After the revolution, a rebellion

REVOLUTION:

In Sheffield, near Route 41’s intersection with Rebellion Road, an obscure roadside monument stands alone in a farm field’s edge, along the Appalachian Trail.

Hewn from local marble and installed in 1904, this silent sentinel says mysteriously little: “Last Battle of Shays Rebellion Was Here, Feb. 27, 1787.”

Do these words celebrate rebellion or condemn it? Are they mere statements of fact — or a warning to the future? “Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate,” Jefferson predicted, “than these people are to be free.”

FROM REBELLION TO CONSTITUTION

Commemorating a battle fought nearly four years after the United States secured its independence, this marker reminds us its government was never destined to endure. Patriot leaders knew from history that revolutions and republics usually end in tyranny or anarchy.

In late 1786, Shays’ Rebellion, raging like wildfire across Massachusetts, fed their fears.

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