Some men had guns, while some carried clubs and pitchforks. General Shepard predicted the assault and was waiting at the arsenal. Shepard believed the insurgents planned to overthrow the government. Two other groups of insurgents traveled to join Shays.
Another rebellion leader, Luke Day, who had ridden to Quebec with Benedict Arnold in , would head from the north with men. Eli Parsons would lead men from the Berkshires. As they approached the arsenal, shots were fired at Shays and his men. The first two were warning shots over their heads, but further shots left two rebels dead and 20 wounded.
The rest retreated to Chicopee, sending a message back to Shepard demanding the dead for burial. Shays and his men fled to Petersham. Lincoln followed, causing them to scatter. Shays and his wife fled to Vermont. Allen quietly gave former rebels refuge in Vermont, but publicly disavowed them. The Boston legislature passed the Disqualification Act banning rebels from serving on juries, holding public office, voting or working as schoolmasters, innkeepers and liquor salesmen for three years.
By the summer of , many participants in the rebellion received pardons from newly-elected Governor John Hancock. The new legislature placed a moratorium on debts and cut taxes, easing the economic burden the rebels were struggling to overcome.
Some rebels were publicly paraded to the gallows before release. Two were executed for burglary. Shays was pardoned the following year. He returned to Pelham briefly, then moved to Sparta , New York , where his legend made him a popular attraction for visitors. He died in and was laid to rest in an unmarked grave. Nationalists used the rebellion to heighten paranoia, and George Washington was convinced enough by their arguments to come out of retirement and take part in the Constitutional Convention , where he was elected the first president of the United States.
When the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention began, many communities in Massachusetts that supported the rebellion sent delegates that had taken part in it.
Leonard L. Paul de Valle. Lenox Historical Commission. National Constitution Center. National Archives. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Whiskey Rebellion was a uprising of farmers and distillers in western Pennsylvania in protest of a whiskey tax enacted by the federal government. Following years of aggression with tax collectors, the region finally exploded in a confrontation that resulted in President Five years after Yorktown, the promise of the American Revolution had been unfulfilled for thousands of farmers in western and central Massachusetts, many of whom had The Taiping Rebellion was a revolt against the Qing dynasty in China, fought with religious conviction over regional economic conditions, and lasting from to When the broken-down car prompts Tom to suggest that the family split up for a short time, Ma reacts with violence, grabbing the jack handle and demanding the family remain intact.
She realizes that outside forces are tearing them apart; without their home, nothing is left to bind them together. With this recognition, Ma again restates the theme of survival through group unity, "All we got is the family unbroken. Like a bunch of cows, when the lobos are ranging, stick all together. With Ma's revolt comes a shift in familial power. Although she had deferred to the men in the group, Ma had always been a reckoning force in the family structure. Recall that at the truck-side family conference she had roamed the perimeter of the men's circle, but decisions were not made without her input.
Yet it must be noted that Ma was not an early feminist. Quite clear about her traditional role as comforter, nurturer, and protector of the family, she also realizes that something of Pa's strength was taken when he lost the ability to provide for his family.
For the sake of family unity, she must temporarily take control. Tom's anger toward the camp proprietor for capitalizing on the misfortune of the migrant families echoes Steinbeck's attitude concerning the crimes of profit-hunters. Humans must not work for independent benefit, but for the good of all, a concept that recalls the tractor driver in Chapter 5, who chose to put other families off their farms in order to earn three dollars a day to feed his own family.
The owner recognizes this attitude in Tom, calling him a "troublemaker," but Tom, like Steinbeck, is not really advocating communism in the strict sense.
Much more important is the theme of humanism, of helping out others who are trapped by hard times, the personal expression of the theory of love expounded by Jim Casy. At the same time, Steinbeck is not suggesting that everyone should receive a free ride because they encounter unfortunate circumstances.
Earlier in the chapter, Tom had taken to task the one-eyed man in the wrecking yard because he was feeling sorry for himself. Hard work is important, and Steinbeck goes to great pains to reiterate the desire of men to work, to sweat, and as Casy says, "Fling their muscles around and get tired. This chapter also provides a somewhat critical crossroads in Tom's spiritual conversion, which critic Warren French has called his "education of the heart. They's gonna come a thing that's gonna change the whole country.
The Joad and Wilson families travel for two days. This worries Ma Joad, who balks at any idea of splitting up the family. Tom and Casy offer to stay behind to repair it, but Ma refuses to go on without them. Instead, the whole group waits while Al and Tom go into town to find parts at a local car lot. The brothers find the needed part, and spend some time talking to the bitter, one-eyed attendant. The man complains tearfully of the injustices of his job. Tom urges him to pull himself together.
At the crowded camp that night, Pa Joad tells a man that he is traveling to look for work in California. The man laughs at him, saying that there is no work in California, despite what the handbills promise. Wealthy farmers, the man reports, may need workers, but they print 5, handbills, which are seen by 20, people.
The man says that his wife and children starved to death because he took them to find work in California. This worries Pa, but Casy tells him that the Joads may have a different experience than this man did. The lives of the farmers change drastically.
0コメント