Dennis Picard, museum professional, history expert, and adjunct professor at Westfield State University. He began his career in 1978 at Old Sturbridge Village. (Photo provided courtesy of Eric Hottin)
WESTFIELD- The first lecture of the new year from the Westfield 350 Lecture Series will feature Dennis Picard speaking about Shay’s Rebellion at the First Congregational Church on Wednesday, January 9th at 6:30.
Picard, who is an adjunct professor at Westfield State University, said he wants to talk about the details of the rebellion that are often left out of the classroom.
“The standard line that developed over the years is that it has become oversimplified,” said Picard, “There is a lot of ‘ra-ra’ patriotism surrounding it without considering the context of the time.”
Shay’s Rebellion is considered a formative event for the United States. The event led to then General George Washington to come out of retirement, and the Constitutional Convention to be formed to create a new government.
Picard said that the rebellion took place between 1786 and 1787. Most of the court hearings leading up to the actual rebellion took place in 1786, with some of the actual fighting taking place the following year. The rebellion began in the first place because certain financial restrictions were placed on Massachusetts farmers that they were often unable to meet.
The most famous conflict of the rebellion, the attack on the Springfield Armory by Daniel Shay and his militia, was put down by General William Shepard, a Westfield native. Shepard intercepted a message by one of Shay’s men that would have delayed the attack by one day. Shay, having never received the message, attacked the armory a day early and without a portion of his militia.
General Shepard was not operating under orders from the Federal Government, rather, he took orders from Massachusetts Governor James Bowdoin despite the armory being a federally owned building. Shepard famously ordered grape-shot to be fired at the rebels at waist height. His successful defense of the armory gave him a dark reputation that followed him for the rest of his life.
“General Shepard lived the rest of his life being blamed for the deaths that resulted,” said Picard, “the armory was a federal institution. There were many questions over whether Shepard should even have been there.
Picard said that Daniel Shay escaped to Vermont before he was ultimately Pardoned and allowed to return to Massachusetts. Thousands of rebels were made to sign confessions of their involvement in exchange for their freedom. Only a few men were executed because they had gone too far with their actions in the rebellion.
