Lady Frances Berkeley/Amy Stallings: Bacon’s Rebellion, Colonial Virginia, and First-person Historical Interpretation

In this episode of Historically Thinking, we begin not with a historian’s voice, but with the voice of a seventeenth-century woman. Lady Frances Culpeper Berkeley—born in England, twice widowed, and married in 1670 to Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia—speaks from the midst of crisis. Jamestown has burned. Nathaniel Bacon’s rebellion has fractured the colony’s political order. Her husband has been recalled to England to answer charges before the Crown. Lady Berkeley, left behind, attempts to make sense of loyalty, loss, honor, and exile. That voice is brought to life by my second guest, Amy Stallings, a historian and historical interpreter who believes the past is best understood not only through documents, but through embodied experience. Together, we explore Bacon’s Rebellion from an unfamiliar vantage point, the interior world of Lady Frances Berkeley, and the intellectual stakes of historical reenactment itself: what it reveals, what it risks, and what it makes newly visible. 00:00 - Introduction 00:28 - Lady Frances Culpeper Berkeley Introduces Herself 00:58 - Writing to Her Husband in England 02:55 - Sir William Berkeley's Accomplishments in Virginia 04:23 - The Royal Commissioners and Personal Betrayal 05:47 - Berkeley's Loyalty During the English Civil War 07:17 - Berkeley's Resistance to Parliament 08:15 - Berkeley's Return to Power and Jamestown's Glory 09:39 - Nathaniel Bacon's Rebellion Begins 11:08 - Bacon Surrounds the State House 12:57 - Introducing Amy Stallings 13:41 - Theater and History Intertwined 14:27 - The Dissertation on Ballroom Politics 21:40 - Dance as Political Resistance 24:25 - English Country Dancing Before the Waltz 28:53 - First Character: Susan Binks, Tobacco Bride 28:53 - Learning History Through First-Person Interpretation 39:14 - Developing Lady Berkeley's Character 46:52 - Lady Berkeley's Isolation and Loss 46:52 - Lady Berkeley's Inheritance and Legal Battles 55:00 - The Challenges of Colonial Communication 57:00 - Sewing Period Costumes 61:51 - Conclusion