Presented by Dennis Picard, Wednesday, January 9, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Westfield. Free and open to the public.

Shay’s Rebellion is viewed as an agrarian revolt pitting impoverished farmers in western Massachusetts against the wealthy merchant class of the coastal eastern part of the State. Come hear an account of the participants and events of this post-revolutionary uprising that both confirm and negate this long-held perception.

Dennis Picard will share the stories leading up to what was termed at the time, the “Regulators,” their activities in our area, a few personages of local interest – including Westfield’s own General Shepard, and the effect on our nation’s early history. Some demands of the 1780s such as the one calling for moving the State capital out of Boston have been rediscovered repeatedly and advocated for over the generations.

Dennis served as a consultant on the filming of the award winner “A Little Rebellion Now and Then: Prologue to the Constitution,” Calliope Films, 1985, which dramatizes the turbulent years after the American Revolution that culminated in Shays’ Rebellion and the framing of the Constitution.