Shays ' Rebellion : Authority And Distress

The March of the Paxton Boys, Regulator Movement, Shay’s rebellion, and the Whiskey rebellion were violent byproducts of young America’s struggle with democracy to express the people’s grievances in the eighteenth century, notably those who lived in the backcountries such as farmers.

Robert Gross’ The Minutemen and Their World examines a town 's role in the events of the colonial revolution. Specifically that of Concord, Massachusetts in the years before, during and after the Revolution. Gross provides details about the inner workings of town politics, religion, and society for the period. He notes how town’s people’s rivalries and religious fissures occupied the townspeople through the prerevolutionary period. Gross details how Concord was largely absent from the pre-Revolutionary activities of other communities, and then the unification process that occurred as conflict grew closer. By analyzing specific events in the town’s history Goss is able to draw conclusions about why certain events took place leading up to

A progression of tax revolts by Massachusetts ranchers against the Massachusetts law making body in 1786-1787. Shays' Rebellion, the post-Revolutionary conflict between New England ranchers and traders that tried the unsafe organizations of the new republic, debilitated to dive the divided states into a common war. The Rebellion emerged in Massachusetts in 1786, spread to different states, and finished in a failed assault on a government munitions stockpile. It slowed down in 1787 with the decision of a more well known representative, a financial rise, and the formation of the Constitution of the United States in Philadelphia.

Throughout history, rebellions have occurred in attempts to solve issues of discontent caused by wants or needs that were not met. Bacon’s Rebellion, the Stono Rebellion, the uprising of the Paxton Boys, and the Regulator Movement all represent situations of this kind. For Nathaniel Bacon and the Paxton Boys it was conflict of security; they were not receiving adequate protection from the natives. For the slaves and the western Carolinians, it was an issue of freedom and injustice.They resented the unfair treatment they experienced and wanted this inequality to change. These events represented just four in a long history of American conflicts and oppression where, as Bacon, the slaves, the Paxton Boys, and the Carolinians demonstrate, one

Although not widely known, Shays’s Rebellion greatly impacted the debate on sovereignty and led many to conclude that the only possible solution was the centralization of power in a national authority. Historian John Garraty notes, “The lessons became plain: Liberty must not become an excuse for license; and therefore greater authority must be vested in the central government.”[1] While this effect was not the “rebels’” intended goal, Shays’s Rebellion helped shape the construction of the U.S. Constitution and the American political thought that has since followed. An analysis of both the causes and effects of Shays’s Rebellion highlights its contribution to the

Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in western Massachusetts that run from 1786 to 1787. The rebels, led by Daniel Shays were small farmers angered by debilitating debt and taxes and failure to repay such debts often resulted in imprisonment in prisons. This was viewed by many as unjust, unfair and primarily favoring those with money. The levying of the taxes was orchestrated so as to put money back to the coffers after the American revolution. Those adversely affected were small scale subsistence farmers and because of this, many found it extremely difficult to feed and cloth their families. There was also the issue of the tax system. The tax system at this time was regressive in that much of the Eastern state economies lay in the

“I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing” (Jefferson). Thomas Jefferson wrote these words in a letter to James Madison after hearing about Shay’s Rebellion while he was a foreign diplomat in Paris. After the rebellion happened, the “Shaysites” as they were called, were labeled as traitors to their country and the democratic form of government. But were they really? Many of the men fighting in the rebellion felt that they were being oppressed just as they had been under British rule.

Likewise to the Regulator Movement, Shay’s Rebellion occurred because of the property taken away from the poor farmers. Shay’s Rebellion of Massachusetts was caused from post war recession, lack of payment of army stipends, failure to receive payment from bonds, and farmers going into debt, which led to property being taken away from the yeomen farmers; this rebellion was significant in the terms of the realization of a stronger national government and the call for the Annapolis Convention. The elitist has little idea on what to do with the new found freedom. Currency was not yet established. Naturally a recession occurred. Trade came to a standstill. Nothing was coming in nor out. Furthermore, Shay’s Rebellion happened due to lack of

Professor Thomas Slaughter has provided a most thorough overview of the Whiskey Rebellion, which he asserts had by the time this book was conceived nearly two centuries after the episode transpired, had become a largely forgotten chapter of our nation's history since the time of the Civil War. He cites as direct evidence of this fact the almost complete absence of any mention of the event in many contemporary textbooks of the conservative era of the 1980's, which this reviewer can attest to as well, having been a high school student in the late 1970's, who never heard of the Whiskey Rebellion until years later. Building off of his own dissertation on the topic, the author convincingly shows that the Whiskey Rebellion was in fact an event

The main conflict of Shay’s rebellion was farmers in debt versus the state of Massachusetts’ government. Shays’ rebellion was quite similar to the American revolution, it was citizens resisting the government when nothing was done to fix the nation’s issues. The Articles

The Regulator movement was a pre-Revolutionary War era revolt in the North and South Carolina colonies. The movement occurred because the government that controlled the backcountry farmers was guilty of extorting the lower

The War of the Regulation was a revolution orchestrated by the Regulators that took place in the North Carolina colonies of British America between 1765 and 17711. The citizens of these colonies were fighting against the colonial officials due to corruption, economic depression, and population increase. Furthermore, it is considered to have been the propeller of the American Civil War, as citizens fought for the same rights and the need for representation in the government. The revolution marked an important time in America’s history, as it highlights the importance of democracy and the need for equality across ethnic, class, and other social disparities. An understanding of the War of the Regulation highlights a significant time in the

Daniel Shays Rebellion took place during the time of America's post war depression that from 1784-1787. The rebellion fits into the theme of ‘culture and society’. The confederation had an enormous debt that had built up during the Revolutionary War. Congress showed its weakness that weighed heavily on debtors and having no power to tax. The confederation could only make requisition on the states but even then could only receive one-sixth of the money. Robert Morris and his Philadelphia allies had an idea for a centralized government after the flaws found in the Articles of Confederation.

Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia by Woody Holton, inspects life in America leading up to the rebellion from Britain. From big names, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to regular citizens of the colonies, America faces its greatest challenge: will they be able to strike up enough force to remove themselves indefinitely from the British Empire, politically and militarily. While we all know how militias were formed and eventually one army led by General George Washington, the true evolvement and advancement came from the quill and parchment. Just as Martin Luther King once said, “if you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write”.