Footnotes and Further Reading

Getting By & Getting Ahead - Petition & Protest

"The Labyrinth of Debt"
Footnote # 1

Petition of the Worcester County Convention, 28 september 1786, Box 1 Folder 1, Shays Rebellion Collection, American Antiquarian Society.

Footnote # 2

Matthias Rice to Luke Drury, 28 March 1786, Box 2, Folder 23, Drury Papers, W.E.B. Dubois Library, University of Massachusetts.

Footnote # 3

In August 1784, a jail list for the Worcester County jail listed only two prisoners, neither of them debtors. That September, jailer Nathan Heard reported 16 debtors. By March 1785, Heard reported 137 prisoners, of whom 110 were debtors. Box 2 Folder 1, Worcester County MA Papers, AAS; "A Register of all Prisoners Commited to Gaol in Worcester County since March 5, 1785" Box 2 Folder 2, Ibid.

Footnote # 4

George Minot to Thomas Ward, Box 6 Folder 1, Ward Family Papers, AAS; Worcester County Gaol Petition, 7 December 1785, Box 3 folder 4, Worcester County, MA papers, AAS.

Footnote # 5

Petition of the town of Athol to the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives, 1 May 1786, Shays Rebellion Collection, Folder 2, AAS.

Footnote # 6

Petition of the Inhabitants of the town of Dracut to the General Court, 25 September 1786 , Folder 1, Shays Rebellion collection, AAS.

Footnote # 7

Petition of the Inhabitants of the town of Greenwich to the General Court, 16 January 1786 , Folder 3, Shays Rebellion collection, AAS.

Footnote # 8

Hampshire Gazette, 26 September 1786.

Footnote # 9

"An Old Soldier", Hampshire Herald, 7 December 1786.