Shays' Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising that took place in Massachusetts in 1786-1787, primarily driven by economic distress among local farmers. The rebellion was sparked by grievances over harsh tax collection practices and the jailing of individuals for debt, which many farmers believed were unjust. It began when a group of sixty farmers petitioned the Massachusetts Assembly for relief, arguing for the issuance of paper currency to ease their financial burdens. The movement quickly escalated into a rebellion led by Daniel Shays, a former Continental Army captain, as frustration mounted when the assembly failed to address their concerns.
The conflict centered around Springfield, where an attempt to seize a federal arsenal was met with resistance, ultimately leading to a swift suppression of the rebellion by a state militia. Despite the violence, the rebellion prompted significant changes in Massachusetts law, including lower court foreclosure costs and protections for personal property from debt collection. In the years following the rebellion, its significance was recognized as a pivotal moment in American history, shedding light on the economic struggles of the time and influencing future governance.
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Subject Terms
Shays' Rebellion
The Event Armed uprising by destitute farmers against the Massachusetts government
Date January 16, 1786-February 4, 1787
Place Massachusetts
Shays’s Rebellion revealed the conflicting interests of farmers in rural areas and merchants along the coast of the new United States. The economic problems driving the rebellion were soon addressed, when the Articles of Confederation were replaced by the Constitution.
On January 16, 1786, sixty farmers in Greenwich, Massachusetts, signed a petition to the Massachusetts Assembly outlining their grievances against local and state enforcement of tax collection and debt assessment. The petitioners emphasized their support for the recent revolution and their willingness to pay their share of the debt that resulted from it. They expressed their concern, however, that many farmers were being imprisoned for debt. Their property was being seized and sold for less than real value, causing many farmers to flee to New York and other states.
The petitioners noted that the governor had recently sent out a proclamation urging the promotion of piety and virtue throughout the commonwealth. They felt that these values should lead the state to provide relief to those who were suffering severe economic distress. A major component of that relief would be the issuance of paper currency, making debt payment much easier.
Dissent soon spread to other states, but it was most serious in Massachusetts. When the assembly adjourned on July 8 without issuing paper currency or addressing their other demands, protesting farmers initiated an armed rebellion centered on the western town of Springfield, the location of a federal arsenal. The farmers were led by Daniel Shays, a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolution who was now a destitute farmer. Acts of violence and intimidation continued throughout the fall and early winter.
A state militia of over four thousand men was assembled in January, 1787, in Boston and Springfield to subdue the rebels. Although Congress authorized a federal force, it never had to be used. An attack by Shays on the Springfield arsenal was quickly repulsed. When Shays was routed at Petersham on February 4, the rebellion collapsed. All involved, including Shays, were eventually pardoned.
As a result of Shays’s Rebellion, the Massachusetts Assembly enacted laws to lower court foreclosure costs and to exempt clothing, tools of one’s trade, and other items from debt collection. The assembly did not pass a proposed direct tax in 1787. In 1802, President John Quincy Adams observed:
The insurrection of the year 1786 forms one of the most instructive periods of the history of our country . . . [and] will give [citizens] a deeper insight into the character of this people, a more extensive view of our social organization, and its internal operations at critical times, than they could obtain by years of personal observation.
Bibliography
McCarthy, Timothy, and John McMillian. The Radical Reader: A Documentary History of the American Radical Tradition. New York: New Press, 2003.
Szatmary, David P. Shays’s Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980.