STAGECOACH TAVERN at Race Brook Lodge

SHAYS' REBELLION

"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing."
...Thomas Jefferson

In 1786 the Founding Fathers were livid. Three years after the end of the Revolutionary War all eyes were on Western Massachusetts where thousands of farmers suffering from a severe economic depression were engaged in violent uprisings. General George Washington was "mortified beyond expression" and onetime agitator, Samuel Adams, was so dismayed as to utter, "Rebellion against a king may be pardoned, but the man who dares to rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death." Only a young Thomas Jefferson observing events from a safe distance in Europe took a more philosophical viewpoint.

The armed insurgents called themselves "Regulators" or "Shays' men" for their leader Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War captain. The name of Captain Shays became a battle cry for as many as nine thousand rebellious farmers throughout New England. Heavy land taxes and strangling debt were undermining the farmers' fragile financial structure. Shays' men watched as relatives and friends were hauled off to debtor's prison, and fearing the same fate joined the mobs that stormed court buildings to prevent the trial and imprisonment of debtors. The critical battle was on January 25, 1787, when Shays led 2000 rebels to Springfield, MA to storm the arsenal, but government forces quelled the uprising. The rebels were captured. Shays' Rebellion was over.

A special court indicted more than 200 rebels and in April 1787, Shays and thirteen of his men charged with treason were condemned to die. The convicted were paraded to the gallows before a large crowd of spectators two months later, but at the very last instant the newly elected Governor John Hancock issued a pardon and their lives were spared. Only two men, John Bly and Charles Rose of Berkshire County, were hanged for their part in the Rebellion.

That summer as the founding fathers gathered in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention, the supporters of a stronger national government pointed to the insurrection to sway the debate in their favor. Shays' Rebellion is considered to be one of the leading causes in the formation of the United States Constitution.