Shay's Rebellion Research Paper

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.

(5) In Massachusetts, Daniel Shay led many farmers who were in debt to the courthouse to protest. Many of these farmers had fought in the war and when they came back they were in debt from all the taxes. This was later known as Shay’s Rebellion and since these farmers were in almost every state, state officials were afraid that this uprising would spread. Because of Shay’s Rebellion, the officials wanted to preclude further rebellion from occurring throughout the states. For if it did up rise, they knew their government would look even more unstable from other countries point of view. George Washington’s repartee was that their enemies would be happy to see that they were not able to govern themselves.

Shays' Rebellion was the first uprising of the new nation. The battles were fought in Massachusetts. During the time period of 1786-1787, The United States government decided to raise taxes, in order to raise capital and

The actions of the members of the Shay’s Rebellion were justified because state officials took their land, to pay their own debt. Shay’s Rebellion was a fight against government control. The country after the Revolutionary War was severely damaged especially in the trade market. The British cut off trades in the West Indies market crippling the economy. Due to the poor economy the farmers had difficulty selling their products and being able to pay the money requested to the government to pay off their war debts. This enabled the states to take the farmers’ land to pay the state's debts. Shay’s Rebellion, although dangerous the rebellion wanted to force the government to making their own money and create new policies in order to pay off the

In the book “Shays’ Rebellion: Authority and Distress in Post-revolutionary America”, Sean Condon shows us his outlook on how he saw post-revolutionary America to be within the late 1770’s and 1780’s. This book was released in 2015 by John Hopkins University Press, and was also made in a continuing book series by Peter Charles Hoffer and Willamjames Hull Hofer called Witness to History. The story takes us "Throughout the late summer and fall of 1786, farmers in central and western Massachusetts organized themselves into armed groups to protest against established authority and aggressive creditors. Calling themselves "regulators" or the "voice of the people.”” [1] Condon succeeds by prosing an appealing idea in an upfront style that shapes

8. Shay’s Rebellion- farmers in the central part of Massachusetts with the leader Daniel Shays seized the armory in Springfield, Massachusetts before the state militia put down the rebellion and executed several of the conspirators. Exposed the weakness of the American government under the old “articles of confederation” added urgency to the meeting in Philadelphia to replace articles with constitution. A bunch of farmers put a threat on government. See whiskey Rebellion 1794, the government was stronger with the constitution.

Similarly, in Shay’s Rebellion, Yeoman farmers in Massachusetts, according to Abigail Adams’ letter to Thomas Jefferson, “were crying out for a paper currency, some for an equal distribution of property” (Doc G). Shay’s Rebellion symbolizes the economic troubles that the poor had to deal with.

Daniel Shays’ participated in wars early on in his life, but eventually settled in Pelham, Massachusetts, and owned about 250 acres of farmland. Continued financial difficulties from the war led Shays to sell over half the farmland, and later being sued for unpaid debts and had much difficulty in meeting his obligations. A prodigious amount of farmers in Massachusetts during this time were going through similar financial hardships; because of the Massachusetts legislature attempting to pay off its state’s war debts, they used hard taxation policies, causing situations to become worse. People petitioned for better relief and reforms but none came, the legislature in Massachusetts ignoring the fact that their citizens are petitioning and sending them resolutions to fix this problem. This led to the rebellion of the farmers against the government: Shays’ Rebellion.

Shay’s rebellion came to fruition from fed up citizens that took up action to fight what they saw as a tyrannical ruler. Met with the possibility of more conflict, the government was forced to create the Bill of Rights, which would grant American citizens a set of basic rights that no one could take away. The hypocrisy and inconsistency of the United Stated was shown, as the three fifths compromise was put into effect as well, slave would now count as three fifths of a person. A bill that had taken a pledge to give civil rights to the people of America was released the same time slaves were counted as slightly more than half a person.

Many farmers were angered, but had faith in their new government. According to William Manning, who lived during the Rebellion, “…the people were driven to the greatest extremity. Many counties took to conventions remonstrances, and petitions to a court where they were not half represented” (Manning). For four years, counties from all over the state sent polite petitions to the government stating that the rural economy was in atrocious shape and asking for the government to give them some relief, all of which the government ignored (Smith). As the Massachusetts government continued to ignore their petitions, many farmers started to see similarities between how they were being treated by their new government and how the had been treated by Great Britain. Finally after four years in 1786, when the legislature ignored the petitions once again people in communities like Pelham had been patient long enough. They felt it was time for action and turned to the method that had worked just a few short years ago.

From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation did not provide the United States with an effective government. This is due to the following three reasons: The United States’ lack of an army, nonexistent judicial branch, and surplus of power to the states. After the American Revolution concluded, thousands of soldiers returned home to find little or nothing left. Financial support the government had promised the soldiers with after the war was no longer available due to the inability of the central government to collect taxes as stated in the Articles (Doc. C). This later resulted in Shays’ Rebellion, a march led by Daniel Shays in western Massachusetts during January of 1787.

While rebellion is not always a healthy thing, as a result of Shay’s Rebellion we have learned many things about financial hardship after the Revolutionary War, how this affected masses of people, and how rebellion has shaped America today. Daniel Shays was one of the main leaders of the rebellion known as Shay’s Rebellion that occurred from 1786 to 1787, what Jonathan Smith says to be “one the most dramatic and significant incidents in the critical post-Revolutionary War period.” (Smith 77) With the Revolutionary War coming to an end in September of 1783, America, and its citizens, were struggling not only financially, but also politically. Financial struggles stemmed from the massive debt that the U.S. acquired

There were multiple reasons that people decided to rebel against the government during. One cause of the rebellion was because debt collectors were trying to collect money that the people did not have. The money taken from the people was causing people to not be able to care for himself or herself or put money back to the community. Another reason for the rebellion was that they believe the money raised was going to the government for personal interest instead of going to the debt they owe to other countries. The next reason was that Habeas Corpus was suspended. Habeas Corpus was put in place to bring people accused of wrongdoing before a judge as a way give legal rights to the people. The suspension of Habeas Corpus caused what the people believed was “unjust punishment.” (Gray) The final reason for their rebellion was that Justices of the Peace, including Sheriffs and Deputies, were given unlimited power, which was used as a way to get revenge and show hatred. (Gray) Shay’s rebellion did open the eyes of many Politicians and they had worked the replace the constitution after. During this Rebellion, “the people engaged in civil disobedience, violence against the tax collectors and threatened to secede tram the new republic.” (The Whiskey

Shay’s Rebellion went too far with the whole thing. Going against a government choice is

Another reason why Shays men were rebels is because his men would try to take over Federal Arsenals. Benjamin would refer to Shays’ Rebellion as “ mad attempts to overthrow the government of Massachusetts”. The efforts to overthrow the government were proceeded from the ignorance or the wickedness of a few. These actions showed that they were rebels.