America’s agrarian rebellion, 230 years ago

NORTH CANAAN — On the night of Feb. 26, 1787, an armed party of angry New England farmers embarked on a march through the Berkshires. The events of the next day bookended one of the first anti-government protests in the United States, known as Shays’ Rebellion.

On the night of Friday, July 15, 229 years later, historian and naturalist Tim Abbott wore the same garb as his early American predecessors. However, he wasn’t angry, nor was he about to march.

Instead, he gave an educational talk on the historic rebellion to an intrigued crowd at the Douglas Library. The event was part of North Canaan’s Railroad Days celebration.

Abbott’s black hat was decorated with a white ribbon, a symbol that indicated he was an American loyalist.

Abbott explained how Shays’ Rebellion served as the climax of an eight-month resistance to the young American government caused by extreme economic deprivation.

Men who had fought in the revolution had not been paid, Abbott said, and having returned to civilian life, were being put in jail for not paying debts.

Daniel Shays, the man whose name the event is remembered by, was a prominent figure in the overall resistance, but he was not even involved in the actual rebellion. Perez Hamlin, who was born in Sharon in 1748, led the rebellion.

Abbott provided the audience with a digital map to demonstrate the trail the insurgents followed.

He revealed how Hamlin led a group in a march throughout the night from the New York border heading east. The next morning, the group of between 90 and 125 men sacked and looted the largely unguarded town of Stockbridge, Mass.

The party continued southward to Great Barrington, where militiamen had only shortly beforehand departed for Sheffield.

Later that day, Colonel John Ashley Jr., leading militiamen from Sheffield, Great Barrington, Stockbridge and Lenox, confronted the insurgents.

The battle took place near what is now West Road and Rebellion Road, just north of Sheffield’s downtown area. Four or five men were killed in total, and the skirmish quickly ended with the insurgents’ surrender.

Abbott’s presentation included first-hand accounts of the battle from newspaper archives and letters from those involved in the military.

He provided the names of those fallen, and even read a letter sent to Yale University, written in a polite manner by an injured soldier’s father, explaining why his son couldn’t attend school on time.

One man in the audience traced Perez Hamlin’s family line to his fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Hamlin.

In anticipation of the 230th anniversary of Shays’ Rebellion, Abbott mentioned a reenactment is likely to take place next February.