Shaysrebellion.charliealexnick
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Transcript of Shaysrebellion.charliealexnick
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.