Shays' Rebellion

Shays' Rebellion was in 1787 and was started by a Man named Daniel Shays. The financial situation boiled down to this: European war investors among others demanded payment in gold and silver; there was not enough gold and silver in the states, including Massachusetts, to pay the debts; and through the state, wealthy urban businessmen were trying to squeeze whatever assets they could get out of rural smallholders. Since the smallholders did not have the gold that the creditors demanded, everything they had was confiscated, including their homes.
At a meeting convened by aggrieved commoners, a farmer, Plough Jogger, encapsulated the situation:
"I have been greatly abused, have been obliged to do more than my part in the war; been loaded with class rates, town rates, province rates, Continental rates and all rates...been pulled and hauled by sheriffs, constables and collectors, and had my cattle sold for less than they were worth...The great men are going to get all we have and I think it is time for us to rise and put a stop to it, and have no more courts, nor sheriffs, nor collectors nor lawyers."
Jogger's statement was so resonant, the convention chairman had to cut short the applause, and it was decided that the legislature (General Court) in Boston would be petitioned.[1]
Veterans of the Continental army, also aggrieved because they had been conscripted, had to fight with no payment to help them pay for their living, and because they were treated poorly upon discharge, including being locked up in debtors' prison, began to organize into squads and companies their neighbors the besieged farmers, in order to halt the confiscations.[2] Veteran Luke Day of West Springfield, Massachusetts asked the judges holding the confiscatory hearings to adjourn until the Massachusetts legislature met. Throughout Massachusetts, newly organized farmers and veterans faced militia at courthouse thresholds. But sometimes the farmers and veterans were the militia, and often the majority of the militias sided with the veterans and farmers.[3]
Boston elites were mortified at this resistance. Governor James Bowdoin commanded the legislature to "vindicate the insulted dignity of government." Sam Adams disingenuously claimed that foreigners ("British emissaries") were instigating treason among the presumably childlike commoners, and he helped draw up a Riot Act, and a resolution suspending habeas corpus. Adams proposed a new legal distinction: that rebellion in a republic, unlike in a monarchy, should be punished by execution.[4]

After several years of unauthorized popular conventions sending petitions to the Massachusetts General Court for tax and debt relief, and protesters shutting down local courts (to prevent judges from enforcing debt collection), action was taken.[5] Boston merchants raised money for an army, led by General Benjamin Lincoln.[6] Massachusetts Governor James Bowdoin ordered General Benjamin Lincoln's large Boston militia as well as General William Shepard's local militia of 600 men to protect the Springfield court so that it could process more property confiscations.
Daniel Shays of Pelham, Massachusetts sent a message to Luke Day proposing to get the weapons from the Springfield armory on January 25, 1787, before General Benjamin Lincoln's 4,000-man combined Boston and Springfield militia could arrive. Day's response that his forces would not be ready until January 26 was never received (thus providing a real-world example of the Two Generals' Problem). Shays approached the armory not knowing he would not have reinforcements.
General Shepard's forces were unpaid and without food or adequate arms. Shepard had requested permission to use the weaponry in the Springfield Armory, but Secretary of War Henry Knox had denied the request on the grounds that it required Congressional approval, and that Congress was out of session. Shepard reached the armory before Shays, and, ignoring Knox, Shepard's militia commandeered the weapons stored there.
When Shays and his forces neared the armory, they found Shepard's militia waiting for them. Shepard ordered a warning shot, and then his militia shot a single round into the rebel forces. Two or three of the Shaysites were killed, and the rest fled north. On the opposite side of the river, Day's forces also fled north. The militia captured many of the rebels on February 4 in Petersham, Massachusetts; by March there was no more armed resistance.
General Shepard reported to his superiors that he had made use of the armory without authorization, and returned the weapons in good condition after the armed conflict had ended.
Several of the rebels were fined, imprisoned, and sentenced to death, but in 1788 a general amnesty was granted. Although most of the condemned men were either pardoned or had their death sentences commuted, two of the condemned men, John Bly and Charles Rose were hung on December 6, 1787.[7] Like many others, Daniel Shays died poor and obscure in Massachusetts.[8]

I found this work on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays_Rebellion