In August 1786, an armed group of mainly poor farmers who were threatened by loss of their farms and imprisonment for debt, gathered in Northampton, Massachusetts and shut down the courts so debtors couldn’t be tried and put in prison. The following month, afraid of being tried for treason for this action, some 500 men under Daniel Shays appeared at the county court in Springfield, Massachusetts in an attempt to shut it down as well. They felt forced to these extremes since their requests for protective legislation, relief from the massive tax burdens, and abolition of the court of common pleas had been rejected.
In response to the mob, the Governor called out militia units and forced Shays and his men to disperse. On January 25, 1787, Shays led a force of 1,200 men to seize the Springfield arsenal. State militia fired on the mob killing four of Shays’s followers and driving off the rest. Many of the insurgents were captured, including Shays and other leaders in the rebellion. Initially condemned to death for treason, Daniel Shays was later pardoned and later received his pay and pension from his service to the country in the Revolutionary War.
Shays’s Rebellion ended, but it was the wakeup call to those in government. Many believed that anarchy (Links to an external site.) and full-blown rebellion were poised to explode across the new nation. It dramatically pointed out the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation, and prompted many legislators and their constituents to reconsider the possible benefits of a strong central government.