Reasons for Shay’s Rebellion

• During war more food needed• Farmers expanded farms with loans• After war demand for food is down

Reasons for Shay’s Rebellion

• Farmers are required to pay debts in gold, they have no money because they were not paid during the war•Wealthy lawmakers invested their

money in the war too. And seek to get money from the farmers debts

Shays’s Rebellion

• Poor farmers are not represented in the Mass. legislature and cannot pass debt relief laws•Many farmers had fought

in war•Many never paid by

government for fighting• Farmers wanted the

government to print MORE money causing rapid inflation because in the short term it will, in theory, ease their fixed debt

Shays’s Rebellion

• Massachusetts- 1787…2,000 farmers almost took over state because they were being jailed and having land taken• The Mass. militia is called out to stop it• Poor farmers in 1791 elect officials who support their stance and will

close courthouses and demand financial help from the Congress• Shays’s Rebellion will prompt national leaders to create a stronger

central government

Samuel Adams Said What?!

• “Rebellion against a king may be pardoned, or lightly punished, but the man who dares to rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death”

Views about Shays’s Rebellion

• Adams will also write a law called the Riot Act, which prohibits 12 people or more from meeting and gives the government the power to shoot rioters!• Samuel sure has changed since 1776!

Thomas Jefferson Said What?!

• "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government. God forbid that we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion."