Shay’s
Rebellion
The American Revolution ended in 1783, but the young
republic it created faced a difficult time. Nowhere
was this more evident than to the farmers of Western
Massachusetts. A severe economic depression forced
people unable to pay their debts first into court, than
into jail. These troubles were viewed as coming from
the rich merchants of Eastern Massachusetts, especially
Boston, who demanded hard currency to pay foreign
creditors. The farmers of Western Massachusetts, after
years of frustration, reacted with an armed uprising
that lasted for six months at the end of 1786 and start
of 1787.
The Rebellion started with
petitions to the government
for paper currency, lower
taxes, and judicial reform.
When this failed, the farmers
took more drastic measures.
The first target of the Rebellion
was the Court of Common
Pleas at Northampton, which
an armed body of farmers
kept from sitting on Aug. 29th.
Similar groups of insurgents
stormed the courts at Worcester,
Concord, Taunton, and Great
Barrington in the following weeks.
They hoped to prevent further
trials and imprisonment of debtors.
The man who rose to lead the
insurgents was Captain Daniel
Shays, a veteran of the Revolution
and a farmer from Pelham. The
Supreme Judicial Court had indicted
eleven other leaders for sedition,
more would follow.
Shays and 1,500 followers, many wearing their old
Continental Army uniforms with a sprig of hemlock in
their hats, occupied the Springfield Courthouse from
Sept. 25th – 28th, preventing the Supreme Judicial Court
from sitting. Governor James Bowdoin assembled 4,400
militiamen under the command of General Benjamin
Lincoln to defend the courts and protect the
Commonwealth.
Shays and the other insurgents chose the
Federal Arsenal in Springfield to be the next
target. General Lincoln marched to defend the
debtor court in Worcester on Jan. 20th. Shays, with
2,000 farmers behind him, assaulted the arsenal on
Jan. 25th, 1787. General William Sheperd
successfully defended the arsenal with 1,200
local militiamen. The rebels suffered four dead
and twenty wounded in the attack.
General Lincoln soon arrived in Springfield and
quickly chased Shay’s army into the neighboring towns.
The insurgents were taken completely by surprise on
the morning of Feb. 3rd in Petersham. General Lincoln
had marched his troops through a snowstorm the
previous night. The farmers scattered, and the
rebellion ended. Most of the insurgents took
advantage of a general amnesty and surrendered. Shays
and a few other leaders escaped for a while.
The Supreme Judicial Court soon sentenced fourteen of
the rebellion’s leaders including Shays, to death for
treason. They were later pardoned by the newly
elected governor John Hancock. Only two men, John Bly
and Charles Rose, were hung for their part (burglary)
in the 1787 Rebellion. A new Massachusetts
Legislature in Boston began to undertake the slow work
of reform.
That summer, the Federal Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia struggled to create a stronger central
government that would “establish justice and insure
domestic tranquility.” Shay’s Rebellion is considered
one of the leading causes in the formation of the
United States Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to
James Madison
from Paris, Jan 30, 1787
“I hold it that a little
rebellion now and then is
a
good thing, and as necessary in
the political world as storms in
the physical…..
It is a medicine necessary for
the sound
health of government.
The critical battle of the Rebellion was Shay’s
attack on the government arsenal at Springfield in
Jan 1787, the only means of standing off troops who
were advancing from Boston under General Benjamin
Lincoln. At the arsenal, the defending militia
commanded by
General William Shepard
unexpectedly fired their
cannons into the ranks
of the advancing rebels,
killing 4 and wounding 20.
Crying “murder” – for the
insurgent farmer-veterans
never supposed their
neighbors and fellow
veterans would fire on them—
the Shay’s men retreated
in dismay pursued by
Lincoln’s government soldiers.
But the Rebellion was now broken. Shays himself
fled to Vermont, not yet part of the Union and
therefore not bound to heed Massachusetts’ appeals for
extradition of offenders. Some other insurgents
followed him there.
Name _____________________________
Shay’s
Rebellion
1. Why did the farmers of Western Massachusetts face a
difficult time when
the American Revolution ended in 1783?
2. Who was viewed as causing these problems?
3. How did the farmers of Western Massachusetts react
to this situation?
How long did it last?
4. This Rebellion started with petitions to the
government for what three
things?
5. When these petitions failed, the farmers took more
drastic measures.
The first target of the Rebellion was what? What did
the farmers do there?
Why?
6. Who was the leader of this rebellion?
7. Describe the uniforms of the rebels.
8. Who did Governor James Bowdoin send to oppose the
rebels?
9. The rebels suffered four dead and twenty wounded in
the attack on
what?
10. What action ended this rebellion?
11. Most insurgents took advantage of a
_____________________ and surrendered.
12. The Supreme Judicial Court soon sentenced fourteen
of the rebellion’s
leaders, including Shays, to death for treason. How
many were actually
killed? Why?
13. Shay’s Rebellion is considered one of the leading
causes of what?
14. What was the critical battle of the rebellion?
15. What happened unexpectedly here?
16. What did the rebels never think would happen there
but did?
17. How did the farmers view this?
18. With the Rebellion broken down, what did Shay’s do?
Why?