Foundations of U.S. History
Mr. Nazer
Room 120
SCORE
Name:________________________________________________ Date:__________________ Hour:__________
Chapter 9 Creating a Nation
Section 2 The Confederation Era
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16
ASSIGNMENT Living Under the Articles of Confederation
Moving West
Upon winning the Revolutionary War the newly established American nation wanted to move west. In the 1780s the “West” was
just on the far side of the Appalachian Mountains. With the population living in the Western regions quickly growing by over
100,000 individuals there needed to be a more organized method of settling and dividing up the new territory. Two new land
ordinances would help in organizing and raising revenue in these new U.S. lands.
Please answer the following questions
1. The Articles of Confederation created a weak national
government. With the Confederation Congress having little
money and less power, the Congress could not do the
following three tasks:
5. A territorial legislature could be elected when a territory’s
population reached what (Be Specific)? The territory could
apply for statehood when its population reached what
number?
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6. Each state had to form what type of government? Define
it.
2. As violence increased among new settlers in the West, the
Land Ordinance of 1785 was passed to do what?
7. Each territory had to ensure what two rights for its
citizens?
3. In newly settled lands, what was the size of each township
under the new Land Ordinance? How many sections was
each township divided into? How many acres was each
section?
8. The Northwest Ordinance also prohibited the practice of
what?
4. Through the Land Ordinance of 1785, the revenue
generated by the sale of one of these sections went to the
funding of what public institutions?
Shays’s Rebellion
Agricultural Demand Decreases
During the Revolutionary War, the demand for food increased dramatically with the newly founded nation involved in war. This
was good news for most farmers. Seeing the strong economic results of war, many growers borrowed money to increase
agricultural production or expand their landholdings. As the War ended and demand for food decreased, many of these debts came
due. Farmers could not pay. Bankers and land speculators in the East called on these debts. Western farmers could not pay their
debts due to the diminishing profits in small, post-war farms.
Foundations of U.S. History
Mr. Nazer
Room 120
A Need for Rebellion?
Shays's Rebellion was an armed uprising in western Massachusetts from 1786 to 1787. The rebels, led by Daniel Shays, were
mostly small farmers angered by crushing debt and taxes. Failure to repay such debts often resulted in fines, imprisonment and
forced land forfeiture for relief of debt. As a result, to meet their debts, many small farmers were forced to sell their land, often at
less than one-third of fair market price to eastern Massachusetts speculators.
The Articles Prevent Intervention
The rebellion started on August 29, 1786. From the beginning, the rebellion was overtly peaceful, consisting typically of
demonstrations, marches and speeches. In the end, violence did transpire though. The state and federal governments could do
little. Both the lack of a significant standing army and of legal power to intervene in the affairs of the individual states under the
Articles of Confederation prevented any forceful federal intervention. The state government had always relied on the militia to
provide for civil order. A Massachusetts militia that had been raised as a private army defeated Shays and his men on February 3,
1787. The lack of a governmental response to the uprising energized calls to reevaluate the Articles of Confederation, giving
strong push to the Constitutional Convention that began in May, 1787.
A Letter from Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson, a diplomat living in Paris, France in 1787, writes a letter to Colonel William Stephens Smith concerning the
ending of Shays’s Rebellion. Colonel Smith was an American diplomat and son-in-law of John Adams.
Paris, December 20th, 1787
To Colonel Smith
…can history produce an instance of rebellion so honorably conducted? I say nothing of its motives. They were founded in
ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and
always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they
misconceive. If they remain quiet about such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death of public liberty. We have had
thirteen States independent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half,
for each State. What country before, ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its
liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The
remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of
liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is natural manure…
Please answer the following questions
9. What event caused an increase in agriculture production
in the decade prior to Shays’s Rebellion?
13. Shays’s Rebellion and the failure of the States to
successfully intervene in the conflict helped to prompt the
convening of what federal gathering?
10. Why did farmers have such a large amount of debt prior
to Shays’s Rebellion?
14. Is Jefferson in support of Shays’s Rebellion?
11. If farmers did not or where not able to pay their debts
what would happen to them?
15. Jefferson argues that a public that remains quiet about its
reasons for rebellion, will help lead to the death of what?
12. When Shays’s Rebellion became violent, what two
powers did the Federal government lack to aid in keeping
order?
16. Explain Jefferson’s statement, “It is natural manure…”
Foundations of U.S. History
Mr. Nazer
Room 120