Compare And Contrast Shays Rebellion And Whiskey Rebellion

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Recommended: The causes of the war of independence

The March of the Paxton Boys, the Regulator Movement, Shays’ Rebellion, and the Whiskey Rebellion all illustrate the tensions between the governing bodies before, during, and after the War for Independence. Between 1763 and 1764, a group of Irish-Scots living in the backcountry of Pennsylvania encountered some conflicts with the neighboring Native American tribes. After the Seven Years’ War, a large number of immigrants rushed into the newly won land from the French. Soon, the population grew too great for the area and colonists were forced to move into the Indians land. The Natives were not a fan of this arrangement. Even though they felt this way, they never attacked the colonists. At the end of 1763, a group colonists attacked the Susquehannock for possible providing aid to the colonists´ enemies. At the end of the …show more content…

The colonists took up arms against their officials because they were unhappy how they were all wealthy lawyers. This all happened because of the population increase during the early 1760´s. People other than farmers started inhabiting the Carolinas. The crops of the farmers failed causing many farmers to go into debt. The lawyers were needed for the farmers to straighten out the money they owed to the government. The lawyers were then able to gain powerful positions in the government because the farmers were indebted to them. By 1764, thousands of colonists were unhappy with the tyranny the rich officials had created. The taxes became high and the tax collectors corrupt. They would remove the records of the taxes they collected just so they could go back and get more money. The Regulators began attacking officials the the government and destroying court houses. The Regulator Movement eventually fell apart because of the lack of control by the many leaders of the rebellion. This event fueled the American Revolution because of the similarities of the the tyrannical leaders of both

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  • The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution by Thomas P. Slaugther

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    Professor Thomas Slaughter has provided a most thorough overview of the Whiskey Rebellion, which he asserts had by the time this book was conceived nearly two centuries after the episode transpired, had become a largely forgotten chapter of our nation's history since the time of the Civil War. He cites as direct evidence of this fact the almost complete absence of any mention of the event in many contemporary textbooks of the conservative era of the 1980's, which this reviewer can attest to as well, having been a high school student in the late 1970's, who never heard of the Whiskey Rebellion until years later. Building off of his own dissertation on the topic, the author convincingly shows that the Whiskey Rebellion was in fact an event of tremendous importance for the future of the fledgling United States of America, which was spawned by the head-long collision of a variety of far-reaching forces and factors in the still quite primitive environs of western Pennsylvania that summer and fall. Slaughter contends that one must place the frontier at the center of the great political debates of the era and fully explore the ideological, social, political, and personal contexts surrounding the episode in order to fully understand the importance of its place in American history. In doing so the author has produced a very readable work that may be enjoyed by casual readers, who will likely find the individual vignettes which open each chapter particularly fascinating, and a highly useful basis of further research by future scholars into the importance of the frontier region as it relates to events on a national scale in those early days of the republic.

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  • Shays Rebellion

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    1) Shays' Rebellion, the post-Revolutionary clash between New England farmers and merchants that tested the precarious institutions of the new republic, threatened to plunge the "disunited states" into a civil war. The rebellion arose in Massachusetts in 1786, spread to other states, and culminated in an abortive attack on a federal arsenal.

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  • Causes Of American Rebellion in 1776

    1305 Words  | 3 Pages

    The most important issue prompting Americans to rebel in 1776 is clearly parliamentary taxation. The first time a Parliamentary imposed tax threatened the livelihood of the colonies was in 1733 with the Molasses Act, stemmed from the loss of profit for the British West Indies under the Navigation Act. However, this act was avoidable and rarely paid. Following the long and harrowing French and Indian War, Britain was deep in debt and George Grenville was appointed British Chancellor. He was determined to pay off the debt by brutally taxing the colonies. He not only reinforced the ignored Navigation Acts, but he placed the new Sugar Act which was similar to the Molasses Act which put a tax on rum and molasses imported from West Indies, but this Act would be enforced. Needless to say, the colonists were not used to this intrusion of Parliament and felt that it was wrong because there were no members in Parliament to represent the colonies. They felt it was a direct violation of their civil liberties and the first whiff of resentment was beginning to spawn. Next was the Currency Act which disregarded the colonies paper money, forcing the colonist to pay in only silver and sending their economy into chaos. Perhaps the most important and controversial acts were the Stamps Acts that placed a tax on legal documents, almanacs, newspaper, pamphlets, playing cards and dice.

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  • The Whiskey Rebellion by William Hogeland

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the book Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America’s Newfound Sovereignty by William Hogeland. The author doesn’t just talk about what started the Whiskey Rebellion and what happened during this period. But he wanted to show you the underlining of this Rebellion as it was one of the major parts of the founding period. Also that there are lot of characters that we don’t learn about, he realizes that people don’t really know about the Whiskey Rebellion. That is wasn’t just a couple of “blackened faced, dress wearing” (Hogeland 20) people. He wanted the general people to understand what the Whiskey Rebellion really was the establishment of federal authority.

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  • Shay's Rebellion: A Major Turning Point In American History

    464 Words  | 1 Pages

    Between the years of 1786 and 1787, there were a series of protests that were given the name “Shays’s Rebellion”. These protests consisted of farmers, who were unhappy with their situations in regards to taxes and debts. Shays’s Rebellion occurred in New England, and was the most prevalent in Massachusetts. The revolt was named after Daniel Shays, who was one of the leaders of this large rebellion. Shays’s Rebellion was a major turning point in American history because it influenced changing The Articles of Confederation, it resulted in tax relief and a moratorium on debt, and it raised public awareness.

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  • Shays' Rebellion

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shays’ rebellion originated from a small group of farmers from Massachusetts fighting against high taxes. These farmers organized their resistance in ways similar to the American Revolutionary War. They called special meetings of the people to protest conditions. They even agreed on coordinated protests involving themselves and other people. The rebels closed courts by force in the fall of 1786 and liberated other imprisoned farmers who would be sympathetic to the rebels’ cause. Later on, the petty revolts flared into fully fledged revolts once the rebels came under the leadership of Daniel Shays. Shays was a general in the Continental Army that fought against the British during the American Revolutionary War; this is why the rebels had similar tactics that were used against the British. The...

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  • Shays Rebellion

    1679 Words  | 4 Pages

    “In the first years of peacetime, following the Revolutionary War, the future of both the agrarian and commercial society appeared threatened by a strangling chain of debt which aggravated the depressed economy of the postwar years”.1 This poor economy affected almost everyone in New England especially the farmers. For years these farmers, or yeomen as they were commonly called, had been used to growing just enough for what they needed and grew little in surplus. As one farmer explained “ My farm provides me and my family with a good living. Nothing we wear, eat, or drink was purchased, because my farm provides it all.”2 The only problem with this way of life is that with no surplus there was no way to make enough money to pay excessive debts. For example, since farmer possessed little money the merchants offered the articles they needed on short-term credit and accepted any surplus farm goods on a seasonal basis for payment. However if the farmer experienced a poor crop, shopkeepers usually extended credit and thereby tied the farmer to their businesses on a yearly basis.3 During a credit crisis, the gradual disintegration of the traditional culture became more apparent. During hard times, merchants in need of ready cash withdrew credit from their yeomen customers and called for the repayment of loans in hard cash. Such demands showed the growing power of the commercial elite.4 As one could imagine this brought much social and economic unrest to the farmers of New England. Many of the farmers in debt were dragged into court and in many cases they were put into debtors prison. Many decided to take action: The farmers waited for the legal due process as long as them could. The Legislature, also know as the General Court, took little action to address the farmers complaints. 5 “So without waiting for General Court to come back into session to work on grievances as requested, the People took matters into their own hands.”6 This is when the idea for the Rebellion is decided upon and the need for a leader was eminent.

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  • Analysis Of The Whiskey Rebellion

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    The whiskey Rebellion Witten by Thomas P. Slaughter talks bout a rebellion that setup a precedent in American history. It gives us the opportunity to really comprehend this rebellion that thanks to fast action from the Federal government didn’t escalate to a more serious problem like civil war. The book the Whiskey Rebellion frontier of the epilogue to the American Revolution captures the importance and drama of the rebellion. The book is divided into three sections context, chronology and sequence. In the first section Slaughter explain the reason why the taxes was needed in the first place. According to Anthony Brandt in his article of American history name “Rye Whiskey, RYE Whiskey” Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the

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  • Compare And Contrast The American Revolution And The Enlightenment

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    The American revolution was a reaction to unfavorable tax policies from the King of England. When the King of England began to infringe on the colonists’ liberties, leaders inspired by the enlightenment grouped together to defend the rights of the American colonies. As Thomas Jefferson writes in the Declaration of Independence, “History of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries ad usurpations,

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  • The Whiskey Rebellion: Cause, And After The American Revolution

    1569 Words  | 4 Pages

    The rebellion’s fact and information is very important to help understand American History. The Whiskey Rebellion is viewed now as the make or break situation for which was then the newly uprising government system, American Constitution, right after the American Revolution when the federal government was trying to make itself strong and powerful. So, for the Whiskey Rebellion to take place during this time was what lots of people call, “perfect timing”. This is said because had the Whiskey Rebellion not happened during this time and the government had not acted the way it did against the rebellion, we probably would never know how the government would be in today’s day and how America would be in this day. Washington was trying to stop the rebellion peacefully and with no violence whatsoever. However, by 1794 the protests became violent. In July, nearly 400 whiskey rebels near Pittsburgh set fire to the home of John Neville, the regional tax collection supervisor. This made Washington upset and furious he ordered the military to go up to Pennsylvania and destroy the rebellion and this horrifying event even made Washington put his military uniform once again to defeat the Whiskey Rebellion. Once Washington and his armed military arrived at Pennsylvania every protester in town disappear and basically surrender to Washington and his militia. With the surrender from the protesters this made the American government along

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  • Analyze The Causes Of Shay's Rebellion

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although not many people know of Shay’s Rebellion it was a defining moment in early American history. The small, fragile country had just come out of war and was struggling to pay its debts. They also had agreed that the states would have more power than the federal government so that there would never be a chance of tyranny. With this government style, many states decided on different ways of raising the money they needed. The way that the Massachusetts government decided to handle it was to continually raise taxes on farmland. However, the farmers couldn’t keep up and most started to lose their land or end up in jail. The over taxation of the Massachusetts farmland robbed the farmers not only of their land but also of their livelihood.

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  • Frontier Protests: A Catalyst for Stronger Government

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    Over the course of the late 1700s, instances questioning the rights of the government and the rights of the people emerged. These instances include the March of the Paxton Boys, Shays’ Rebellion, and the Whiskey Rebellion, all of which called for governmental leadership. The necessity of a stronger national government became significant during times of unrest due to the rebels resorting to expressing their grievances through violence.

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  • What Were The Causes Of Shay's Rebellion?

    227 Words  | 1 Pages

    Shay's Rebellion was an armed uprising made of Massachusetts farmers who were angry about the harsh penalties from the state for debtors postwar depression. After the state governments refused to change to paper money to help the farmers pay for their debt, the furious farmers began closing down county courts to prevent any more hearings for debt. Initially these rebels called themselves the Regulators (copying the name of the Carolina insurgents of the 1760s). But they later took the name Shaysites when Daniel Shays surfaced as the leader. The actions of the Shaysites eventually escalated into an armed conflict between the rebels and a privately funded army of residents of Boston and coastal towns (led by Benjamin Lincoln) who feared the inflationary

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  • The Four Major Rebellions In American History

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    The government sent militia after those who were rebelling, but they had fled to Rhode Island and Vermont. The frontier farmers were alarming politicians throughout the entire United States. The taxes placed on the farmers throughout the colonies was doing great damage to them, these farmers lost their land because of debts. The more wealthy farmers had barely any trouble, which was great for them, less so for the poor. It was time the farmers took a stand for themselves, so it seemed. Governor James Bowdoin was in charge of the armed force that squished out the rebellion. Once the rebellion was taken out, the social force was taken

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  • Causes of the American Revolution Essay

    1662 Words  | 4 Pages

    Once everyone was against England, the people were ready for war. The American Revolution started for many reasons, some of the few being social, economic, and political changes. These changes provided America with an independent country with its own government. The increase in strict laws and violent events made many Americans angry, and that’s why the revolution began. The French and Indian war, taxes without representation, as well as the first continental congress.

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