Shay's Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection PDF
Preview Shay's Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection
Shays' Rebellion : The Making of an title: Agrarian Insurrection author: Szatmary, David P. publisher: University of Massachusetts Press isbn10 | asin: 0870234196 print isbn13: 9780870234194 ebook isbn13: 9780585084190 language: English subject Shays' Rebellion, 1786-1787. publication date: 1980 lcc: F69.S99eb ddc: 974.4/03 subject: Shays' Rebellion, 1786-1787. Page i Shays' Rebellion Page ii THE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS PRESS AMHERST Page iii Shays' Rebellion The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection David P. Szatmary Page iv Copyright © 1980 by The University of Massachusetts Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Szatmary, David, 1951 Shays' Rebellion. Includes index. I. Shays' Rebellion, 17861787. I. Title. F69.S99 974.4'03 79-22522 ISBN 0-87023-419-6 Page v To Mary Page vii Acknowledgments I have many people to thank for this book. Sidney Kaplan graciously allowed me to look at his notes, gave me substantive and masterful editorial suggestions, let me stay at his home, and became my friend during the writing of the manuscript (so, too, Emma Kaplan). Mary C. Wright, Rudolph Bell, and Larry Henry painstakingly read the manuscript many times and gave me encouragement to finish the project. I thank my dissertation advisor, James Kirby Martin, as well as Wayne Cooper, Joel Shufro, Allen Kaufman, George Billias, Thomas Forstenzer, Dick Kohn, and the readers of the University of Massachusetts Press for their many careful readings of the manuscript and their helpful comments. Richard Martin of the University of Massachusetts Press gave me an immeasurable amount of assistance, while Mary and John Wideman, through the help of Susan Tracy, allowed me to stay in their Whately home as I completed the research for this book. I wish to thank Wendell B. Cook, Jr., of the University of Massachusetts library for his help in making the Badlam Papers of the Dorchester Historical Society accessible. Most of all, I want to thank my parents, Peter and Eunice, for giving me an interest in history and the chance to pursue it, and my wife, Mary, for her understanding during the trauma of writing this book. Page ix Contents Preface xi 1. The Two Worlds of New England 1 2. New England Merchants and the Chain of Debt 19 3. Protest and Government Response 37 Agrarian Protest: The First Stage of Shaysite Activity 38 The Response of the Commercial Elite 44 New England Legislatures and a Commercial Society 48 4. From Petitions to Arms: The Regulation Movement 56 5. The Ideology and Politics of Suppression 70 The Ideology of Reaction 70 The Militias, Legislation, and a Government Army 76 6. Rebellion, Social Banditry, and the End of Armed 91 Insurgency The Radicalization of Reformers 92 Confrontation at Springfield 98 "To Harass the Inhabitants in Small Parties by Surprise"107 The End of Armed Insurgency 114 7. Shays' Rebellion and the Constitution 120 Notes 135 Index 178 Page xi Preface Shays' Rebellion has been a topic of historical debate for almost two hundred years. In 1788, a year after the insurrection had ended, George Richards Minot wrote The History of the Insurrections in Massachusetts. Trained in Boston as a lawyer, Minot served as clerk of the Massachusetts House during the Rebellion and personally deprecated Shaysite activity, calling for the punishment of leading rebels. "Daniel Shays's decapitation," he suggested on June 9, 1787, "would have dissolved a common tie, or prevented [the rebels] engrafting their several oppositions upon his: and so rendered their opinions harmless speculations." 1 Minot carried his anti-Shaysism into his History, calling the troubles an "unfortunate rebellion'' and castigating "those deluded citizens who were concerned in the insurrections or rebellion."2 Concern for foreign opinion, however, moderated Minot's progovernment bias in his History. Writing at least partly "to preserve the reputation of my country" against European criticism, Minot sought to avoid the impression of fundamental differences between competing groups in Shays' Rebellion. Through such an approach, he wrote, many misconceived ideas, tending to the discredit of the country, may be removed; and the public reputation vindicated; as the causes which led to the late national difficulties, when rightly understood, operate as an apology for them; and the manner in which these difficulties were suppressed, does honor to the government, and displays the strongest marks of reflection and wisdom in the people.3 As a result, his treatment of the insurrection became an only
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