Daniel Shays

US soldier and insurrectionary, probably born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA. His origins were humble and little is known of his early life. He fought at Bunker Hill (1775) and at Saratoga (1777), then resigned from the army (1780) and settled in Pelham, MA where he held several town offices. He led the insurrection in W Massachusetts (1786–7) that grew out of a severe economic depression. Armed groups threatened courts charged with the collection of debts, and in January 1787 he directed an assault on the Springfield Arsenal. Militia forces repulsed his band and pursued it to Petersham, where the remnants were captured, and he fled to Vermont. Massachusetts authorities condemned him to death for being a leader of the rebellion that bears his name. He received a pardon in 1788 and migrated to W New York, where he passed the remainder of his years in obscurity.

He is mostly known for leading a small army of farmers in Shays' Rebellion, which was a revolt against the state government of Massachusetts from 1786-1787, and a seminal event in the history of the early United States. Many historians see the Rebellion as a major factor in the abandonment of the Articles of Confederation, the adaptation of the United States Constitution, and the creation of the Federal government of the United States. he was probably born poor in Hopkinton, Massachusetts to Patrick Shay (spelled without the s) and Margaret Dempsey.

After resigning from the army in 1780, Shays settled in Pelham, Massachusetts, where he served in several local government positions. Economic conditions in the U.S., especially Western Massachusetts, began a serious decline and, by 1786, Shays became one of several who took command of units of rebels. The uprising soon became known as the "Shays Rebellion" after an encounter between a force of about 800 farmers under Shays, and a private militia unit of roughly the same size, at Springfield on September 26, 1786. Shays and his men were trying to prevent the Massachusetts Supreme Court from convening, fearing indictments against farmers in arrears.

By the winter of 1786-1787, there was open fighting between government forces and rebels. After several skirmishes, Shays and his men were defeated at Petersham, Massachusetts on February 2, 1787. Shays then fled to the Vermont Republic. Condemned to death in absentia on a charge of treason, Shays petitioned for amnesty in February 1788, and the petition was granted by John Hancock on June 13. Shays then relocated to New York.

Shays was later granted a $20 monthly pension by the federal government for his Revolutionary War service.