Daniel Shays: Difference between revisions

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 20212023}}

| birth_place = [[Hopkinton, Massachusetts|Hopkinton]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], British America

| death_date = {{nowrap|{{death date and given age|1825|9|29|78}}}}

| death_place = [[Sparta, New York|Sparta]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.

| resting_place = Union Cemetery, [[Scottsburg,  New York]]

| occupation = farmer, {{hlist|Farmer|military officer}}

| known_for = {{ubl|[[American Revolutionary War]] Captaincaptain|[[Shays' Rebellion]]}}

| networthspouse = {{marriage|Abigail Gilbert|1772}}

|serviceyears={{ubl|1775 (militia)|1775–1780 (army)}}

|rank=[[Captain (United States O-3)|Captain]]

|unit= {{ubl|Woodbridge's Regiment (militia)<br/>|[[1st Rhode Island Regiment|Varnum's Regiment]]<br/>|[[5th Massachusetts Regiment]]<br/>|Corps of Light Infantry}}

|battles={{tree list}}
* American Revolutionary War

**[[Boston campaign]]

**[[Siege of Boston]]

**[[Battles of Saratoga]]

**[[Battle of Stony Point]]

* [[Shays' Rebellion]]{{tree list/end}}

'''Daniel Shays''' (August 1747 {{spaced ndash}} September 29, 1825) was an American soldier, revolutionary and farmer famous for beingallegedly one of the leaders and namesake ofleading [[Shays' Rebellion]], a populist uprising against controversial debt collection and tax policies in [[Massachusetts]] in 1786–1787. The actual role played by Daniel Shays in Shays' Rebellion is disputed by scholars.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zug |first=Charles U. |date=September 1, 2021 |title=Creating a Demagogue: The Political Origins of Daniel Shays's Erroneous Legacy in American Political History |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/716687 |journal=American Political Thought |language=en |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=601–628 |doi=10.1086/716687 |s2cid=243849281 |issn=2161-1580}}</ref>

Daniel Ogden Shays<ref>{{cite magazine |editor-last=Nichols |editor-first=Frank M. |date=September 1912 |title=Proposed Monuments: The Livingston County Historical Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lhZbAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA8-PA30 |magazine=The Reporter |location=Chicago, IL |publisher=Nichols & Co. |page=30 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> was born in [[Hopkinton, Massachusetts]], sometime between April and August 1747 to [[Irish people|Irish]] immigrants Patrick Shays and Margaret Dempsey.<ref>{{cite book |last=Butz |first=Stephen D. |date=2017 |title=Shays' Settlement in Vermont: A Story of Revolt and Archaeology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QTEvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 |location=Charleston, SC |publisher=The History Press |page=13 |isbn=978-1-6258-5950-1 |via=[[Google Books]] |ref={{sfnRef|Butz}}}}</ref><ref name="Brown-2010-p220">{{cite book|author=Brown, Lorri|chapter=Shays, Daniel (1747–1825)|editor=Danver Steven L.|title=Revolts, protests, demonstrations, and rebellions in American history: an encyclopedia|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2010|isbn=978-1-59884-221-0|page=220|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A1C4W2IVHcMC&pg=PA220}}</ref> Daniel was the second of seven siblings; his siblings were Margaret, James, Roger, Phebe, Mary, and Polly.<ref>Elmer S. Small (November 1934). ''The Family of Daniel Shays, from Descendants of Daniel Shays'' {{oclc|17982816}}</ref> He spent his early years as a landless farm laborer.<ref name="Brown-2010-p220"/> In 1772, he married Abigail Gilbert, and they settled in [[Shutesbury, Massachusetts]], where he owned a sixty-eight acre farm and they had six children.{{sfn|Butz|page=14}}<ref>"Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639–1915," database, FamilySearch [https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FC3N-TJR : 4 December 2014), Daniel Shayes in entry for Daniel Shayes, 31 Jan 1773; citing, Shutesbury, Franklin, Massachusetts, 2:179B4K1; FHL microfilm 886,455]{{subscription required }}</ref>

After Saratoga, Shays continued to serve with the Continental Army in upstate New York.{{sfn|Butz|page=30}} As commander of a company in the Corps of Light Infantry, which was commanded by [[Anthony Wayne]], Shays took part in the July 1779 [[Battle of Stony Point]].{{sfn|Butz|page=30}} He subsequently served as commander of a company under the [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette|Marquis de Lafayette]], which occupiedpatrolled farmland on the New Jersey side of the [[Hudson River]] to prevent British troops from foraging.{{sfn|Butz|pages=30–31}} In 1780, Lafayette presented several officers, including Shays, with ornamental swords in honor of their military service.{{sfn|Butz|page=36}} Shays sold his for cash to help pay off debts; he argued that there was nothing wrong with his action, because he already owned a sword, but his decision to sell his was frowned upon by his peers.{{sfn|Butz|page=36}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Gross, Robert A.|chapter=The Uninvited Guest: Daniel Shays and the Constitution|editor=Gross, Robert A.|title=In Debt to Shays: The Bicentennial of an Agrarian Rebellion|publisher=University Press of Virginia|year=1993|isbn=978-0-8139-1354-4|page=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HpSIYclyYogC&pg=PA1}}</ref> After British officer [[John André]] was captured while collaborating with Continental officer [[Benedict Arnold]]'s plot to surrender [[West Point, New York|West Point]] to the British, Shays was assigned as one of the captains of the guard who oversaw André's imprisonment, a task for which Continental Army commander-in-chief [[George Washington]] personally selected him.{{sfn|Butz|pages=34–35}} Shays was present when André was executed on October 2, 1780, and was probably the officer who escorted him to the gallows.{{sfn|Butz|pages=35–36}} Shays resigned soon afterwards, and was discharged from the army on October 14, 1780.{{sfn|Butz|page=38}}

Shays, who had participated in the Northampton action, beganbecame involved in the uprising in November; though the precise role that Shays played is unclear and, as scholars have suggested, appears to takehave been exaggerated by contemporary elites.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zug |first=Charles U. |date=September 1, 2021 |title=Creating a moreDemagogue: activeThe leadershipPolitical roleOrigins of Daniel Shays's Erroneous Legacy in American Political History |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/716687 |journal=American Political Thought |language=en |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=601–628 |doi=10.1086/716687 |s2cid=243849281 |issn=2161-1580}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Richards |first=Leonard |title=Shays' Rebellion |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2002 |pages=117}}</ref> Historian Leonard Richards observes that "much of the uprisingbacklash in[against NovemberShays and the protestors] was due to the Boston elite. Had they treated Daniel Shays as simply a small-town rebel leader, the aftermath might have been different. But they portrayed him instead as a major villain."<ref name=":0" /> On September 19, the [[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court|Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts]] indicted eleven leaders of the rebellion as "disorderly, riotous, and seditious persons."<ref name="zinn93">Zinn, p. 93</ref> When the supreme judicial court was next scheduled to meet in [[Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield]] on September 26, Shays in [[Hampshire County, Massachusetts|Hampshire County]] and [[Luke Day]] in what is now [[Hampden County, Massachusetts|Hampden County]] (but was then part of Hampshire County) organized an attempt to shut it down. They were anticipated by [[William Shepard]], the local militia commander, who began gathering government-supporting militia the Saturday before the court was to sit. By the time the court was ready to open, Shepard had 300 men protecting the Springfield courthouse. Shays and Day were able to recruit a similar number, but chose only to demonstrate, exercising their troops outside Shepard's lines, rather than attempt to seize the building.<ref>Holland, pp. 245–47</ref> The judges first postponed the hearings, and then adjourned on the 28th without hearing any cases. Shepard withdrew his force, which had grown to some 800 men (to the Regulators' 1,200), to the [[Springfield Armory|federal armory]], which was then only rumored to be the target of seizure by the activists.<ref>Holland, p. 247</ref>

When Shays and his forces neared the armory, they found Shepard's militia waiting for them. Shepard first ordered warning shots fired over the approaching Shaysites' heads, and then ordered two cannons to fire [[grape shotgrapeshot]] at Shays' men. Four Shaysites were killed and twenty wounded. There was no musket fire from either side, and the rebel advance collapsed.<ref>Szatmary, p. 102</ref> Most of the rebel force fled north, eventually regrouping at [[Amherst, Massachusetts|Amherst]]. On the opposite side of the river, Day's forces also fled north, also eventually reaching Amherst.<ref>Szatmary, p. 103</ref>

* {{cite book|last=Richards|first=Leonard L|year=2002|title=Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle|location=Philadelphia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v6oeBQAAQBAJ |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-1870-1|oclc=56029217}}

* {{cite book | author-link=David Szatmary | last=Szatmary | first=David P. | year=1980 | title=Shays's Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection | publisher=University of Massachusetts Press | isbn=978-0-87023-419-4 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/shaysrebellionma0000szat }}

[[Category:People offrom colonial Massachusetts]]