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Shays' Rebellion and the Workingman’s Revolution with Dr. Richard Bell

Shays' Rebellion and the Workingman’s Revolution with Dr. Richard Bell


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Did the American Revolution make ordinary working people happy? How did their inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness change in the immediate aftermath of the war?

In this talk’s first half University of Maryland historian Richard Bell focuses on working white people in port cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia and asks whether post-war peace eased the economic hardships and insecurities the conflict itself had brought on and whether the end of the fighting ushered in a new economic order in which people on the bottom could not only pursue prosperity but actually achieve it.

Then, in the talk’s second half, we pivot to examine the postwar struggles of rural folk, the farmers who accounted for the majority of America’s white population. Our mission is to get to the bottom of Daniel Shays’ Rebellion, a 1786 uprising by 2,200 western farmers and veterans to overthrow the Massachusetts government and burn Boston to the ground.

Led by a historian, Dr. Richard Bell, this seminar will awaken participants to the intriguing history of Shays Rebellion and the Workingman’s revolution. Designed to inform curiosity and educate, this conversation will deepen our understanding of this important period in early American history.

Dr. Richard Bell is Professor of History at the University of Maryland. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and has won more than a dozen teaching awards, including the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has held major research fellowships at Yale, Cambridge, the Library of Congress and is the recipient of the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship and the National Endowment of the Humanities Public Scholar Award. Professor Bell is author of the new book "Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and their Astonishing Odyssey Home," which was shortlisted for the George Washington Prize and the Harriet Tubman Prize.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 2 reviews
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S.S. (Oxford, US)
Shay's Rebellion

Dr. Bell led me into an unknown episode in the aftermath of our American revolution. I cannot believe that a history major could be so ignorant - but what fun - I;m not too old to learn! Dr. Bell makes it so intensly interesting!

V
V. (San Diego, US)
Illuminating seminar re post-Revolutionary American working class

Dr. Bell, in this scintillating seminar, explores the impact of the American Revolution on the working poor in rural and urban America, and illuminates how they responded to loss of economic stability and political voice. Dr. Bell engages the audience from the first sentence to the last.

Customer Reviews

Based on 2 reviews
100%
(2)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
S
S.S. (Oxford, US)
Shay's Rebellion

Dr. Bell led me into an unknown episode in the aftermath of our American revolution. I cannot believe that a history major could be so ignorant - but what fun - I;m not too old to learn! Dr. Bell makes it so intensly interesting!

V
V. (San Diego, US)
Illuminating seminar re post-Revolutionary American working class

Dr. Bell, in this scintillating seminar, explores the impact of the American Revolution on the working poor in rural and urban America, and illuminates how they responded to loss of economic stability and political voice. Dr. Bell engages the audience from the first sentence to the last.