Economic Causes Of Shay's Rebellion Essay

The massive debt of the French and Indian war was a very big struggle for Great Britain and the massive debt will start the revolutionary war. The massive debt happened right after the French and Indian war. Great Britain was 122 million pounds in debt. That is why they tried to tax the colonies. The taxes were called acts. This payed off part of the debt but the taxing didn't come to a pleasant end for Great Britain.

The issues that involved and caused the Whiskey Rebellion was due primarily to major economic and political concerns - westward expansion and a developing government. At the time, many of people were in search of land, and property they could settle on that the recently dismissed British and French could no longer occupy. Available land in the east was diminishing and so in turn, the population begin moving westward. Also, after the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and consequently the end of the American Revolution, created many changes. Lack of authority and resources to affirm authority (Ex. no more mass British army to fight off Indians), had its consequences. Nearly 80 percent of the federal budget was spent battling and removing Indians from the lands along the Ohio River, the most recently settled land by Americans (p.146). In order to compensate for this, Congress passed the tax on whiskey stills which affected mainly poor white farmers. Therefore, westward expansion and the riddance of the Indians, brought forth the infamous Whiskey Rebellion.

Shays' Rebellion was the first uprising of the new nation. The battles were fought in Massachusetts. During the time period of 1786-1787, The United States government decided to raise taxes, in order to raise capital and

The actions of the members of the Shay’s Rebellion were justified because state officials took their land, to pay their own debt. Shay’s Rebellion was a fight against government control. The country after the Revolutionary War was severely damaged especially in the trade market. The British cut off trades in the West Indies market crippling the economy. Due to the poor economy the farmers had difficulty selling their products and being able to pay the money requested to the government to pay off their war debts. This enabled the states to take the farmers’ land to pay the state's debts. Shay’s Rebellion, although dangerous the rebellion wanted to force the government to making their own money and create new policies in order to pay off the

There were many events that led up to the American Revolution. After the British defeated France and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, Parliament began enforcing colonists to help pay for debts that were accrued during the war. George Grenville, Britain’s chief minister, constructed laws such as the Stamp Act, Sugar Act and Quartering Act. These new policies that set in place tariffs on imports, exports, and regulations on trade, infuriated colonists (Tindall & Shi, pg. 121). Colonist did not want to allow such imposed taxes because the people themselves were not represented as equal British subjects. “The issue of taxation became a question of the colonist’ place in the imperial system” (Calloway, pg. 14). Also, after the British victory in the Seven Year war settlers were eager to expand west. British government wanted the colonist to stay east where trade was a major profit, and to navigate to the north or south. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 establishes the Appalachian Mountains as the boundary line between British and Indian lands. This was in part to keep Indian alliances and to keep control on the settler’s expansion. Henry Ellis, Governor of Georgia, spoke of

The rebellions of Upper and Lower Canada were in the interests of self-government but were doomed to failure from their beginning. Each of these two colonies encountered a great deal of problems right from the institution of the Constitution Act of 1791 and the problems continually got worse until the only choice to some seem to be rebellion. There were several problems that lead to the rebellions of 1837-38. In Lower Canada there was the agricultural crisis that caused a large number of starvations, to the French and English political and social problems within the colony. There were several different reasons that caused the rebellion in Upper Canada but these caused were mainly rooted in

Recently, something has been going on, Shays’ Rebellion. To those who don’t know what it is, it is a series of protests against tax collections and judgments for debt. Named after and led by Daniel Shays, these protests have been going on for a while. About two months, to be exact. All about the states, from New Hampshire to South Carolina, farmers were taking up arms in protest. However, in Massachusetts, the rebellion was the most serious, because farmers were threatened with the loss of their farms due to high taxes, bad harvests, and economic depression. As the recession deepened, communities throughout Massachusetts petitioned the State legislature for fiscal relief. Thousands marched to shut down courts they believed betrayed the principles

In the book “Shays’ Rebellion: Authority and Distress in Post-revolutionary America”, Sean Condon shows us his outlook on how he saw post-revolutionary America to be within the late 1770’s and 1780’s. This book was released in 2015 by John Hopkins University Press, and was also made in a continuing book series by Peter Charles Hoffer and Willamjames Hull Hofer called Witness to History. The story takes us "Throughout the late summer and fall of 1786, farmers in central and western Massachusetts organized themselves into armed groups to protest against established authority and aggressive creditors. Calling themselves "regulators" or the "voice of the people.”” [1] Condon succeeds by prosing an appealing idea in an upfront style that shapes

Many farmers were angered, but had faith in their new government. According to William Manning, who lived during the Rebellion, “…the people were driven to the greatest extremity. Many counties took to conventions remonstrances, and petitions to a court where they were not half represented” (Manning). For four years, counties from all over the state sent polite petitions to the government stating that the rural economy was in atrocious shape and asking for the government to give them some relief, all of which the government ignored (Smith). As the Massachusetts government continued to ignore their petitions, many farmers started to see similarities between how they were being treated by their new government and how the had been treated by Great Britain. Finally after four years in 1786, when the legislature ignored the petitions once again people in communities like Pelham had been patient long enough. They felt it was time for action and turned to the method that had worked just a few short years ago.

In Massachusetts, many farmers had successful businesses because there used to be soldiers from Britain that would buy from them. After these soldiers left, their businesses decreased. Because of that they had to borrow money from the government to buy more land, seeds and tools. Soon enough they were in debt and the people who couldn't pay their debts would be imprisoned. Later on, the Massachusetts government started to impose taxation. The farmers not only had to pay their debt but also had to pay their taxes, the Article of

The actions of Shay’s Rebellion did not go too far. Many farmers in Western Massachusetts were previously soldiers in the Continental Army. These farmers were now being met with unfair demands from Massachusetts merchants. When they could not live up to the demands, their land and possessions were taken and they could be thrown in jail. Many farmers such as Daniel Shay were previous members on the Continental Army, in which they received little pay for their contributions.

It was said that if the government did not have the consent of the governed then it must rebel and overpower the government and that was what the farmers in Massachusetts did in response to the huge economic crisis of the 1780s. It was Shay’s Rebellion which started by a large group of farmers and angry people in Massachusetts in 1787 as a protest to the injustices that they thought were created by the wealthy elite establishment, and the political elite in the state government that seemed to be working together with the wealthy’s interests.They felt like courts favored only the wealthy elite and they thought that they weren't being heard in this new government.There was a policy passed by the legislatures that put farmers in debt.There was

Recently, the debate and law changing of gun control is the United States have been a controversial topic. The history of law related to gun and arms in the U.S is like a pen that paints the rights of owning guns in the presence of the states. The book “A well-regulated militia”, which is written by Saul Cornell, says about the controversial debate in the history of the Second Amendment and historical facts involved in the 19th century about the right of bearing guns and standing militia. This essay will discuss some of the information, which is stated, in the book about the idea of gun ownership, the important rebellion, the Federalist and Anti- Federalist on standing army and gun control, the change of gun culture in early 19th century and

After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 the American people had taxes placed on them by the British. The British Parliament claimed that by placing the taxes they were defending the colonies for the Americans. During the twelve years following the war, the British enacted a numerous amount of taxes that allowed them to raise revenue from the American economy. This taxing of the American people hurt the American economy and started to push the American colonists toward an independence movement so they could have a free economy. Over the course of the twelve-year period there were six acts enacted to take money from the American economy.

This rebellion was dubbed as, The American Revolution. The catalyst of the American Revolution cannot be credited to one single event. The French and Indian War was the start of open conflicts between the colonies and Great Britain (Butler). After this war, the British were in a massive amount of debt (“Parliament Debates”). In early 1765, The British Parliament was struggling to meet the cost of defending its empire in North America. The only logical way that the British thought to relieve this problem was through the colonies, thus the passing of The Stamp Act was born (“Parliament Debates”). The British saw the thirteen colonies as a direct investment and extension of Great Britain, meanwhile the colonists were striving towards independence. “(The) once harmonious relations between Britain and the colonies became increasingly conflict- riven” (“Colonists Responds”). At this point, the