Tom Goldscheider
Shays’s Rebellion: Reclaiming the Revolution
Shays’s Rebellion presents an uncomfortable chapter in our history. How do we account for an armed insurrection against the state in the cradle of the American Revolution? We will take a new look at this tumultuous period by focusing on the experiences of three men from Williamsburg, Massachusetts. All three were made prisoners of debt just before the Rebellion while Williamsburg lay at the epicenter of the troubles. The picture we get of the alarming situation in the 1780s offers some surprising answers to questions that go to the heart of who we are as a nation.
Tom Goldscheider, MA, (tomgoldscheider.net) earned his Masters degree in History at UMass Amherst with a concentration in the Colonial Period. He is a public historian who has published and lectured on Shays’s Rebellion and labor unions in Greenfield. He co-produced a radio special that broadcasts on NPR stations across the country. He is the Education Coordinator at the David Ruggles Center for History and Education.
