An armed uprising in the USA led by Captain Daniel Shays (c.1747–1825), a Massachusetts war veteran. Shays led a group of destitute farmers from western Massachusetts against the creditor merchants and lawyers of the seaboard towns. The Rebellion was caused by the Massachusetts legislature adjourning without hearing the petitions of debt-ridden farmers for financial help. The rebellion prevented the sitting of the courts; the state militia routed Shays’s force, but he escaped and was later pardoned. The uprising won concessions, but it also boosted the campaign for an effective constitution and central government for the USA.