3.7: The Farmer and the Fighter: Daniel Shays, Benjamin Lincoln, and the Importance of Shays' Rebellion

What became known as “Shays' Rebellion” was put down by force, but it opened the eyes of many to the reality that the current government was not working, and it has been used as an anecdote for why the Articles of Confederation were such an inadequate government.  Our task will be to unmask the man behind the protest, as well as the general tasked with putting it down, and ascertain what the true legacy of the movement should be.  In this episode of History: Beyond the Textbook, our first that focuses on transition during this time, we examine Daniel Shays, and Benjamin Lincoln, the farmer and the fighter of Shays’ Rebellion .

Key People
Daniel Shays
Benjamin Lincoln
James Madison
Henry Knox

Key Events/Ideas
Shays' Rebellion
Philadelphia Convention

The third season of History: Beyond the Textbook focuses on the stories of individuals who shaped "America's Crucial Years" of 1783-1790, and runs from October 8-December 24. Catch up on Season One, "America's Colonial Era," and Season Two, "America's Revolution," wherever you listen to your podcasts!

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Transcript

After the Peace of Paris ended the American Revolution in 1783, the United States was in a state of complete chaos bordering on anarchy.  There were no taxes, laws were not respected, and the nation teetered on the edge of complete collapse.  There was a prevailing belief that the Articles of Confederation, that coalition government that loosely bound the states together, needed to be replaced, but there wasn’t a good enough reason to do so…until an attempted coup by farmers, many of whom happened to be veterans of the Revolution, occurred in Massachusetts.  What became known as “Shays' Rebellion” was put down by force, but it opened the eyes of many to the reality that the current government was not working, so a convention was called in Philadelphia for May 1787 to replace this system.  Even though there are gimmers of truth to the preceding statements, they’ve been heavily condensed over the years to provide a type of justification for why the Philadelphia Convention took place; it has also been used as an anecdote for why the Articles of Confederation were such an inadequate government.  However, our task will be to unmask the man behind the protest, as well as the general tasked with putting it down, and ascertain what the true legacy of the movement should be.  In this episode of History: Beyond the Textbook, our first that focuses on transition during this time, we examine Daniel Shays, and Benjamin Lincoln, the farmer and the fighter of Shays’ Rebellion .

Act I: Losing Homes

Much of the basic narrative surrounding what we call “Shays’ Rebellion” has made its way into history textbooks, but since we’re going beyond that simplistic  interpretation, we’ll start with a bit more detailed context.

Like so many problems that we have covered this season, the seeds of the protest known as “Shays’ Rebellion” were sown during the Revolution…1780, to be exact.  In this year, Massachusetts ratified a new state constitution, which was authored primarily by our familiar friend, John Adams.  It is actually the oldest operating constitution in the world, and is mainly remembered for helping lay the groundwork for the U.S. Constitution with regard to its Preamble and three branches of government.  It also kicked off an era when the wealthy in Massachusetts began to impose their will on those who were not as fortunate: for example, the rights to vote and the ability to hold political office were now limited to those who possessed a specific amount of property.  At the time, this was a status known as having a “stake in society,” meaning that if you had something tangible to lose, such as landed property, then you were less likely to be ill-informed and more likely to take your voting rights seriously.  In western Massachusetts, there were apparently some towns where exactly zero men possessed the qualifications to stand for election to a state office.  As if this lopsided suffrage dynamic wasn’t enough, the state government, controlled by men of means and what was called “hard money,” also decided that tax increases would be necessary to help pay off the state’s outstanding war debt.  Farmers were predominantly expected to shoulder this tax burden, and they were forced to make mortgage payments that charged exorbitant interest rates, and when they asked the state to intervene and pass laws that would allow them to delay foreclosure known as “stay laws…” nothing happened.  The courts geared up to foreclose on thousands of farms in Massachusetts…and the farmers geared up to prevent what they believed to be a miscarriage of justice.   

Act II: A Revolutionary Hero

A Massachusetts man through-and-through, Benjamin Lincoln was born in 1733 in Hingham; his father had political experience in serving the Governor of Massachusetts for nearly 15 years and was pretty much the wealthiest man in town; his grandfather was a Colonel who helped establish the official boundaries of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  Yeah, Lincoln came from good stock and had a lot to live up to…he started the process at age 21 when he became a town constable, and he served in the militia during the French and Indian War, but didn’t see any action.  As the colonies hurtled towards war with England, Lincoln’s father apparently was more moderate and attempted to remain “down the middle” without lending significant support to either side: Benjamin had no such issue when it came to his allegiances.  His association with fellow Patriots led to his election to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, the legislative body that counted John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Dr. Joseph Warren as members.  And unlike the French and Indian War, Lincoln would get the opportunity to serve in combat roles during the American Revolution.  In his role as Major-General of the Massachusetts militia, he helped cover the retreat of the Continental Army following their disastrous battle with the British on Long Island, and his apparent leadership skills caught the attention of His Excellency himself.  General Washington saw to it that Lincoln received an appointment as Major-General thanks to his influence with the Continental Congress…in fact, Lincoln’s appointment was one of several which saw the highly competent Benedict Arnold bypassed for his own promotion.  Similar to Arnold, Lincoln would command troops during the Saratoga campaign in which General Burgoyne’s British forces were met with defeat, and also similar to Arnold, the battle would leave him with a limp that was noticeable for the rest of his life.

Major-General Benjamin Lincoln was an individual whose star was on the rise, and General Washington responded by appointing the former as commander of the Continental Army’s southern department; this time frame lines up with the intent of the British to pursue their so-called “Southern Strategy” that we learned about in episode 2.10.  Unfortunately, Lincoln’s time in the South would begin with the capture of Savannah and Lincoln’s unsuccessful defense of Charleston led to its capture…you know, the capture that caused Spanish officials to lament the lack of American success in the war, but also led diplomat John Jay to shrug and remind these officials that the loss of America’s cities mattered little since the countryside was vast and enjoyed immense Patriot support.  Lincoln was captured in the aftermath of this British victory, exchanged in a prisoner swap, and eventually made his way back south.  He reenters the “traditional” narrative by participating in the pivotal siege of Yorktown…in our episode focusing on this battle, we alluded to the surrender of Lord Cornwallis’s sword via his subordinate, General Charles O’Hara; you remember, the time when Lord Cornwallis claimed he was “too ill” to surrender it himself.  Lincoln factors in because he actually received said sword: General Washington refused to accept the sword from O’Hara, who had a lesser rank than he did, so he gestured to his subordinate, Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, to accept on his behalf. So Benjamin Lincoln was physically present, and played a key role in, ending the last major battle of the American Revolution; this would not be the last time that he would serve in a military capacity.

Act III: Unlikely Insurrectionist

So we arrive at our section on Daniel Shays; you know, his life, what led him to rebel, etc.   If you remember episode 2.11 where we spent half of the time focusing on “common” soldier Joseph Plumb Martin, you may recall how rare it was to have an account of the Revolution that wasn’t from the perspective of an officer.  Today, anyone can transcribe and record their thoughts and experiences for a wider audience and, therefore, posterity, but this just wasn’t how things worked for most of human history.  If you weren’t perceived as a leader or a “great man,” then chroniclers probably didn’t see fit to write down any accounts of your life, and scholars probably didn’t probe too deeply.  Subsequently, if you were an individual who was simply surviving, or, not engaging in actions for the purpose of posterity, then you probably didn’t feel the need to write down all of your life experiences.  This appears to be the case with Daniel Shays: the farmer was born into poverty in Hopkington, Massachusetts, and raised seven children with his wife as he worked his homestead.  As far as “decorated” soldiers are concerned, Shays is right up there with the best of them: he joined the militia prior to the outbreak of war and fought at Lexington and Concord.  His unit was then formally mobilized in time to participate in the siege of Boston and the Battle of Bunker Hill.  He would officially join the Continental Army in 1776, and eventually was commissioned as an officer: his participation in Saratoga, which gives hims a common experience with Benedict Arnold and Benjamin Lincoln, occurred when he had obtained the rank of Captain, and his bravery in battle was noted by many.  In a strange twist, when the treason of Benedict Arnold was uncovered, Captain Shays was hand-picked by General Washington to guard Arnold’s British contact, John Andre, until the former’s execution by hanging, which Shays personally witnessed.  Prior to his official discharge from the Army one full year before Yorktown, and less than two weeks following Andre’s execution, he was one of several that was presented with a sword by none other than Marquis de Lafayette in honor of his service, demonstrating that one didn’t need to be born into a well-known family or secure numerous advantages to earn the title of a “Great Man.”

Upon his resignation, he went home to his family and farm, but like so many of his comrades-in-arms, he found himself deep in debt without many avenues to pay it off.  He would come to own over 250 acres of land in his home in Pelham, but the land was rocky and hard to farm, further adding to his financial woes: he would sell over half of this land by the mid-1780’s.  Remember that Massachusetts also raised taxes to pay off their war debt, and they also insisted that these taxes be paid in hard currency like gold and silver instead of paper money or goods such as produce and livestock.  These decisions certainly benefited the men writing the laws, who stood to gain much from these policies, but it absolutely hammered those poor farmers who were struggling to survive in the recession that gripped Massachusetts following the end of the Revolution.  Fed up with what they saw as a lack of recognition of their struggles and rights, and with the looming threat of foreclosure and even imprisonment hanging over their heads, these men took action.  By all accounts, Daniel Shays never really wanted to be the leader of this movement, but his attendance at several meetings in Pelham to discuss the situation, along with his attendance at a major protest of the State Supreme Court in Northampton, started to shape the perception that the state government took of him.  He showed up to that protest in Northampton in his wartime uniform, so he was physically imposing along with being widely respected; plus, the protesters who had become known as “Regulators” ended up completely shutting the court down.  This is a key component of the so-called rebellion: these men spent more time shutting down court proceedings than anything else because they felt that justice wasn’t being served.  However, Shays’s appearance in uniform, combined with the pitchforks and muskets that some of the Regulators carried, meant that this would be known as a “violent” movement to outsiders, and that the men would also become known as “Shaysites,” with Daniel Shays seemingly taking the lead.

Shays and the Regulators shut down courts in western Massachusetts that would undoubtedly have thrown more men in prison and seized the property of these desperate farmers, all while continuing to view himself as something of a “peacemaker.”  Shays sympathized with the Regulators because he was them…but he certainly did not want violence to break out: he had experienced enough war in his lifetime.  However, the state government didn’t see it this way: they reached out to the federal government in Philadelphia for military assistance in solving this dilemma, but they claimed to be hampered by the Articles of Confederation and thus considered it a state matter.  To deal with the Shaysites, a mercenary army was raised to be headed by…General Benjamin Lincoln.  What is often viewed to be the “peak” of Shays’s Rebellion took place in January 1787 in Springfield: Shays knew that the armory in Springfield would have supplies that his men desperately needed, so he set plans to rendezvous with two additional companies of men at said armory.  In total, there were about 1,800 of them, and they marched through a particularly nasty blizzard and extreme cold to reach it, with 1,400 of them reaching the armory.  However, a militia of about 900-strong guarded the building, and Lincoln’s army of about 4,000 men was still days away; Shays was ordered to turn around, but he continued his advance. In response, those guarding the armory fired a warning shot of grapeshot over the heads of the approaching Regulators; when they continued their approach, the cannon was lowered and fired directly into the crowd, leaving four dead and 30 wounded.  With this overwhelming response, the men scattered, but were pursued relentlessly by Lincoln’s forces, and a little over one week following the disaster at the Springfield armory, Shays fled to New Hampshire to escape the Massachusetts forces, while those considered the leaders of the rebels were rounded up and sentenced to death.  

Act IV: Legacy of an Uprising

So, why are we concerned with what appears to be a tax protest that did indeed turn violent, but only after the troops were called in to crush it with overwhelming force?  Let’s look at a couple of factors, along with what became of Daniel Shays and Benjamin Lincoln.

There are several reasons why Shays’ Rebellion has entered into most American history books as an essential event of this time period.  One would be timing: since this occurred, and was put down by early 1787, while the Philadelphia Convention was convened in May, this event has generally been held up as the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back,” or a “breaking point” that led to the call for delegates to meet in the CIty of Brotherly Love.  I’ll say without hesitation that I have been guilty of this perspective in previous years as a teacher.  However, the call for the Philadelphia Convention had already gone out by the time this tax protest was put down.  This rationale speaks more to hindsight: in the moment, there were several key, influential figures that amplified Shays’ Rebellion to an extent that they reasoned the only viable option was to replace the current government under the Articles of Confederation. We’re talking heavy hitters here: James Madison wrote “There is good reason to believe that the rebels are secretly stimulated by British influence,” believing that Britain was using Canada as a conduit to add former colonial lands back to the Empire.  The number of protesters became 12-15,000, according to war veteran and current Secretary of War Henry Knox: the whole incident appeared to him to be illustrative of a complete breakdown of law and order in the countryside along with leading down the path to civil war.  Washington himself feared that civil war might not only break out, but might draw him out of the retirement that he had willingly entered following the war’s end: as a nationalist, he had long feared that the Articles of Confederation were doomed to fail, and the exaggerated reports he received confirmed these suspicions.  When the primary reports of an event are passed down through the lens of individuals who are viewed as part of a national elite, perceptions get distorted…hence, the outsized importance placed on Shays’ Rebellion in American history.

Ultimately, the calls for the alteration of the Articles of Confederation grew much louder in the wake of Shays’s Rebellion.  Sure, the date for a convening in Philadelphia was already set when word of the protest reached political ears; however, individual states decided much more quickly to commit delegates to said convention in the hopes that they could stem potential violence from breaking out in their own states.  Keep in mind that to the political elite of early America, many of whom were landed property, even large plantation, owners, the actions of these farmers in western Massachusetts represented chaos and anarchy.  The language and rhetoric that was used was not that dissimilar to that of pre-Revolutionary America: these disgruntled farmers reasoned that since the Massachusetts government no longer appeared to care about or represent them, then they, the farmers and common people, no longer owed them any type of allegiance.  George Washington was especially distressed as the men whom he once commanded now appeared to be taking up arms against the nation they helped create; he would write, “What stronger evidence can be given for the want of energy in our governments than these disorders,”meaning that he viewed the episode as a rationale to amplify the powers of the exceptionally weak federal government.  James Madison, who was attempting to convince His Excellency to lend credibility to the Philadelphia Convention with his attendance, concurred when he stated that the events in western Pennsylvania “prepared the public mind for a general reform” and that it “contributed more to that uneasiness which produced the constitution.”  Not all such men disapproved, and distance appeared to soften Thomas Jefferson’s position: when word of Shays’s Rebellion reached his ears in France, he would famously write, “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”  Bear in mind that he would not attend the Philadelphia Convention, nor would he agree with the argument of the necessity to strengthen the federal government.

So in the grand scheme of things, this tax protest amplified the need for a different form of national government, one that could not only respond to unrest quickly, but preemptively act in a manner that would render the need for such unrest completely moot.  But what happened to the two principal actors in our story?  General Benjamin Lincoln would spend the rest of his life more or less involved in public service: when the Philadelphia Convention resulted in a brand new constitution, he served as a delegate to the Massachusetts ratifying convention where he was one of 187 who voted to ratify the document.  He also served as Lieutenant-Governor of Massacshusetts and, somewhat ironic for a man sent to brutally suppress a tax protest, he was responsible for the collection of import taxes for the Port of Boston as Port Collector, retiring in 1809 and dying one year later.  As for Daniel Shays, he was one of 18 individuals who was sentenced to death, but Governor James Bowdoin ended up pardoning 16 of these individuals, Daniel Shays among them, because they believed that executing these men would only serve to intensify the discontent against his government.  So Daniel Shays received his pardon in 1788, spending his remaining years farming his land in New York and dying as he lived most of his life: impoverished.  His efforts to enact change had simply earned him a reputation he didn’t deserve and held him responsible for a movement in which he reluctantly participated; but nevertheless, change would occur.

We’ll continue examining transition in these young states in our next episode.  It’s time to head to Philadelphia for those pivotal months in which 55 men would argue over the best form of government for the United States.  Our focus will be on one man who believed in compromise at all costs, and one man who was so disgusted by the final result that he refused to sign the Constitution: next week on History: Beyond the Textbook, we’ll focus on Roger Sherman and George Mason: the self-educated sages of the Philadelphia Convention.