THE HISTORY OF THE INSURRECTIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS; in the year seventeen hundred and eighty-six and the Rebellion thereon

Boston: Burditt, 1810. Second edition. Tall 8vo, pp. iv, 192. Bound in original calf (some rubbed) spine rubbed and hinge repaired, some foxing and soiling, end paper soiled, a good copy. scarce. Howes M652; Sabin 49324; Imprints 20748. This is a history of the Shay's' Rebellion in western Massachusetts written by one of th founders of the Mass. Historical Society.
After the American Revolution, when Continental soldiers had been paid with worthless Continental script and the state government was pressed for tax money, the returning yoeman farmers were losing their land to Boston merchants who had gold or Pounds Sterling. This prompted an armed (truncated) rebellion which quickly spread to all of the states of the newly formed Confederacy. Because the central government had no army, the Boston merchants hired a mercenary army to put down the insurgency and capture Shays. On August 29,1786, a large group of these disenchanted citizens appeared in force in Northampton under the leadership of Daniel Shays. Violence was narrowly averted, but in January the insurgents marched on the national arsenal in Springfield. Once again Shays' men were defeated, this time in armed conflict, and within two months the rebellion was quelled. Shays and a dozen others escaped to Vermont. They were eventually tried and condemned to death, but were later pardoned. Within four years, most of the reforms demanded by the Shaysites were adopted. In fact, it was this rebellon and the others throughout the Confederacy which hastened the establishment of the Constitutional Convention. (Inventory #: 39185)