Shays's Rebellion

August 29, 1786

Western Massachusetts farmers, squeezed by taxes and debt courts, closed county courts at pitchfork-point. Their leader Daniel Shays had been a Continental captain. The militia dispersed them at Springfield arsenal, but the scare convinced nationalists that the Articles of Confederation needed replacing. Washington, at Mount Vernon, read the dispatches and agreed to attend the Philadelphia Convention he had been reluctant to join.