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 29^th, 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.