Name _____________________________ Period _____ Time: 44 mins.

Shays’ Rebellion: America’s First Civil War

Answer the following while watching the video. Don’t worry about complete sentences.

1. True of False: Washington stepped away from power after the Revolutionary War.

America After the Revolution

2. What kind of problems did America experience after the war?

3. What could Congress run under the Articles of Confederation?

Samuel Adams
4. What didn’t Samuel Adams like about the Continental Congress after the Treaty of
Paris was signed?

Daniel Shays
5. What was one of the battles Daniel Shays fought in during the Revolutionary War?

6. What was Shays’ job before the Revolution?

A Nation in Chaos
7. Conflict began to arise between the western Massachusetts ______________ and the
debtor ____________.

8. Why were farmers in trouble after the war ended?

9. What could happen if they didn’t pay their mortgages?

Seeds of Rebellion
10. What could you no longer do if you lost your farm?

11. Although Samuel Adams had begun the Sons of Liberty before the Revolution, how
did he begin to view uprisings after being elected Senate?

12. What prized possession did Shays have to sell off to help feed his family?

13. In 1786, who made up most of the militia that Shays began to train?

Taking Up Arms
14. How did Shays begin to see courts?

15. What was Shays’ mission with the courts? What did he hope to accomplish by this?

The General’s Response

16. What did Henry Knox want Washington to do?
17. Why couldn’t the federal government help out with the rebellion?

18. What was Shays’ goal in Springfield, Massachusetts?

A Civil War Looms

19. What did Shays want to do to Boston once he seized the weapons?

20. How did the government find out that Shays was planning a 3-pronged attack on the
arsenal of weapons?

21. What was the number of casualties (dead and wounded) from Shays’ attack on the
arsenal?

Aftermath of the Rebellion

22. Why did Washington leave his home at Mount Vernon in Virginia?

The Constitutional Convention

23. What happened to the Articles of Confederation at the convention in Philadelphia?

24. How long did it take to write the Constitution?

25. _______________ wanted a stronger federal government, while ________________
thought that the country’s power should reside with the states.

26. The Constitution was signed on September, ___ 1787.

27. What was the purpose of the Bill of Rights?

28. At 78, Shays got a ______________ of $_____ per month and died later that year.

Overall Question
Do you think the Articles of Confederation would have been changed if not for Shays’
Rebellion? Was Shays a hero? Explain both reasons. Use complete sentences.
1. True
2. economic
3. the post office
4. division among the states
5. Bunker Hill, Lexington, Ticonderoga, and Saratoga
6. farmer
7. merchants and farmers
8. owed on mortgages or less demand for produce after the war
9. farms taken away or ended up in debtors prison
10. couldn’t vote
11. horrified, didn’t like idea, etc.
12. a sword give to him by Lafayette
13. mostly war veterans and men he fought with
14. enemies
15. shut them down and prevent them from taking any more farms or any more farmers
jailed
16. return to politics
17. no soldiers, no money, had no help to give, or no power to get involved in state affairs
18. march to arsenal in Springfield, Massachusetts and seize weapons
19. burn the city to the ground
20. his message was intercepted
21. 4 dead and 30 wounded
22. to attend/preside over the Convention in Philadelphia
23. completely changed/thrown out and Constitution was written
24. 16 weeks
25. Federalists; Antifederalists
26. 17th
27. gives rights to each citizen
28. pension; $20
29. Washington: Served the British, led continental Army, retired until he was called
back by politics
Adams: provoked the revolution through rebellion, served in the Continental Congress,
and was elected member in Massachusetts politics who despised Shays’ Rebellion
Shays: farmer, helped the colonies in their rebellion against Great Britain, helped lead a
rebellion against his country
30. Answers may vary