

Perhaps as to the actual current of events in the period described, that

may be so, but Mr. Avery's delightful diction, careful choice of the

Editorialana.                        513

salient features and constructive powers in logically linking events with

one another, carries the reader through this volume and its period without

permitting his interest to flag or his enjoyment to diminish. The numerous

and beautiful illustrations, and the plentiful accompanyment of maps and

charts greatly add to the pleasure and profit derived therefrom by the

reader. We still pronounce it the most complete, reliable and readable

history of our country yet produced. This history is to consist of fifteen

volumes and is published by the Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland,

Ohio. The publishers will forward circulars and prospectus to any address

sent them.

HONORARY AND LIFE MEMBERS OF THE OHIO STATE

ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

HONORARY MEMBERS.

Bancroft, Hon. Hubert Howe, San Francisco, Cal.,

De Reune, Mrs. Mary, Augusta, Ga.,

Gladden, Washington, D.D., LL. D., Columbus,

Nicholson, John P., Pittsburg, Pa.,

Putnam, Prof. F. W., Cambridge, Mass.,

Winslow, Dr. William Copley, Boston, Mass.

LIFE MEMBERS.

Alexander, Ross J., Bridgeport,

Anderson, Judge J. H., Columbus,

Anderson, Gen. Thomas M., Sandusky,

Andrews, Prof. Martin R., Marietta,

Archer, E. H., Columbus,

Avery, Dr. Elroy M., Cleveland,

Bareis, George F., Canal Winchester,

Barnes, Harley, Painesville,

Barney, E. J., Dayton,

Bartholomew, Prof. George K., Cincinnati,

Baughman, A. J., Mansfield,

Baum, J. E., Bourneville,

Beal, Prof. J. H., Scio,

Beatty, Ben. John, Columbus,

Bell, Dr. Clark, New York City, N. Y.,

Berolzheimer, Dr. D. D., New York City, N. Y.,

Boston Atheneum Library, Boston, Mass.,

Bozman, Chas. L., Beverly,

Bowers, T. B., Columbus,

Brinkerhoff, Gen. R., Mansfield,

Vol. XVI.- 33.