CHARLIE DEVINE NICK XINGALEX KOH

Why did Shays’s Rebellion Occur?

Disparity of Wealth

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• No pay for many war veterans• Foreclosures of farms

• High Payment for the governor

• State offices based off of wealth not merit

Prohibited Money

Farmers wanted circulation of paper money

Would increase inflation, so would be easier to pay of debts

Officials wanted to maintain current currency, or else they would receive back their money at less value

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Similar?

Prohibiting the circulation of paper money was very similar to the Currency Act of 1764 that the British imposed on the colonists.

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Currency Act

Why were they in debt?-Many farmers served in the revolutionary war and were not paid at all for their service

-if they were paid they received worthless government securities

Massachusetts raised taxes

Massachusetts raised taxes to try and relieve debt; after poor farmers returned from fighting land taxes were raised to unreasonable rates

Uneven taxation

-Tax burden fell heavily on farmers-only 1/3 of all taxes on goods, 2/3 of all taxes

were on on land

2/3

1/3

Who did they blame?

-They blamed the government for favoring the commercial side in laws by not creating agricultural reforms that would allow them to easily pay back their debts.

The farmers wanted basic measures put in place by the government to ease the payment of their debts:

-Paper money-Tender laws to they could pay their debts in crops and

goods-Government denied them of both

Postwar Conditions

Unable to pay with coin and unable to sell goods for money in a bad economy, many yeomen fell into deep debt

Public, as well as private debt can be attributed to weak central government unable to levy taxes

The rising tension

Many Americans thought that the Massachusetts government was restricting their liberty in a similar way that Britain had done

People argued that they had fulfilled their duty and fought in the war, yet the government was burdening them with unfair taxation.

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Search and Seizure

If debtors felt threatened, they would file suit against their debtors

Creditors were able to foreclose and imprison those in debt through lawsuits; imprisonment was indefinite

Debtors had less protection and creditors were less compromising

Suspension of Habeas Corpus

Habeas Corpus is a legal action that allows one to question their imprisonment

In October, 1786 Massachusetts officials suspended Habeas Corpus

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Reference

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revolutionary-war/political/shays-rebellion.htm

Reasons:the absence of strong

national government providing stability

paper moneypoverty, debt,

disparity of wealth, uneven taxation

Bibliography

"Luke Day." Shays' Rebellion- Person: Luke Day. Springfield Technical Community  College, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. <http://shaysrebellion.stcc.edu/  shaysapp/person.do?shortName=luke_day>.

"Shay's rebellion." Wars and Battles 1786-1787. United States History, n.d. Web.  23 Oct. 2011. <http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h363.html>.

Zinn, Howard. "A Kind Of Revolution." A people's history of the United States.  History is a weapon, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2011.    <http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnkin5.html>.

Jonathan, Smith. “The William and Mary Quarterly.”Third Series, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Jan., 1948), pp. 77-94 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1920948?seq=2>.

"The American Revolution (1754–1820)." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History: Government and Politics. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Gale U.S. History In Context. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.

"Shays' Rebellion." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Ed. Thomas Carson and Mary Bonk. Detroit: Gale, 1999. Gale U.S. History In Context. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.