Shays' Rebellion

In the winter of 1786, Daniel Shays — a wounded veteran of Bunker Hill — led indebted Massachusetts farmers against the courts that were seizing their land.

The rebellion was crushed in a few months. Its consequences were enormous. Washington, in retirement at Mount Vernon, read the reports and concluded the Articles of Confederation could not hold.

Without Shays, there is no Philadelphia convention in the summer of 1787 — at least not that summer, and perhaps not with that urgency.