9781422287569

11 Shays’s Rebellion

On August 29, 1786, a mob of angry farmers stormed the courthouse in Northampton, Massachusetts, to prevent the court from sitting that day. The mob leaders reasoned that if the judges could not preside over cases in their courtrooms, they could not order farms to be taken from poor, debt-ridden farmers. The mob was led by Daniel Shays. The attack on the courthouse in Northampton was the beginning of what became known as the “Shays’s Rebellion.” Word of the rebellion spread quickly throughout Massachusetts as well as the other states. The leaders of the government were horrified that the self-rule they had won during the Revolution was being questioned so soon after the war. At first, Massachusetts Governor James Bowdoin looked to the federal government to help put down Shays’s Rebellion. But the Congress could do little. Since 1781, the federal government of the United States had operated under laws known as the Articles of Confederation. This was a weak set of rules that gave the states immense authority to govern themselves. The articles provided Congress power to make laws, but no authority to make the states comply with them. What’s more, under the articles the federal government could not raise taxes. This meant it could not pay for an army to defend the states. And so, Massachusetts would receive no help from the federal government in putting down Shays’s Rebellion.