Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle

During the bitter winter of 1786—87, Daniel Shays, a modest farmer and Revolutionary War veteran, and his compatriot Luke Day led an unsuccessful armed rebellion against the state of Massachusetts. Their desperate struggle was fueled by the injustice of a regressive tax system and a conservative state government that seemed no better than British colonial rule. But despite the immediate failure of this local call—to—arms in the Massachusetts countryside, the event fundamentally altered the ...