PRESENTER: The Revolutionary War left American states in debt. To raise money, legislators raised taxes. This angered poor farmers and war veterans to the point where they formed a rebellion, and almost caused a Civil War in Massachusetts. Daniel Shays, a former captain in the Continental Army, led the protest which came to be known as Shays' Rebellion.

In the summer of 1786, several thousand of Shays' followers prevented tax collection, and used force to keep debtors out of prison. They headed to Springfield to seize weapons, intending to force the Boston legislature to change the law. Massachusetts residents were terrified.

The legislature realized it was powerless. The Continental Army had been disbanded after the Revolutionary War, and the federal government had no money for new troops. Finally, wealthy merchants in Boston agreed to raise an army of over 4,000 militia to fight Shays' men.

THOMAS FLEMING: These men were talking about forming a new country out there. There's no telling what might have happened. If Shay's Rebellion had flourished, if these guys had been able to grab all guns in that arsenal and armed a big army. It would have been a very bad thing for the country.

The people in Boston sort of put together a 4,000 man army, and marched across Western Massachusetts. And basically blew Daniel Shays and his friends away, they all ran for their lives when they saw these guys coming at them.

PRESENTER: Shays and his troops were eventually pardoned, and Massachusetts began to offer tax and debt relief. Locally, this clash was anticlimactic, but Shays' Rebellion had momentous consequences for the nation. It highlighted a weakness in the Articles of Confederation, which didn't give Congress the right to establish or fund an army.

THOMAS FLEMING: The impact of Shays' rebellion was convincing people that we had to have a really strong federal government. Washington and Alexander Hamilton, and a lot of other people said, this proves that we've got to have a new Constitution.