Roads of Rebellion and Resistance: Tracing English and Indigenous Paths Across Virginia’s Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "A Land Unto Itself: Virginia's Northern Neck, Colonialism, And The Early Atlantic", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Bacon’s Rebellion (1676–1677) was the first wide-scale armed insurrection in English America. Trouble began in 1675 in Virginia’s Northern Neck with retaliatory raids between colonial militias and Native Americans. While some settlers dug in, fortifying their plantations, others rallied behind Nathaniel Bacon, Jr. on the road to rebellion. After marching south on Jamestown, Bacon’s rebels assembled in the Middle Peninsula to attack neighboring Indigenous Nations. To protect their communities, the Pamunkeys, Mattaponis, Rappahannocks, and Nanzaticos withdrew into Dragon Swamp, following centuries-old paths through the dense, winding, blackwater wetlands. Using land records and GIS, this paper traces 17th-century trails, paths, and roads to better understand not only English activities across the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula, but how Indigenous peoples moved through their homeland, evading Bacon’s contingent for weeks. Mapping demonstrates that although the landscape of movement evolved beyond the conflict, these historic routes ultimately endure, embedded in the contemporary landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A Land Unto Itself: Virginia's Northern Neck, Colonialism, And The Early Atlantic   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow