Was Shay's Rebellion Justified Analysis

Evaluate the relative importance of the following as factors prompting Americans to rebel in 1776:

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries colonial America experienced a number of rebellions by various groups for a variety of reasons. The protests took place in Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York. Each protest began for a different reason, however, all involved the discontent that some groups underwent in the colonies. Some of the most notable rebellions include Bacon's Rebellion, The Regulator Uprising, Leislor's Rebellion, Culpepper's Rebellion, and the Paxton Boys Uprising.

On March 5 1770, a union of colonists gathered at the Customs House where they protested and harassed soldiers standing outside. These colonists were representing The Sons of Liberty, a secret organization aiming to rebel against the British Parliament. There was an abundance of tension between the colonists and Great Britain after new taxes were passed and British troops arrived in Massachusetts to enforce them. After many hours of chanting and protesting a shot was fired; the atrocious event left five men dead. The question society still ponders over 200 years later is what really happened and whose fault was it? The Boston Massacre initiated because of miscommunication; it was not a massacre but a mutual riot.

Towards the end of the 16th century, the United States government experienced continuous changes in laws(taxes) and several problems(battling and removal of Indians) associated with westward expansion. Conflict was created in response to the rising taxes issued by the government on goods such as whiskey. Most affected by the heavy taxation were the creators and distributors of whiskey - the average poor white farmer. An incident that occurred in 1794 involving enraged farmers in western Pennsylvania, threatened the tax collectors lives as well as the authority of the government. This incident came to be known as the Whiskey Rebellion.

There were many rebellions in the United States history, some peaceful and some violent. Shays' Rebellion in 1786 and the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 are examples of two brutal rebellions that led to death of many innocent people. Rebellions can develop due to many conditions including unfair laws, unfair treatment, and a disagreement over a sensitive topic. The Shays' Rebellion showed the Articles of Confederation was too weak, while the Whiskey Rebellion proved the Constitution to be a strong framework of government.

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

Daniel Shays served role as an American officer in the American Revolution from 1775 to 1780 and also became known as one of the leaders of Shays Rebellion, which lasted from 1786 to 1787. In 1780 he resigned from the army, and settled in Pelham, Massachusetts, where he held numerous town offices. Soon after, wealth reigned in America at the signing of the peace treaty in 1783, but was quickly transformed into a severe economic depression. He began his rebellion when property holders, including himself, began losing their belongings through confiscations for unpaid debts and taxes and became subject to debtor’s imprisonment. Protests then followed, with threats of violence against the courts conducting the enforcements and arraignments. This is when Shays arose as one of the several leaders of what came to be known as Shays Rebellion. After the Rebellion was over, he and approximately a dozen others were sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. However, towards the end of the rebellion, Shays had escaped to Vermont, soon afterwards he moved to Schoharie county, New York, and then a few years later moved further west to Sparta, New York. Shays, in his old age, was granted a retirement pension by the federal government for the five years he served in the Continental Army without pay. He lived the last couple years of his life in poverty, as a heavy drinker and supported himself on his pension by working a small piece of land. He later

In 1791, under the advisement of Alexander Hamilton, congress passed the whiskey tax. This tax, put a twenty-five percent tax on whiskey. Hamilton created this tax in hopes of the federal government gaining more money to help pay of the nation’s debt. However, in doing so, this angered many people, especially farmers in western Pennsylvania, because they distilled the extra grain they had to make whiskey and sell it to make extra income. These small operations in western Pennsylvania rebelled by erecting liberty poles and taring and feathering tax collectors. George Washington, who was president during this time, saw the outburst and decided to take action against the angered farmers. Washington gathered about 13,000 men from the militia to put an end to this rebellion. In doing so, Washington showed that the government help the power over the citizens. In The Whiskey Rebellion, by Thomas Slaughter, he describes different consequences that arise from the whiskey tax. Slaughter presents three main points, which include conflicts between the east and west, two political systems that begin to develop, and the actual rebellion.

The framers believed that human nature was self-interested and that inequalities of wealth were the principle sources of conflict. However, they had no intrinsic desire to remove the distinct divisions in society by converting private property to common ownership. Influenced by Lockean ideas based on a belief in natural rights, framers believed that protecting private property was and still is a fundamental role of the government (Dunn, 1982). According to Locke, the sole purpose of government was to protect natural rights. A government must be built on the consent of the governed, and it should be a limited government (Schneider and Peardon, 1953).

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

“I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing” (Jefferson). Thomas Jefferson wrote these words in a letter to James Madison after hearing about Shay’s Rebellion while he was a foreign diplomat in Paris. After the rebellion happened, the “Shaysites” as they were called, were labeled as traitors to their country and the democratic form of government. But were they really? Many of the men fighting in the rebellion felt that they were being oppressed just as they had been under British rule.

Imagine being an active participant in the American Revolution in the late 1700s. Not only that, imagine being on the side fighting for your freedom. The war ends, you're in the clear for a leisurely life of freely doing what you please, and you're happy. You're also a farmer that happens to be located in Pennsylvania. Before you know it, Congress comes to the decision to pass a tax on the production and distribution of whiskey, one of your main crops. What? Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute, did you not just fight a whole war against the taxes being imposed on you? A war for your rights? This can't be right, it just cannot be. Ah, but it is all too true. In the 1790s, a tax was passed that raised the price on distributing whiskey. This

I believe that Shay’s actions were absolutely necessary because we fought against Britain who was doing the exact same thing as congress. They needed funds after the french and indian war just like we did, and they taxed us to cover the costs just like we tried not to do, but ultimately failed. As it states on pg. 195 of the textbook, “After the revolutionary war, the United States experienced a depression, a period when economic activity slows and unemployment increases,” meaning that the newborn nation has a new demand for resources, money, cooperation, and agreement. However I do believe that, while necessary, was a little overboard. I do believe that what he did was needed but to do it in such a manner that you almost start a revolutionary

Shay's Rebellion is a rebellion of farmers led by Daniel Shay because congress have raise tax which if the farmers didn't pay they will loose the farms. Daniel shay was vet who lost his farm due to high taxes. He led group of farmers on protest, disrupting court proceeding and other official governments business. It led a called for a stronger government.