Why is shays rebellion important

Shays was a former Captain in the Continental Army who fought at major battles in the Revolution such as the Battle of Saratoga. He resigned from the army in and moved to Western Massachusetts to become a farmer.

Shays was unpaid for his five years of service, and thus was one of those most affected by personal debt and the tax collections. Rather than beginning and leading the rebellion, the protestors gravitated towards Shays due to his leadership qualities and experience in the revolution. Knox was concerned that the federal armory located in Springfield, MA would be threatened should the rebels seek to escalate the rebellion. The armory housed nearly four hundred and fifty tons of military stores and over seven thousand small-arms with bayonets 4.

Famed General of the Revolution, George Washington, heard of these protests and urged a peaceful resolution. When the federal government attempted to defend the armory with federal troops, they found themselves powerless.

Per the Articles of Confederation, the federal government could not raise an army of its own nor levy taxes to pay for federal troops. Thus, any federal troops being sent to Springfield would need to be recruited, supplied, and paid for by the individual states. The entire affair was an embarrassing episode into just how weak the federal government was under the Articles of Confederation.

No federal troops were there to stop them. Fortunately, Massachusetts was able to assemble a special militia that was privately funded by wealthy citizens of the coastal cities. Most importantly, it showed just how weak the federal government was under the Articles of Confederation. Individual states were not obliged to follow orders from the federal government which led to a weak central authority. Foreign nations in many cases had to sign trade agreements with each state and Congress had difficulties even having representatives show up in person to govern and vote on key issues.

Though this rebellion was thwarted, protection against future rebellions was not guaranteed. With help from the Federalist Papers , the constitutional convention would directly lead to the new Constitution that greatly enhanced the powers of the federal government. Just because the United States had formally separated from Great Britain and formed its own nation, the nation was hardly unified on all issues.

Wealthy vs poor, strong federal government vs strong state governments, urban vs rural, and pro-British vs pro-French relations were all major dividing issues of the time, among others.

Many of these divisions still remain in the modern United States and have their roots from the beginning of this nation. The protesters later seized several other local courts after the state government refused to consider debt-relief provisions. Shays then led a force of about 1, men in an attempted raid of the Springfield armory on January 26, The group was intercepted on the day before its planned attack; four protestors died in a brief conflict with the militia and the group dispersed.

It had to rely on a state militia led by General Benjamin Lincoln and sponsored by private business people. Protests in western Massachusetts grew more tumultuous in August after the convening of the state legislature failed to address any of the numerous petitions it had received concerning debt relief. Daniel Shays quickly rose among the ranks of the dissidents, having participated in the protest at Northampton courthouse in late August. Shays' followers called themselves "Regulators," in reference to a reform movement in North Carolina that occurred two decades earlier.

In response to the growing crisis, Washington wrote desperately to Humphreys, worried that "commotions of this sort, like snow-balls, gather strength as they roll, if there is no opposition in the way to divide and crumble them. By December , the conflict between eastern Massachusetts creditors and western rural farmers escalated. Massachusetts Governor James Bowdoin mobilized a force of 1, militiamen to counter Shays.

The army was led by former Continental Army General Benjamin Lincoln and funded by private merchants. Lincoln's forces anticipated that the Regulators would storm the federal armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, and were waiting when Shays approached the armory with approximately 1, men on January 25, The army fired warning shots followed by artillery fire, killing four of the insurgents and wounding twenty.

The rebel force quickly faltered and scattered into the countryside. Many participants were later captured and most men, including Shays, eventually received amnesty as part of a general pardon.