Shays' Rebellion

Shays' rebellion was sparked by a former soldier turned farmer named Daniel Shays. Shays fought at multiple of the most influential battles in Revolutionary Wars including the famous Battle of Bunker hill. Shays had been a respected general among the Patriot troops. He still had not received his pay outside of IOUs which were practically worthless. The reason for the shortage of pay among the soldiers was mainly due to the lack of paper in circulation. This barred the patriots from paying the new taxes. Plus farmers were restricted from the accessibility of gold and silver. Massachusetts colonists were starting to disagree with the high taxes that the new government had assigned to their state, these taxes were actually higher than King George's. Massachusetts town leaders drafted a document explaining their grievances to the delegates. While the document was on the way to Philadelphia other actions began to occur; Captain Joseph Hines directed several farmers (over 100) to block Northampton judges from entering the courthouses. The reason for this was that the judges had been putting several farmers in jail for not paying their taxes. In the September of 1786 Daniel Shays led 600 men to shut down a major courthouse. On January 25, 1787, Shays led nearly 1,500 former soldiers and farmers to raid a weapon storage barn in Springfield. Luke Day, another rebellion leader joined up with Shays with over 1,000 men. The mob had amassed over 2,000 rebels, as they approached the warehouse, a militia could clearly be seen guarding it. Benjamin Lincoln had been tipped off that the Patriot rebels were to storm Springfield. As Washington's second-in-command he felt the need to guard the government's own supplies. As the mob approached warning shots were fired over their heads. They were ignored as the mob became uncomfortably close, the militiamen became edgy and fired again; this time, into the crowd. 2 Patriots were killed and 20 wounded, this would informally end the uprising, which would come to be known as 'Shays' Rebellion'.