16761776 Club
Bacon puts Jamestown to the torch; Berkeley has already fled
The governor's own capital burns rather than shelter him from the men he once called traitors.
By September 1676, Virginia's colonial capital had become a target for the frontier settlers it had failed to protect. Nathaniel Bacon, who had spent weeks marching against Governor Sir William Berkeley's authority, approached Jamestown with his armed followers. Berkeley, with a much smaller force, chose to abandon Jamestown rather than defend it against Bacon's approaching army. Bacon's men then set the town on fire, and Virginia's seat of government burned down…
