Shays Rebellion Research Paper

The question of Shays rebellion being rebels or freedom fighters is a highly debated topic in US history. Although some people may think that they were reckless rebels, nevertheless they were just trying to be heard, and they were freedom fighters with a good cause trying to keep what was theirs, because the government was giving them unlawful punishment if they couldn’t pay their taxes, the government wasted their money on vanity, and lastly the farmers fought back in big ways that may have seemed reckless, and rebel-like, but they were just trying to be heard.
The government gave the farmers unfair, and unlawful punishment, that the farmers couldn’t do anything about. According to Daniel Gray, the government didn’t give the people any chance …show more content…
According to Abigail Adams “These people are few in number.” so that helps show that they wouldn’t be heard if they did it peacefully, they needed change then, and there, at that moment, because people were going to jail fast. The farmers may have stolen things, but they had nothing and they needed tools for fighting back. Since they were such a small group they also had a small voice, so they needed to change what was happening and change how high the taxes were, and change that the people were put in prison if they didn’t pay up their taxes. They also weren’t a big group of people trying to become a coat we were founded on, and just making the taxes high, and unfair, just like Britain did. They also, according to Gray, “Money from taxes and fees should be set aside to pay off the foreign debt. Instead of being used to pay off investments that are held by wealthy Americans.” so they should have used it for better things instead of helping the rich get richer. They weren’t a colonie trying to become a big country, they were a small group of farmers trying to not be put in jail for things they couldn’t help, and according to Thomas Jefferson, “You can’t have liberty without …show more content…
According to Abigail Adams, “Vanity was becoming a more valuable principle than patriotism.” and this just shows that our government was forgetting what we found the country on, patriotism, and freedom. One thing the government did was they made the farmers sell their property if the farmers couldn’t pay their debt, or taxes, so they would auction off their property and if they couldn’t get enough money to pay off the taxes, they would be put in jail. That just shows that the government was being selfish, because they made the taxes impossibly high for the farmers to pay. They just made the taxes to high for farmers to pay, and used the money to spend on vanity, instead of paying off foreign