Name:
Date:
Focus: How did Shays’ Rebellion demonstrate the problems with the Articles
of Confederation?
Do now: Making predictions. Look at the picture.
Who do you think the men in the picture are?
What do you think they are doing?
The years from 1783 to 1787 were full of problems for the young nation. Most members of Congress were more
loyal to their states than the national government. Sometimes they did not even show up for meetings of Congress.
The country was also in a depression. A depression is a time when many businesses lose money or fail and
many people are out of work. Many Americans had little money. Congress also had little money.
The 13 states did not cooperate with Congress or each other. They fought over land. They fought over trade
between states. States often taxed the goods from other states. For example, New York taxed firewood from
Connecticut. New Jersey taxed goods from New York.
States also fought over money. Most states printed their own paper money and they refused to accept the
money of other states. Soon, there were so many different kinds of money that paper money became almost worthless.
Congress did not have the Power to make the states work together.
1) Why were the times from 1783-1787 hard for many Americans?
2) What did the states fight about?
3) What problems did Congress face?
The depression was very hard on farmers. In good times, many farmers borrowed money to buy land. Then
crop prices dropped, and farmers could not make any money. Many farmers could not pay their debts or their taxes.
The courts ordered their farms sold. Those who still could not pay were sometimes sent to jail.
Farmers in Massachusetts asked their legislature to help them. They asked for lower taxes, but the legislature
did nothing. In 1786, farmers, led by a Revolutionary War veteran named Daniel Shays, rebelled. Mobs of angry
farmers surrounded the courthouses to keep courts from opening. They hoped to stop judges from ordering farms sold
and sending them to jail.
Massachusetts asked Congress to help put down the rebellion but Congress had no army to send. The
Massachusetts militia finally ended Shays’ Rebellion. Shays’ Rebellion frightened many Americans. It showed that the
national government was too weak to protect the country from rebels.
4) Why did farmers want to rebel?
5) Why did Shays’ Rebellion scare many Americans?
Watch the following Youtube video about the occupy wall street movement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFA_MA3vqJw
Take notes in the chart
Who is protesting?
Why are they protesting?
Where are they protesting?
What are they doing to protest?
Use a Venn diagram to compare your chart to the reading on Shays’ Rebellion.
In the center put the ways these two events are similar. In each separate circle put the ways the two events are
different.
Shays’ Rebellion
Occupy WallStreet