Exactly 100 years before the members of the 2nd Continental Congress pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of freedom, Jamestown became the location of America’s first true war for independence.

The year was 1676, and the key players were an impatient and heavy-handed governor named Sir William Berkeley, and the charismatic legislator and populist, Nathaniel Bacon.

The question was this: What are citizens supposed to do when their wives and children are being murdered and scalped on a regular basis, and the civil magistrate (in this case, the governor) not only refuses to defend them, but actually prohibits the citizenry from taking up arms in defense of their own family members?

There were other issues, too. The colonists of Jamestown and beyond did not care for the governor’s excessive taxation, incompetence, or corruption. But the tipping point was Berkeley’s perceived war against women and children.

To read more, click here to see my WorldNetDaily column for June 8.