This Day in History

February 4, 1787:

Daniel Shays Lays Down His Arms 

 

This text comes from our high school textbook, Lands of Hope and Promise: A History of North America. For ordering information on Lands of Hope and Promise and our other books, please click here.

The years following the end of the Revolutionary War found farmers all over America sinking deeper into debt. In the course of the war, many farmers had made good money selling their crops to the Continental Army. With the coming of peace, farmers lost this lucrative market; and this loss, coupled with the general economic downturn of the time, left them owing money to all sorts of creditors, including the government -- debts that they could not repay. In those days, a man could be imprisoned for not paying his debts, and, as today, his land could be seized and sold at auction.

Soldiers of the Continental Army, from a 1781 drawing by a French officer

Many states, especially in the North, where the debt problem was the most dire, passed laws to relieve the poor farmers. Some states established land banks, which lent a kind of paper money to the farmers that they could use to pay their taxes. Other states passed "stay laws" that postponed the collection of mortgages and other debts. Rhode Island, one of the most radically democratic of the states, passed a law that if a creditor refused to take state paper money in repayment of debts, then his debtors could deposit the money at a local court and the law would consider the debt paid. But creditors did not want paper money; they decided it was worthless, as it was not backed by "specie" -- gold or silver. Many Rhode Island merchants, therefore, closed shop, or moved to New York or the West Indies.

Colonial Currency

Things were different in Massachusetts. Unlike the democratic Rhode Island legislature, in the Massachusetts Great and General Court (the state legislature) any relief measure passed by the lower house was defeated by the senate, representing the wealthier coastal counties instead of the poorer western counties. The strongly conservative Massachusetts government refused to issue paper money and insisted that all debts be paid in specie. Specie was hard to come by and so it took longer for a farmer to earn the money to pay his debts -- and his taxes, for that matter, which weighed more heavily on the poor than on the rich. The poor economy compelled merchants to demand payment of debts from shopkeepers, who sought payment from farmers; and since farmers could not pay in specie, they lost their farms, cattle, furniture, and even their freedom to their creditors. In one year alone, 1785, 92 men were imprisoned for debt in Massachusetts.

Samuel Adams

The situation became yet more dire when the Massachusetts Great and General Court placed a tax on paper and vellum used for books, deeds, and newspapers. Legal documents also had to be printed on sheets stamped by the commissioner of taxes -- a stamp tax! Farmers first responded by requesting relief from the legislature; and when that didn't work, they formed county conventions to state their grievances. They even established committees of correspondence. The irony of the situation was lost on Sam Adams -- now a respectable member of the state legislature -- who threatened to hang anyone who did the very things he had done against the British government only ten years previous.

In the fall of 1786, groups of farmers in the four western counties and Middlesex County prevented courts from sitting. They hoped they could thus could keep the courts from trying any more farmers for debt until the coming of the spring elections that could change the membership of the legislature. In response, Governor James Bowdoin issued a proclamation forbidding unlawful assemblies and ordered out the state militia to disperse the farmers. Meanwhile, Daniel Shays, a poor farmer who had served as a captain of the Massachusetts line regiment during the Revolutionary War, became the leader of the rebellious farmers. Ignoring the governor's proclamation, Shays, along with Luke Day and Eli Parsons, led his farmer regiments in a march on Springfield to prevent the sitting of the state supreme court and seize the federal arsenal there.

Illustration of Daniel Shays (left) and Job Shattuck

 When Governor Bowdoin learned of Shays' movements, he ordered General William Shepard (who had fought alongside Shays at Bunker Hill) to garrison Springfield. On January 25, 1787, Shays' men marched on Springfield and attacked Shepard's force, which had taken its position on a small rise. Shepard had ordered his men to fire over the heads of the farmers, to frighten them; but when the farmers continued their advance, Shepard ordered his men to shoot to kill. After the first volley of militia muskets and artillery, Shays' men broke and fled. Retreating through the snow and bitter cold of a New England winter, they did not form again until they reached Petersham, about 45 miles west of Springfield.

General William Shepard

State militia under General Benjamin Lincoln pursued Shays' forces to Petersham where, on February 4, they routed the farmers and took many prisoners. Fourteen of the leaders of the rebellion were sentenced to death (they were eventually pardoned). Shays himself escaped to Vermont, while Eli Parsons fled to New York, where he raised another force. In late February, Parsons led his new force into Massachusetts, where he was joined by more recruits. Seizing supplies at Stockbridge, Parsons' men moved against Springfield, where they confronted a larger force of state militia and fled, leaving two dead and thirty wounded. By March 1787, state militia had crushed the rebellion.

 

Shays' Rebellion failed. Yet, it may have inspired changes in Massachusetts. An election in the spring brought a new legislature and governor to power. The new legislature passed laws granting relief to the burdened tillers of the soil. The year 1787, too, ushered in a period of prosperity, and farmers became less discontent.

Still, Shays' Rebellion was troubling to many in America, confirming their conviction that the current form of the national government was insufficiently powerful to keep the peace. Though the Massachusetts militia had proved quite capable of handling the rebellion, some pointed out that the federal government had been powerless to help. Leaders throughout America were deeply worried about the future of the American union. Only Thomas Jefferson, then ambassador to France, was unruffled. "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing," he wrote from Paris. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Music from 18th Century America

 

American Harpsichord Music in the XVIII Century / 

The complete album / Olivier Baumont