The American Revolution – Prelude to Constitution: Shays’ Rebellion
The period between the end of the American Revolution in 1781 and the Constitutional Convention in 1787 is an often overlooked one in American history. However these six years were very important for the struggling republic, and one of the most crucial events during this time was Shays’ Rebellion.
Although the Patriots had achieved victory in the American Revolution, life in the new United States just after the war was tough. Perhaps it was tougher nowhere else than in western Massachusetts, where war veteran Daniel Shays and numerous poor farmers like him made their homes.
The fledgling nation had gone into great debt during the war, and by 1786 this debt had only gotten worse and worse. In Massachusetts, where paper money was not allowed, they faced a significant depression. Numerous poor farmers, workers and tradesmen were placed into debtors’ prisons for failure to pay their debts. Many of these were men like Daniel Shays, who had served in the Continental Army, been promised pay and failed to receive a great portion of what was owed them. These were men who had put their lives on the line for the Patriot cause, and now they were to be forced to sell their farms and thrown into debtors’ prison as paupers.
Over the summer of 1786, a rumbling was heard throughout western Massachusetts. Many people were angry, and had begun to organize themselves into a group known as the Regulators (one of many groups in history to take on this name). These people began their protest with petitions to enact their goals, such as paper currency, a lowering of taxes and judicial reform. These petitions went completely unheeded, however.
On August 29th, 1786, the protests took a more violent turn. A group of farmers organized as a militia marched on the Court of Common Pleas in Northhampton, to prevent any further trials of debtors and their imprisonment. The court was completely shut down by the insurgents. Soon after surrounding towns had formed their own groups and marched on the local courts.
In the beginning Captain Daniel Shays was not a part of the rebellion, however he soon came to lead the disparate groups joined together to rise against the government. In short order Shays found himself at the head of an army of 1,500 men in siege against the Supreme Judicial Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, preventing the court from sitting between September 25th and 28th of 1786.
It took 4,400 militiamen quickly organized by Governor James Bowdoin and led by General Benjamin Lincoln to disperse the insurgents and defend the courts.
January 1787 brought in not only a new year, but also a new target for the farmer militia: the Federal Arsenal in Springfield. While General Lincoln was marching on Worcester to defend the debtors’ court there, Shays and 2,000 farmers marched on the arsenal at Springfield. Unfortunately for the insurgents the arsenal was ably defended by General William Shepard, who successfully defeated the rebels.
Soon after Lincoln returned with his own militia, chasing Shays’ army into the nearby towns. Although successful in escaping for some time, they were eventually caught on the 3rd of February in Petersham, Massachusetts. Shays and many of his followers managed to escape, however, taking refuge in Vermont, sheltered by Ethan Allen, famous hero of the Revolution.
Although 14 members of the rebellion were executed for treason, the rest were soon pardoned by the successor governor of Massachusetts, John Hancock. Although the army had been defeated attacks continued. These post-rebellion insurgents committed numerous arsons and jailbreaks of imprisoned farmers.
Shays’ Rebellion as it came to be called shocked the fledgling nation. A group of farmers had managed to bring the judicial system of Massachusetts to a standstill, and kept authorities guessing for months before they were finally defeated.
Many thought that the only way to deal with such rebellions was not at the state level, but at a higher, national level. No such powers existed under the American government of the day, however, defined by the Articles of Confederation. Shays’ Rebellion was an important catalyst of the Convention of 1787, although begun to discuss possible reparation of the Articles of Confederation soon turned into the Constitutional Convention, where the Constitution that we still follow to this day was drafted.
Shays Rebellion did not have the immediate impact that its followers anticipated. Although sympathy with the group was great, their actions did little to change the immediate economic situation of Massachusetts or the rest of the United States. Its most important impact in American history, however, is it serving as impetus for the Constitutional Convention, which set the United States on a completely new direction, one we still follow to this day.
