
← American Political History25 aug · 28 min
A Failed Nation - Shays’ Rebellion
A Failed Nation - Shays’ Rebellion
In the winter of 1787, a few thousand indebted farmers in western Massachusetts marched on their own government — and though they lost their one real battle in minutes, in the snow outside a federal arsenal, they did more to reshape the country than any army of the age. This is the story of Shays’ Rebellion: the veterans who had won the Revolution and come home to lose their farms to it, the creditor legislature in Boston that taxed them in coin they did not have, and the courthouses they clo...