According to the Colonial National Historical Park website, Bacon's Rebellion can be attributed to a myriad of causes. Economic problems, such as declining tobacco prices, growing commercial competition from Maryland and the Carolinas, an increasingly restricted English market, the rising prices from English manufactured goods caused problems for the Virginians. The problem with tobacco prices was the most significant problem. Throughout the 1660's, tobacco prices were low and Virginia planters struggled to show a profit because of cost of producing tobacco remained high despite the use of slave labor. These economic problems were compounded by the Virginia governor's unsuccessful efforts to defend the frontier against attacks by Native Americans. It has been suggested that Governor Berkeley refused to react to the claims that the Indians were committing murders and thefts on the frontier because he and his inner circle were making a profit trading with the Indians. These difficulties encouraged the colonists to find a scapegoat against whom they could vent their frustrations and place the blame for their misfortunes (McCulley).
According to the PBS website online, the Virginia colonists found their enemy or scapegoat in the form of the local Indians and the colonists found their leader in Nathaniel Bacon. Nathaniel Bacon was a young lawyer who had emigrated from London to become a planter in Virginia. He believed that all Indians were enemies of the colonists, a popular viewpoint among colonists. In July of 1675, there was an Indian raid on a plantation in Virginia. The colonial governor denied Bacon a military commission, but Bacon nevertheless led a militia against all local Indians. For this reason Bacon's Rebellion is sometimes called a popular revolt. Nathaniel Bacon convinced the Occaneechees Indians to capture warriors from a nearby tribe and return them to Bacon. Bacon's militia killed the captives, and then opened fire...