Shay's Rebellion Critique

The article “Shay’s Rebellion” was written by Alden T. Vaughn of Columbia University, in America during the 1960s. The content of the article, however, focused on the difficulties that plagued Massachusetts in the 1780s and produced what is known as Shay’s Rebellion.
Made obvious by the content of this piece of writing, is the fact that Vaughn must have done a good bit of researching to thoroughly grasp the feelings of people during the times, and accumulate his opinion of this part of the era. Being a historian, Vaughn had to see the world as those who lived it, as well as maintain the perspective of his own time, and in doing this, he rid the article of bias, and only spoke his honest opinion.
The issue of the article was the rebellion led by Daniel Shay, the events leading up to it, and the products of the actions. Not only were tensions raised to extreme heights in communities during this time, but hundreds of people began to go against the government even more because of the level of unfairness. In his article, Vaughn tries to explain the colonials’ reasoning behind their actions, and has a tone which implies his position on the matter to be one in which the colonials were distressed and tired of being put in debt because of unreasonable laws. The author gives factual evidence throughout his work that tell of events where people were unhappy and of the consequences of these feelings. Vaughn makes a good point in saying more or less that people wanted to understand why they were being treated this way, and wanted to know why their government was being so one sided and unjust.
Personally, I completely agree with the author’s position, and I understand why he wrote about the evidence that he did. Vaughn made a point of telling about the Rebellion from both the colonial and governmental perspectives, and stayed away from any bias that could have been brought in. The occurrences of Shay’s Rebellion are elaborated on in many textbooks and writings, and... [continues]

Read full essay