When Wilcolmb E. Washburn formulated his thesis regarding Bacon’s Rebellion in The Governor and the Rebel: A History of Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia, he did so as a direct response to and criticism of the widely accepted views held on the subject by most historians for the century prior. These views were epitomized in Torchbearer of the Revolution: The Story of Bacon’s Rebellion and Its Leader, written by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, which lauded Nathaniel Bacon’s rebellion as a precursor to the revolutionary fervor and ideology of the American Revolution a century later. The accounts written by Washburn and Wertenbaker differ in their interpretation of common sources, ascribing contradictory motives to the main players, chiefly Bacon and
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Though he does refer to Wertenbaker’s work as “extensive new research,” he points out that Wertenbaker, like those before him, based his theory on the documents of the Public Record Office in London and recorded “an even stronger proponent of the ‘democratic reform’ theory than his post-Revolutionary predecessors” (p. 15). Washburn implies that Wertenbaker’s “belief in Bacon’s Rebellion as a democratic reform movement” was a product of his own personal convictions, prior scholarship written by those with similar convictions, and a bank of resources that only revealed part of the story. In doing so, he further explains his own justification for a new and opposing …show more content…
Both authors’ represent a bias in their insight on the rebellion, Wertenbaker in favor of Bacon and Washburn in favor of Berkeley, and this is largely due to the sources from which they drew their conclusions as well as their personal convictions and intentions in recording the history of the rebellion. Their writings reflect two completely different understandings of an event which, in one way or the other, shaped the history of the American
Though he does refer to Wertenbaker’s work as “extensive new research,” he points out that Wertenbaker, like those before him, based his theory on the documents of the Public Record Office in London and recorded “an even stronger proponent of the ‘democratic reform’ theory than his post-Revolutionary predecessors” (p. 15). Washburn implies that Wertenbaker’s “belief in Bacon’s Rebellion as a democratic reform movement” was a product of his own personal convictions, prior scholarship written by those with similar convictions, and a bank of resources that only revealed part of the story. In doing so, he further explains his own justification for a new and opposing …show more content…
Both authors’ represent a bias in their insight on the rebellion, Wertenbaker in favor of Bacon and Washburn in favor of Berkeley, and this is largely due to the sources from which they drew their conclusions as well as their personal convictions and intentions in recording the history of the rebellion. Their writings reflect two completely different understandings of an event which, in one way or the other, shaped the history of the American