Early American Rebellions

1
Early American Rebellions

• What is a rebellion?
• How is a rebellion different than a protest?
• When should people protest?
• When should people rebel?
• Many early Americans engaged in rebellion to
  express their displeasure with the government.

2
Shays Rebellion (1787) Power of the Government
Grows

• Led by farmer Daniel Shays.
• Causes Small farmers in Massachusetts in great
  debt (they owe a lot of money) after the American
  Revolution war.

3
Shays Rebellion (Actions)

• 1787 A group of 1,200 farmers, led by Daniel
  Shay, took an arsenal of weapons. They forced
  courts to close to stop the government from
  foreclosing on their farms.
• State militias put down the revolt

4
Shays Importance (Effects)

• The rebellion
• showed the nation that something was wrong in
  the new country.
• National government had to look at how their
  policies would affect peoples lives.

5
Whiskey RebellionNational government in Debt

• Secretary of the Treasury Department, Alexander
  Hamilton, wanted to increase revenue for the
  United States.
• Congress proposed a sales tax on whiskey in
  order to raise revenue. This made whiskey
  producers and small farmers angry.

6
Cause of Anger

• Whiskey was the Appalachian regions source of
  cash.
• Whiskey producers were poor small farmers.
• Corn, used to make the whiskey, was already hard
  to transport over the mountains.

7
The Whiskey Rebellion Actions

• 1794 Farmers in Pennsylvania refused to pay the
  whiskey tax.
• Violent fights between the farmers and federal
  marshals broke out.
• President Washington ordered 15,000 militiamen to
  put down the revolt.

8
Whiskey Rebellion Importance (Effects)

• The 1st time that the Federal Government used its
  power to deal with domestic (inside the country)
  affairs and interfere with power of the states.

9
A Fugitive Takes the Lead

• 1825 Slaves frustrated with slavery. Nat
  Turner, a slave, fled his Virginia plantation
  after a severe beating.
• Instead of going North he stayed in the South,
  Virginia, and preached to slaves and freemen
  about a rebellion.

10
Nat Turners Rebellion

• 1831 Nat Turner 50 followers attacked 4
  plantations.
• 70 whites living on plantations murdered
• Plantation owner and workers executed 16 members
  of the revolt.
• Turner was hunted down hung.
• Whites killed more than 200 innocent blacks.

11
View a video about Nats Rebellion here (click
on link).
12
Turners Rebellion Importance(Effects)

• Harder to ignore anger toward the
  slave-plantation system.
• Whites in the North became increasingly aware of
  slaverys brutality in the South.
• Abolition movement grows in the North.
• Southern plantation owners increasingly afraid.
• Violence against blacks increases along with laws
  restricting blacks rights.

13
Were any of these violent actions justified?

• Yes, because

• No, because

Explain your answer on the back of the sheet