Welcome to the History Dr community! We hope you enjoy the free lesson plan and find it useful. It’s designed for social studies and American/U.S. history classes from grades 8th-12th. If you are interested in more experiential plans and games that really work in the classroom in terms of both engagement and critical thinking, we offer more for both U.S. I and U.S. II classes.
United States History
Topic: Shay’s Rebellion of 1786 under the Articles of Confederation
I. LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The student shall demonstrate the ability-
- To determine how Shays’ Rebellion pointed out the need for a stronger central government in 1786.
- To evaluate Daniel Shays’ place in American democracy by examining the causes and consequences of rebellion.
- To explore how democracy seeks to balance the needs and interests of opposing groups of citizens and constituencies.
- To comment critically on the concept of the “general welfare.”
- To compare Shay’s Rebellion to other rebellions in our history.
II. TERMS TO KNOW
The Articles of Confederation
Speculator
War bonds
Foreclosure
stay laws
“A little rebellion now and again is a good thing…” —Thomas Jefferson, 1787
paper currency
inflation
Governor Samuel Adams
RELEVANT QUOTES from the 1776 Declaration
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That when ever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation upon such principles….” –The Declaration of Independence, 1776
“…when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under Absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a government….”
–The Declaration of Independence, 1776
III. Background Reading. Assign this article to students to read as homework prior to coming to class. Two questions can be written out for teacher inspection.
Begin Reading:
There was great distress in western Massachusetts after the Revolutionary War. By 1785, nearly every farmer and returning soldier had debts owed to some local merchant. Local merchants loaned the farmers money to get livestock, seeds and tools to farm their lands for a year. A bad growing season or a drop in crop prices would be financially devastating to those who farmed. The merchants had also seen to it that no law obliged them to accept paper money, or crops in payment of the debt. Debts and taxes had to be paid in gold coin.
Merchant creditors brought suits to collect their loans. They claimed THEIR loans were being called in by import-export companies in Boston, who were themselves being pressured for payment by European creditors during the outbreak of war there. The indebted farmers had to pay the high costs of these suits. It was indeed a fearful situation for the debt ridden farmers and ex-Revolutionary War soldiers, who had thought they had done their duty in the Revolution, to come home to being dragged into debtors’ court and debtors’ prison. It was awful for a farmer to have all his tools, and even the clothes on his back, to be seized by the sheriff on court order and sold off at a fraction of their value to satisfy a creditor’s claim.
If the claim could not be satisfied, the debtor could be sentenced to jail and his creditor paid the cost of his board there, about a dollar a week, as long as he wished and until the debt was paid for him by family and friends.
The jails were crowded, ill ventilated, and filthy. These debt ridden farmers were confined with thieves and murderers. The criminals could get bail, but the debtors could not and also a man could also be jailed as a debtor for inability to pay taxes.
All relief measures for the poor and the debt ridden had failed in the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature. The merchants dominated the legislature and the merchants had no use for paper money already in existence and not the slightest wish to issue more.
The returning war veterans also found the indifference of their representatives in the legislature as a blow to their feelings as well as their pockets. They felt entitled to some rest. After the Revolutionary War, their souls were heavy with having shed their blood on the battlefields only to be worn out with burdensome taxes at home. Had they fought for liberty only to give their creditors the right to drag them into court and send them to jail?
Ex-soldiers were angry because while fighting the way, instead of actual payment from the state, they received only certificates of future redemption, state war bonds, instead of payout. Out of economic distress, they had sold their war bonds off to speculators a fraction of their original value. When the state had to raise taxes after the war to pay off the bonds at full value, and thus handsome profits for investors, the ex-soldiers saw just the repeat British tyranny, only this time inflicted by their own ruling class in Boston. The soldiers again claimed the right of rebellion to stop injustices against them. They banded together to prevent court proceedings. They proposed using force to close down the courts–as had only recently been done against the British.
In the western towns of Massachusetts, there was resentment against the legislature in Boston. The new Constitution of 1780 raised the property qualifications for voting. No one could hold state office without being quite wealthy. Furthermore, the legislature was refusing to issue paper money as had been done in other states like Rhode Island to make it easier for debt ridden farmers to pay off their creditors.
It was this disillusionment with the system that debtors and ex-soldiers with military experience threatened to close the courts by force of arms. They banded together to prevent the judges from holding court and condemning more debtors to prison. This had been a tactic used in revolutionary times against the British. They resolved to close down the courts before judgments were handed down.
An armed insurrection was at hand in Massachusetts in late 1786.
Questions for homework. Answer these two questions in complete sentences and organized paragraphs before coming to class.
1. As a representative in the Massachusetts state legislature, would you have voted to pay off the war bonds at full value and benefit the upper class, or would you vote to annul and default on those war bonds in order to benefit the lower class? What do justice and the general welfare require here?
2. Thomas Jefferson once observed that “a little rebellion now and again is a good thing. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government. God forbid that we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Do you believe that Shays’ Rebellion was justified by economic conditions in Massachusetts after the Revolutionary War?
IV. PROCEDURES AND ACTIVITIES
The class will be divided into six groups, two of each of these. If your class is small, create only three, one of each. Pre-asssign your groups simply by reproducing a class list with each student listed as a A, B or C.
A. The Indebted Farmers and Ex-Soldiers
B. The Merchants and Bankers
C. Representatives of the Massachusetts General Assembly
1. Print and distribute the background reading prior to doing the activity. Introduce Shays Rebellion with your own 5 minute descriptor.
2. Allow groups one whole class period to prepare their petitions and responses, which are detailed below.
3. One the second day of this activity, direct Group A to present and explain their Petition of Grievances to the class. Students can come to the front of the room using either their poster or electronic slide file. Circulate during preparation time to check on students and monitor progress.
4. After Group A presents demands and grievances, Group B, The Merchants and Creditors, comes to the front to answer them.
5. After Group 2 presents, Group C, State Legislators, comes to the front to explain and present their compromises. Create a spontaneous dialogue within this so that all groups are reasoning.
6. Create a closure and wrap up based on some or all of the key analytical questions listed in this lesson.
- DIRECTIONS TO STUDENT GROUPS. Either on large pieces of poster paper or electronically with your preferred slide program
Group 1 : Farmers and War Veterans: Prepare a statement of your grievances and complaints against your creditors and the state government.
Prove that injustices are being inflicted on you.
Use poster paper or a computer and projector with your preferred slide program.
Read aloud your demands.
Argue why your cause is just and what recourse you seek.
What are you preparing to do and why?
Under what conditions will you call off your rebellion?
Group 2: Merchant and Banking Community of Boston:
Reply to the Demands of the Farmers.
Explain why the foreclosures must continue and that war bonds be paid at full value.
Explain why the demands of the farmers cannot be met in the location of the state capital, printing paper money, amending the state constitution on property requirements.
Demand severe punishment for acts of violence against court officials.
Call upon the state government to restore law and order in the western counties.
Group 3: Representatives in the legislature:
Fashion a compromise between your two groups of citizens that meets the needs of the farmers while still preserving law and order and that averts the possibility of civil war.
Will you agree to move the state capital, issue paper currency, suspend debtor trials, extend private debts?
Group 1: Elements of Petition
Demands of the Debtors and ex-Soldiers
Be certain that the petition that this group creates includes the following elements. Circulate during preparation time to be certain that students in Group 1 articulate these claims.
Annulment of the war bonds. Justice for the war veterans requires this.
Immediate halt to foreclosure trials
Printing of paper currency
Extension of all debts to local merchants for one year
Relocation of the state capital from Boston to central Massachusetts, Springfield, where farmers will have better access to representation
Removal of wealth qualifications for voting: suffrage for all men regardless of wealth
Merchants must be forced by law to accept crops as payment for all debts
Closing to include the threat that if all demands are not met attacks upon the courts will continue in the spirit of 76
Group 2: Response of the Creditors
Response of the Merchants and Creditors
Be certain that the response statement from the merchants and creditors contains the following elements. Circulate during preparation time to assist the students in articulating these claims.
War bonds are a legal contract between the government and their holders. All war bonds must be honored in full. The state must honor its financial obligations. To default on the debt would be to ruin the state’s credit forever.
Foreclosure trials shall continue. Courts shall continue to confiscate the land and property of those behind in their debts. This is not an injustice replicating the British. This is the rights of private property to have contracts enforced.
No paper currency shall be issued. Paper currency wipes out wealth and causes rampant inflation. Rhode Island’s legislature was captured by debtors who did this with disastrous results.
There shall be no re-location of the state capital. Boston is the population center and the center of commerce. It would be foolish and impossible to move the capital to a rural area.
Debtors cannot be trusted to vote. They are volatile and irresponsible. Only those with a stake in society, with property to protect, are responsible enough and stable enough to be entrusted with the vote.
Crops are useless as payment.
In closing, we insist that the state militia be called out to suppress by force this lawless rebellion of bandits who have failed to honor their contracts and are now employing violence against the lawful officials of their government. Law and order must be restored.
Group 3: State Legislators Seeking Compromise
This group has the trickiest thinking assignment of all. As they prepare, circulate to assist them in thinking through some of the issues. They are seeking to fashion a compromise by which the legitimate needs of the debtors are protected while maintaining law and order.
There is not a specific list of points of this group must make. These students are truly using their minds and creativity to fashion genuine compromises. Sit with this group of students for a little while and try to get them to think through some of these things as they study the issues.
Here’s An Example
Movement of the state capital. Perhaps this group could propose a compromise by which the capital city would remain in Boston in the East, but a large Turnpike would be constructed connecting it with the western counties of the state. In order to build the Turnpike, perhaps farmers and debtors could, instead of paying taxes in hard currency, work as laborers on the construction of the Turnpike. They would get “tax credits.” Western farmers who owe taxes could pay them in the form of labor on the Turnpike, clearing trees, leveling the ground for a road. This is the kind of Kind of compromise that we are seeking for the students to make.
Would the debtors and the ex-soldiers call off their rebellion by agreeing to this compromise?
Example Two
Changing voting law. Perhaps this group could propose a constitutional convention to explore opening suffrage to all men regardless of wealth and property. They could propose amending the Constitution of 1782 allow all men to vote.
Will the rebels call off their rebellion in exchange for he promised constitutional convention?
V. Key Questions for Discussion or Written Analysis: Create written replies to these questions.
Was justice on the side of Shays and the farmers, or on the side of the business community?
Are there any laws in American society today that you oppose? Would you ever consider openly resisting them?
Is violence sometimes necessary for justice to be achieved? Tell what you know about Nat Turner or John Brown in our nation’s history. How did Malcolm X and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King hold contrasting views of the issue?
Do rebellions ever bring benefits to the society, as Jefferson suggested?
Find out about a Milwaukee City alderman from the late 1980s named Michael McGee. Who was he, what did he threaten and why? Do you consider him a terrorist or a freedom fighter?
Do you regard Daniel Shays as a criminal or a hero in our political history? Were his goals reasonable? Were his methods of achieving them acceptable to you?
Is it ever justified to break laws or rules if you are doing so for a valid reason or some greater good?
What comparisons can you make between Shays’ Rebellion of 1786 and the Los Angeles Riot of 1992?
Between Republicans and Democrats in our political system today, which party would tend to sympathize with Shays? What would a “liberal” say about Shays and what would a “conservative”? Which side are you leaning toward?
VI. Extra Assignment
This can be used for as modified instruction for a youngster with an IEP:
Create a recruitment poster urging rural Massachusetts’s farmers, debtors and ex-soldiers to join the insurrection against the courts.
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