Shays, Daniel (1747?-1825), was a former Continental Army officer who helped lead a revolt of debtor farmers against the Massachusetts state courts in 1786 and 1787. The revolt became known as Shays’s Rebellion. It was short-lived and largely unsuccessful, but it brought about a small measure of debt relief for the poor farmers of Massachusetts.
Shays was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, near Boston, around 1747. His parents had emigrated from Ireland. Daniel was the second of six children. He had little formal education, but he was known to be bright and hard-working. As a young man, he worked as a farm laborer. About 1772, while living in Brookfield, Massachusetts, Shays married Abigail Gilbert. The couple soon bought a farm near Shutesbury, in central Massachusetts. They had several children.
Shays had long been interested in military affairs, and he helped train the local militia (citizen soldiers) in the communities where he lived. He served with the Massachusetts militia following the fighting at Lexington and Concord at the start of the American Revolution (1775-1783). Shays was promoted to sergeant in the Continental Army after serving with distinction at the Battle of Bunker Hill. By 1777, Shays had been promoted to captain of his regiment, and he fought with distinction during the patriot victory at Saratoga, New York, in September and October 1777. After the battle, the Marquis de Lafayette, a young Frenchman who served as a major general on George Washington’s staff, gave Shays a ceremonial sword in recognition of his service. In 1779, Shays won praise for his bravery in the American capture of British fortifications at Stony Point, New York.
About 1780, most of the fighting in the northern American Colonies had ended, and Shays left the Continental Army in October. He had served for five years with little pay, and he had sold the Lafayette sword to help pay his debts. Shays and his family moved from Shutesbury to a farm in nearby Pelham. He became a leader in the small agricultural community, serving as town warden and as a delegate to county meetings. In the mid-1780’s, during an economic recession, the legislature of Massachusetts raised taxes on landowners to help pay off the government’s war debt. The taxes proved a heavy burden for Shays and his neighbors, whose modest farms struggled to make a profit even under the best circumstances. Many poor landowners had to sell portions of their land to pay off overdue debts and taxes. Dozens of communities petitioned the state government for debtor relief, but the state ignored the petitions. In late 1786, thousands of residents who called themselves “Regulators” forcibly closed courts in a number of Massachusetts towns. Shays, hoping to secure the debt and tax relief farmers demanded, assumed leadership of the poorly armed, undisciplined group. In taking control of the group, he also hoped to avoid bloodshed.
In January 1787, an army led by Shays marched on the U.S. arsenal at Springfield, but they were forced to retreat. In February, Massachusetts troops under General Benjamin Lincoln routed Shays’s men. The Massachusetts government had set rewards for the capture of the revolt’s leaders and charged them with treason. Shays and others escaped first to New Hampshire and then to Vermont. In May 1787, a newly elected Massachusetts government pardoned many of the Regulators. In March 1788, Shays requested that the Massachusetts legislature grant him clemency (leniency in sentencing). He received a full pardon in June.
After receiving the pardon, Shays returned to his farm at Pelham. In 1795, he moved to New York state. About 1818, the United States Congress granted Shays a military pension for his service during the American Revolution. Shays died in Sparta, New York, on Sept. 23, 1825.
