Shays Rebellion; a redux
By: Shay X. Morris
Tags: Rebellion, History, Poltics, American History

As the old saying goes: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme”

Could the instability brought on by our government, our culture, and the pandemic lead to another popular uprising, a la Daniel Shays?

Historical Background

Starting in 1786, a few years after the United States gained independence, the country was a mess: war-torn, broke, and divided.

The Federal Government, under the Articles of Confederation, couldn’t raise tax revenues to repair the country and repay the people. The state governments overly taxed to make up the difference.

Many Americans found themselves in debt, facing debtor’s prison, repossession of property, and the loss of the rights that come with the loss of property.

Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War veteran and farmer in Western Massachusetts, faced prison and loss of property. He reached a breaking point, rallied his neighbors and community members — all in the same position — to close courthouses by force. It worked and his rebellion grew.

Massachusetts State Senator, and fellow rebel, Sam Adams was livid that commoners would rise up and disrupt the debtor’s courts. He acted maniacally by forcing through laws to punish those who rebelled: laws such as suspending habeas corpus and the death penalty for anyone partaking in the closing of courts.

Shays’ Rebellion sputtered when Sam Adams and the Massachusetts government hired a mercenary army to hunt down the rebels. Daniel Shays was forced to flee the country.

It only took a couple of years for Sam Adams and Daniel Shays to go from American patriots fighting for independence to each considering the other a terrorist and sending out death threats. Divisions were deep in Massachusetts and the rest of the “United” States couldn’t care less about, what they considered, a state issue.

Rhyme time

Seemingly, the same issues that Daniel Shays rebelled against in 1786–87 are reappearing: an ineffective government, the people left with dire options, and a divided country.

At a time in which millions are out of work, tens millions are infected with an out-of-control virus and loss of Healthcare coverage, hundreds of thousands dying, racial unrest is at a 60 year high, children loosing their education, and families being forced out of their homes — our federal government’s response has been: “we gave you $1,200 eight months ago, now shut up so we can file 60+ phony lawsuit so our ego isn’t bruised.”

(Corporate welfare has been amazing, though. Whether it will trickles down to hire those out-of-work is still unclear.)

In the coming weeks and months, state governments are going to make deep cuts or raise taxes to their budgets to balance out the money they’ve dished out to postpone the pain of the pandemic. Our ineffective Federal Government has done, and will continue to do, nothing.

On December 19th, both houses of Congress will be on Christmas break and not return to until the first full week of January. The national eviction moratorium ends on New Years Eve, with no relief in sight, it’s not hard to draw a line to predicting backlash to prevent evictions. In fact, it’s already happening:

-In July, protesters block the courthouse in New Orleans to prevent landlords from filing eviction notices.

-In December, protesters have blocked off a street in Portland, Oregon to prevent the police from serving eviction notices.

All of this has been coupled with the President on his Quixotic quest to overturn an election he clearly lost. To use the old SAT analogy question to describe the damage and distrust the President has created from this false narrative: if Watergate is to the Trump Election lawsuits then a pimple is to malignant tumor. At minimum, it will be a generation until people believe our voting process is safe.

American partisanship has reached a point in which an entire party, the Republican party, craves phony democracy, apathy towards the major issues, and pain on the other.

What remains to be seen

As Mark Twain once wrote “History never repeats itself, but the Kaleidoscopic combinations of the pictured present often seem to be constructed out of the broken fragments of antique legends.”

There is no guarantee that the current pandemic and the electoral and financial crises will lead to a popular uprising.

Just because the deadlines are close and things are bad doesn’t necessarily mean that collapse is inevitable.

In fact, despite all the boasting, saber rattling, and chest thumping, it’s unlikely anything like Shays’ Rebellion will happen. Shays’ Rebellion is studied, not only for it’s results, but also for it’s uniqueness. If popular uprisings happened so constantly, then Shays’ Rebellion would be even more less of a footnote in American history.

Lastly, (and probably most sadly) the reason why their won’t be another Shays’ Rebellion is due to the undeniable fact that the vast majority American populous, truly, doesn’t care.

Most won’t even get this far in this essay because it’s more than the 280 character limit of a tweet nor is this essay a meme.

The battle cry of “bOtH sIdEs Do It!” is just an excuse to stay ignorant, refuse to acknowledge their part in the problem, or dig deeper in their misguided and wrong opinions.

American’s love freedom of speech, until it proves them wrong. When it does, most go back to screaming louder in their echo chambers until they lose their voice.

The hope on the horizon?

In 1787, America was hopeless and Shays’ Rebellion proved that. Luckily, real leaders stepped in. At the Philadelphia Convention during the summer of ’87, the ineffective Articles of Confederation were thrown out for the U.S. Constitution. While the Constitution was imperfect (Black Americans were considered 3/5 of a person), the opportunity for great change has been, and always will be, there.

Our current Federal Court system, filled with President Trump appointees, has proven time-and-time again that they do NOT owe the President anything and will side with the law and the U.S. Constitution (within the context of the President’s frivolous lawsuits).

And what can the average American do? Accept the problems, work hard to fix them, and raise Hell when people refuse to help.

Now is the time for great change, to work harder than ever, and build a new America. Don’t “go back to normal” — life in 2019. “Normal” wasn’t great. “Normal” was life with blinders on. The President, the pandemic, and the divisions have exposed us to hidden problems that were always there.

A new and better, an equitable and just, “normal” is on the horizon and there for us to have — if we come together, work hard, and fix the problems.

The United States have faced these challenges before and come out better than ever, there’s no reason we can’t do it again.

Even Daniel Shays saw a more just country after hopelessness led him to commit borderline treason. He returned to the United States, granted a pardon as long as he took an oath to the new Constitution, received a pension for being a veteran, and lived out the rest of his life as a farmer.

Note: the author of this essay is a public school history teacher and is using a pseudonym for fear that radicalized right-wing terrorists will threaten the author’s school and students.