After the war there were a lot of problems in the East, a lot of merchant ships were destroyed. So the Americans were having problems exporting tobacco, rice, and wheat. The British Navigation Acts kept Americans from trading with the British West Indies. However, the American markets were flooded with lowpriced British manufactures causing a lot of urban artisans and wartime textile firms to go out of business. At this time the state governments were dealing with a lot of the war debt. Speculators wanted their state debt certificates paid back in full, which meant that taxes had to be raised. But then on the other had farmers and artisans weren't making a lot of money so they couldn't afford to pay the taxes and the state legislatures felt for them. So to help out the artisans and farmers they printed more currency and they passed laws that made it ok for the people in debt to make payments towards the money they owed.
Because there was no such legislation in Massachusetts the debtors were mad, which led to an violent uprising. They persuaded the Massachusetts legislature to raise taxes in order to pay the state's war debt and in turn that helped because they weren't required to print more currency (would have led to inflation). So the people that were owned money wanted the debtors to be jailed for not paying, but the people that owned money were protesting all of the taxes and the property seizures. Pissed off farmers and some men of higher status forcibly closed courts. These actions and this rebellion were rather similar to the colonial resistance to the British Stamp Act.
In order to stop the rebellion Massachusetts legislature passed the Riot Act which outlawed illegal assemblies. So the governor made his own little army, with troops from the Continental Congress, and they fought off the rebellion. Shay's side ended up losing because of the freezing weather and the lack of supplies in the winter of 1786-87. The rebellion showed that cost of war and the independence was not shared evenly. The Massachusetts' governor was voted out of office and people in debt in New York, Pennsylvannia, Connecticut, and New Hampshire closed court houses also and wanted the same economic relief the people in Massachusetts wanted. Now the Americans feared their new government was bound for failure and other countries were thinking the same.
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After the Americans won the war against the British they seemed to develop a war against themselves back home. The rich vs. the poor. The government saw their country slowly falling apart before their eyes. Especially when the poor revolted during Shay's Rebellion. So the governor/government took action and made laws against illegal assembly and also made it ok for the debtors to pay back their debts a little at a time. If there hadn't been for this fast thinking there would have been some serious problems going on in the country.
Shay's rebellion is important because americans had been rebelling for a very long time throughout the revolution. However, these rebelious acts were never thought anything of until now that it was against the american government. These acts of rebellion showed the disagreement between the rich and the poors thoughts on political ideology and the powers of the government.
It is funny how everything always seems to come back to taxes. Shay's rebellion was very important though as it led to conversation on how to fix the drift between the rich and poor. I think it was Thomas Jefferson that once said a rebellion was good for a country once in awhile. This showed that the legislatures could not just push around folks and that people were willing to stand up and fight if they felt they weren't getting a fair shake.
Shay's rebellion is pretty important becuase it shows the line between the poor and rich. Legislators beleived they could push around the poor, and soon found out they were wrong.
I think that Shay's Rebellion was necessary to help the United States under the Articles of Confederation figure out what was not working for them. It is good that the United States figured out that constantly raising taxes to pay off debts was not the way to go. Having a country full of really angry people with all your debts paid off does not really help that much. I guess sometimes it is better to go into debt if it keeps your population happier.
I think the tax relief thing was a pretty clever idea. However, I can definitely understand how that would cause a rebellion. That would make several people very angry. Im sure I would be mad if I didnt get paid back. Although tax relief helps out the farmers, it is really unfair to the landowners that the farmers owe money too. I dont think tax relief really should have been passed because people should have to pay others back.
Shay's Rebellion showed the unorganized state the war left American and it's population. It showed how big of a problem debt will always be because they were experiencing similar situations to the time after the seven years war. It made the country work towards a new government
Shay's Rebellion is a great example of the turmoil and misunderstandings gone wrong. The problem- Farmers in Mass. get a whole bunch of taxes to help pay off the war debt that they feel wasn't their problem. The solution-(as before) Revolt! So people took up arms, and made the Mass. government and The rest of the country very uneasy. So G.W. put together a militia and after a few few small skirmishes, Shay's Rebellion was disolved.
Oh, the irony. Funny how they united against Britain and it's monarchy only to end up in this mess. I guess it just underlines the point that those with money will lead, no matter the type of government. Same goes for today really. Campaigning for presidency is extremely expensive, if you want to be put on the map anyways.
Even though Shay's side of the Rebellion lost, it was still important because their opinion was still voiced and heard. I agree that taxes was a very controversial issue dring this time, and every argument or revolt involved a tax issue.
it was inevitable that the US was to have internal problems after the war because of the disputs between the poor and the government(rich). the main instance was Shays rebellion which cause Alex Hamilton to call together delegates from everystate to help revise the Aritcles of Confederation which turned into the Constitution
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