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Handout G: Shays’s Rebellion Participants and Locations

Handout G: Shays’s Rebellion Participants and Locations

Directions: Use this page to identify the parts that you and your classmates will play in the reenactment of Shays’s Rebellion. Some parts may be shared in order to allow for participation by all your class members. Rules for role play: 1. No injuries, 2. No inappropriate language, 3. Have fun improvising dialogue and simple props (nothing purchased) in order to understand these historical events in an educational context.

  • Tax Collector: Mr. Collector (one or more)
  • Foreclosed Farmer: Mr. Farmer
  • Foreclosed Farmer Family: Mrs. Farmer, Children
  • Banker: Mr. Banker
  • Judge: Your Honor
  • Sheriff: Mr. Sheriff and Deputies
  • Daniel Shays
  • Guards at Springfield arsenal (two or more)
  • Massachusetts Governor: James Bowdoin
  • Massachusetts Militia: multiple part-time soldiers
  • General Benjamin Lincoln and multiple soldiers of private army
  • Angry Farmers (ex-Revolutionary War soldiers and officers)
  • Narrator

Use this space to designate an area in the classroom to represent each of the following locations:

  • Foreclosed farmer’s house
  • Courthouse
  • Jail
  • Springfield Arsenal
  • Massachusetts Governor James Bowdoin’s office