Question

. The actions of Virginia’s governor led to Bacon’s Rebellion. What do you think Governor Berkeley could have done differently to prevent the rebellion?

Answer 1

Sir William Berkeley was the longest-serving governor of Virginia (1641–1652, 1660–1677), a playwright, and author of Discourse and View of Virginia (1663), which argued for a more diversified colonial economy. After being educated at Oxford and after a brief study of the law, Berkeley gained access to the royal circle surrounding King Charles I, and one of his plays, The Lost Lady (1638), was performed for the king and queen. In 1641, he was named governor and captain general of Virginia, where he raised tobacco but also, at Green Spring, experimented with more diverse crops. His first stint as governor, marked by his willingness to share power and by the rise in stature of the General Assembly in Jamestown, ended with the king's execution. Berkeley's restoration coincided with King Charles II's, but his second governorship was much less successful. He failed to diversify the tobacco-based economy or to convince many settlers that the colony was adequately protecting them from Indian attacks. In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon challenged Berkeley directly, even laying siege to and then burning Jamestown. Although Bacon's Rebellion (1676–1677) was suppressed, Berkeley's authority had been undermined, and he was replaced by Herbert Jeffreys in 1677. In May of that year Berkeley sailed to England to plead his case, but before he could meet the king, he died on July 9.

Answer 2

William Berkeley was a colonial Virginia governor, he was in the power in two different periods, in the second he wasn´t able to rule appropriately.

he started to behave and administrate Virginia in a questionable manner, being incompetent as the main problem, showing a different attitude in this part in specific, would have changed significantly the outcome of the events.

The disagreements with the indian policy, and the inability to separate and contain the indigenous groups from the white settlers, caused to him important problems with both groups was definitely a critical point that led to his failure as governor. So acting with more character, and having a more conscious way to rule with more practical methods due to the different ethnical groups that composed the society of the era.