Shays Rebellion Tax Rebellion

Shay’s rebellion was led by a man named Daniel Shay in 1787. This was an historic event that shaped history in its own way. This uprising began in Massachusetts in the year of 1786. Daniel shay was characterized and labeled as a rebel, traitor, and a coward. He was also considered a devoted nationalist and a decent military officer supporting America’s revolution. He dedicated over five years of his life in service of America`s government. He mobilized everyone who disagreed with his government’s actions during the time. Shay was able to lead a militia of over 2000 men. The militia was armed and willing and ready to burn down Boston. According to miller (71), Jefferson heard of the rebellion while in France but felt that it would not last long.

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

Recently, something has been going on, Shays’ Rebellion. To those who don’t know what it is, it is a series of protests against tax collections and judgments for debt. Named after and led by Daniel Shays, these protests have been going on for a while. About two months, to be exact. All about the states, from New Hampshire to South Carolina, farmers were taking up arms in protest. However, in Massachusetts, the rebellion was the most serious, because farmers were threatened with the loss of their farms due to high taxes, bad harvests, and economic depression. As the recession deepened, communities throughout Massachusetts petitioned the State legislature for fiscal relief. Thousands marched to shut down courts they believed betrayed the principles

The supporters of Shays’ Rebellion were doing what was right and letting the government know that they didn’t like the immensely high taxes that were in place. They fought for their rights, were illegitimately jailed, and the law enforcement misused their authority. Even if the odds were against them, the farmers still took action and protested. These signs of bravery and courage show that the protesters were not rebels, but freedom

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.

Beginning with the Stamp Acts, the first tax (March 22nd, 1765) to the colonists by the British, ignited the strong belief of “no taxation without representation” coined by Jonathan Mayhew. The Stamp Acts consisted of a tax on ship’s papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and playing cards; which in the colonist’s defense, is a common item especially with merchants who would have to buy licenses and ship papers on the daily. The money gathered by the Stamp Act was to pay for the ten thousand troops to be stationed near the Appalachian mountains in the case of defending them. However, colonists believed that taxes previously were to help economic growth, but not raise money. Also, no colonial legislative actions had given approval either (Document 6).

“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.

However, the major thing that affect the Articles of confederation, was Shay’s Rebellion in 1787. The crisis of the 1780s was the most intense in the rural and relatively newly settles areas of central and Western Massachusetts. Many farmers in this area suffered from high debt due to the Grenville Acts which reduced the colonies, 6000 dollars debt, as they tried to start new farms. Unlike many other state legislatures in the 1780’s, the Massachusetts government did not respond to the economic

In Gazette Printing of List of Grievances Poem, the rebels stated that “the Court should set in Boston” and “the mode of taxation is, vexation, so heavily laid on the poll.” These examples are only some of the grievances listed by the farmers. The farmers also complained about the legislature residing in Boston, high taxes, and the general lack of money. The rebels wanted taxes to be cut, a revision of the poll tax law to be based on income, accept a barter system as a form of payment, and reduce legal fees of the courts and lawyers. They also wanted a formal issue of paper money, also known as “tender laws”, and institute a freeze on the Revolutionary War debt payments, or “Stay Laws.” After the farmer’s grievances and protests were ignored, the people of Massachusetts decided to take direct action and started Shays’

Shays’ Rebellion was a series of protests after the Revolutionary War, meant to help the poor farmers in the states. Individual states had debts, it wasn’t only the country in debt, and new taxing policies such as duties on imported goods added increased financial burden on citizens. Farmers were at risk of losing their farms, which were the only way they could make money in the first place. Shays wanted reforms to take place, in the form of tax help, paper money to assist in paying debts, and the removal of debtor’s prison. His followers prevented authorities from collecting taxes that were due, stopped them from collecting property and selling it, and held up the courts to prevent work being done. Even though they were defeated when they attempted to take weapons from Springfield, their acts were a wake up call to politicians. It reinforced the need for a new form of federal government, and eventually ended up getting at least some help to the people the protesters

It was said that if the government did not have the consent of the governed then it must rebel and overpower the government and that was what the farmers in Massachusetts did in response to the huge economic crisis of the 1780s. It was Shay’s Rebellion which started by a large group of farmers and angry people in Massachusetts in 1787 as a protest to the injustices that they thought were created by the wealthy elite establishment, and the political elite in the state government that seemed to be working together with the wealthy’s interests.They felt like courts favored only the wealthy elite and they thought that they weren't being heard in this new government.There was a policy passed by the legislatures that put farmers in debt.There was

Admittedly, one significant continuity in violent protest in America from 1763 to 1791 was that the rebellions were always led by ordinary people to change government to benefit themselves. In the beginning of the period beginning in 1763, the first rebellion occurred in America, The March of the Paxton Boys. The Paxton Boy were Scots-Irish frontiersmen who created a small group in 1763 to retaliate against the the native attacks on the western frontier of Virginia and Pennsylvania that originated from the Pontiac’s Rebellion. They retaliated because the lack of the ability of the British Army and states militias to defend the colonist from the natives. Also Shays’ Rebellion was led by common people. Daniel Shays was a Revolutionary War Veteran and led four thousand poor yeomen farmers from western Massachusetts. Many of the Shaysite were also often Revolutionary War veterans which were not paid of their army stipends. Because of this, and the fact the economy was in a recession,

I believe Jefferson would likely support modern day protests because of his letter about Shay’s rebellion and the evidence found from the Declaration of Independence. For example, in his letter about Shay’s rebellion, an example of the text is, “And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let the people take arms. The remedy is to present them with the facts, pardon and pacify them.” According to the text, it shows that in order to know if the country’s rules are working, they must be notified by their people. This shows that Jefferson believes that the people should protest to show their perspective on the laws set upon them. To add on, another