Massachusetts, Commonwealth of (U.S.A.)
Substate | Active
1780 CE to 2057 CE
Worlds
The Atlantic Lands
View →Related Events
Showing 10 events out of 169 total
Northeastern North America
(1780 to 1791 CE): Decisive Struggles, Frontier Expansion, and Indigenous Repercussions
The era 1780 to 1791 in Northeastern North America witnessed the decisive conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, the formation of the United States under a new Constitution, critical territorial reorganization in British Canada, and profound impacts on indigenous nations throughout the region. This period was marked by shifting frontiers, postwar migrations, severe epidemic outbreaks, and significant social, economic, and political restructuring.
Final Years of the Revolutionary War
Southern Campaigns and British Defeat
From 1780, the conflict in the southern colonies intensified, especially in South Carolina, where warfare devastated the region. British forces captured Charleston (May 1780), securing their largest victory of the war. However, guerrilla leaders like Francis Marion ("Swamp Fox"), Thomas Sumter, and Andrew Pickens conducted relentless raids against British and Loyalist forces. The decisive American victories at Kings Mountain (1780) and Cowpens (1781) turned the tide, culminating in British General Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown (October 1781).
Treaty of Paris (1783) and Territorial Reconfigurations
Recognition of American Independence
The Treaty of Paris (1783) formally recognized the independence of the United States, ceding all British claims east of the Mississippi River (except Florida, returned to Spain). This significantly reshaped the geopolitical landscape.
Indigenous Exclusion and Continuing Tensions
Indigenous nations were excluded from the treaty, leaving territorial claims unresolved. Tribes allied with Britain—such as parts of the Iroquois Confederacy and the Cherokee—suffered severe repercussions, including major land losses.
Westward Expansion and Frontier Hardships
Movement West of the Appalachians
As soon as the war ended in 1781, a significant westward migration originated in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, rapidly extending beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Early settlers initially relied on hunting abundant deer, turkeys, and other game for survival. Gradually, livestock—hogs, sheep, cattle, and horses—became commonplace. Primitive lean-to shelters gave way to one-room log cabins, animal-skin clothing was replaced by homespun garments, and rudimentary farming communities took shape.
The restless pioneer ethos prompted continual westward movement, as settlers periodically uprooted themselves to establish new settlements fifty or a hundred miles further into the wilderness.
The Wilderness Road and Kentucky Settlements
The Wilderness Road, pioneered by Daniel Boone, became a primary corridor for settlers moving into Kentucky. Despite its steepness and rough conditions, traversable only by foot or horseback, thousands poured into Kentucky after 1783. Violent indigenous resistance was frequent; in 1784 alone, Native American warriors killed over one hundred travelers along the route. Among them was the grandfather of future president Abraham Lincoln, who was killed and scalped near Louisville in 1784.
In 1788, settlers founded Marietta, Ohio, the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory, heralding further settlement west of the Appalachians.
Devastating Epidemics Among Plains Tribes
The Smallpox Epidemic of 1781
A devastating smallpox epidemic, originating in Mexico City (1779–1780), slowly traveled northward along indigenous trade routes, reaching the Northern Plains in 1781. Nations such as the Comanche, Shoshone, Mandan, and Hidatsa were severely affected.
The Mandan suffered catastrophic losses; their thirteen clans were reduced to only seven, losing three clan lineages altogether. Subsequently, survivors moved north approximately twenty-five miles and consolidated into two villages on opposite banks of the Missouri River, where remnants of the similarly devastated Hidatsa joined them for mutual defense. Raids by the Lakota Sioux and Crow warriors during and after the epidemic exacerbated their vulnerability.
Indigenous Resistance in the Northwest Territory
Following American independence, increased settlement in the Ohio Country (the newly designated Northwest Territory) triggered violent resistance by indigenous coalitions, including the Miami Confederacy and Shawnee, under leaders such as Little Turtle and Blue Jacket. They inflicted severe defeats upon American forces, culminating in St. Clair’s Defeat (1791), highlighting ongoing indigenous opposition to American expansion.
Shays' Rebellion and Constitutional Reform
Economic Instability and Shays' Rebellion (1786–1787)
Post-revolutionary economic prosperity quickly devolved into severe depression, characterized by widespread debt, delinquent taxes, and foreclosures. In Massachusetts, economic desperation erupted into violent protests known as Shays’ Rebellion, led by farmers against oppressive courts and debt imprisonment. The rebellion exposed critical weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, notably the federal government's inability to regulate commerce or enforce taxation, galvanizing calls for governmental reform.
U.S. Constitution (1787–1791)
The Philadelphia Convention (1787) drafted the U.S. Constitution to address these governance issues, establishing a robust federal government divided into three branches. Ratified in 1788, the new government took effect with George Washington’s inauguration in 1789, followed by the adoption of the Bill of Rights (1791).
British Canada and Loyalist Migrations
Tens of thousands of Loyalists fleeing revolutionary persecution reshaped British-controlled Canada, prompting Britain to create New Brunswick from Nova Scotia (1784) and split Quebec into English-speaking Upper Canada and French-speaking Lower Canada in 1791, granting each an elected legislative assembly.
Northern Indigenous Societies and Economic Networks
Mandan and Plains Economies
The Mandan continued to prosper economically despite severe population losses. As key intermediaries in the fur and horse trade along the Upper Missouri River, they skillfully navigated commerce with competing European and American traders, solidifying their central role in regional trade networks despite ongoing threats from more militarized Plains nations.
Greenland Settlements and Epidemics
In Greenland’s Egedesminde Colony (Aasiaat), founded by missionary Niels Egede, European whalers inadvertently introduced smallpox epidemics during the 1770s and 1780s, significantly reducing indigenous populations and dramatically reshaping local demographics.
Cultural and Ideological Shifts
The Great Awakening’s Legacy
The evangelical fervor of the Great Awakening continued influencing cultural and political ideologies, fueling revolutionary notions of liberty, religious freedom, and individual rights, laying ideological foundations for American republicanism.
Education and Intellectual Expansion
The immediate postwar period saw increased emphasis on education, with institutions such as Transylvania University (established in 1780 in Kentucky), becoming centers of intellectual discourse in the expanding frontier society.
Legacy of the Era (1780–1791 CE)
Between 1780 and 1791, Northeastern North America experienced transformative shifts. The conclusion of the Revolutionary War and subsequent territorial expansion significantly altered regional geopolitics. Westward migrations profoundly reshaped the frontier, encountering violent resistance from indigenous nations and severe hardships, including devastating epidemics like the smallpox outbreak of 1781.
Internal tensions like Shays’ Rebellion exposed critical weaknesses in national governance, prompting constitutional reform. Simultaneously, Loyalist migrations restructured British Canadian territories. These complex interactions among settlers, indigenous nations, and emergent national governments created foundational dynamics influencing the region’s future trajectory.
The United States, having won its independence from Great Britain through revolution from 1775, remains threatened internally by destabilizing sectional conflicts over slavery, taxation, and the distribution of wealth.
After the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty ending the American Revolution in 1783, the United States has yet to form formal government organizations and the constitutional convention has yet to convene.
The prosperity that reigned at war's end soon devolves into a severe economic depression.
Property holders begin losing their possessions through seizures for overdue debts and delinquent taxes and become subject to debtor's imprisonment.
Demonstrations ensue, with threats of violence against the courts handling the enforcement and indictments.
In what comes to be known as Shays' Rebellion, farmers and working people in Massachusetts begin organizing in protest against dictatorial and oppressive governmental and court systems and against excessive salaries for government and court officials.
The authors of the Constitution are heavily influenced by the country's experience under the Articles of Confederation (1781-89), which had attempted to retain as much independence and sovereignty for the states as possible and to assign to the central government only those nationally important functions that the states could not handle individually.
The events of the years 1781 to 1787, including the national government's inability to act during Shays' Rebellion, show that the Articles are unworkable because they deprive the national government of many essential powers, including direct taxation and the ability to regulate interstate commerce.
Its framers hope that the new Constitution will remedy this problem.
The primary cause of the event is believed to have been a combination of smoke from forest fires, a thick fog, and cloud cover.
The darkness is so complete that candles are required from noon on.
It does not disperse until the middle of the next night.
For several days before the Dark Day, the Sun as viewed from New England appeared to be red, and the sky appeared yellow.
While the darkness is present, soot is observed to have collected in rivers and in rain water, suggesting the presence of smoke.
Also, when the night really comes in, observers see the Moon colored red.
For portions of New England, the morning of May 19, 1780 is characterized by rain, indicating that cloud cover is present.
Since communications technology of the day was primitive, most people found the darkness to be baffling and inexplicable. Many applied religious interpretations to the event.[8]
In Connecticut, a member of the Governor's council (it will be renamed Connecticut State Senate in 1818), Abraham Davenport, will become most famous for his response to his colleagues' fears that it is the Day of Judgment:
I am against adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought.
Davenport's courage will be commemorated in the poem "Abraham Davenport" by John Greenleaf Whittier, also by Edwin Markham in his poem "A Judgement Hour", found in 'The Gates of Paradise and Other Poems' by Edwin Markham. (Doubleday 1928 Page 36.)
The likely cause of the Dark Day is smoke from extensive forest fires.
When a fire does not kill a tree and the tree later grows, scar marks are left in the growth rings.
This makes it possible to approximate the date of a past fire.
Researchers examining the scar damage in Ontario, Canada, will attribute the Dark Day to a large fire in the area that is today occupied by Algonquin Provincial Park.
The state, which does not have any claims on western land, has refused to ratify the Articles until the other states have ceded their western land claims.
When the other states finally do so, the Maryland legislature decides in January 1781 to ratify the Articles.
The Articles had been ratified by Maryland, the thirteenth and final state to do so, on February 2, 1781, and on March 1, the United States Continental Congress implements them, forming its Perpetual Union as the United States in Congress Assembled.
The Massachusetts Medical Society incorporates on November 1, 1781.
It is today the oldest continuously operating state medical society in the United States, and is the owner and publisher of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Contrary to the claims of some of his later advocates, however, he is not the first president to serve under the Articles, nor the first to be elected under the Articles.
When the Articles went into effect in March 1781, Congress had not bothered to elect a new president; instead, Samuel Huntington continued serving a term that had already exceeded a year.
On July 9, 1781, Samuel Johnston became the first man to be elected as president of Congress after the ratification of the Articles.
He declined the office, however, perhaps to make himself available for North Carolina's gubernatorial election.
After Johnston turned down the office, Thomas McKean was elected.
McKean served just a few months, resigning in October 1781 after hearing news of the British surrender at Yorktown.
Congress had asked him to remain in office until November, when a new session of Congress is scheduled to begin.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the United States has no executive branch; the president of Congress is a mostly ceremonial position, but the office does require Hanson to handle a good deal of correspondence and sign official documents.
Hanson finds the work tedious and had considered resigning after just one week, citing his poor health and family responsibilities.
Colleagues had urged him to remain because Congress at the moment lacks a quorum to choose a successor.
Out of a sense of duty, Hanson remains in office, although his term as a delegate to Congress is nearly expired.
The Maryland Assembly reelects him as a delegate on November 28, 1781, and Hanson will continue to serve as president until November 4, 1782.
Some residents in these areas have little in the way of assets beyond their land and barter with one another for goods or services.
In lean times, farmers might obtain goods on credit from suppliers in local market towns who would be paid when times were better.
In the more economically developed coastal areas of Massachusetts Bay and in the fertile Connecticut River Valley, the economy is basically a market economy, driven by the activities of wholesale merchants dealing with Europe, the West Indies and elsewhere on the North American coast.
The state government is dominated by this merchant class.
Populist Governor John Hancock refuses to crack down on tax delinquencies, and accepts devalued paper currency for debts.
When the Revolutionary War ends in 1783, the European business partners of Massachusetts merchants refuse to extend lines of credit to them and insist that they pay for goods with hard currency.
Despite the continent-wide shortage of such currency, merchants begin to demand the same from their local business partners, including those merchants operating in the market towns in the state's interior.
Many of these merchants pass on this demand to their customers, although the popular governor, John Hancock, does not impose hard currency demands on poorer borrowers and refuses to actively prosecute the collection of delinquent taxes.
The rural farming population is generally unable to meet the demands being made of them by merchants or the civil authorities, and individuals begin to lose their land and other possessions when they are unable to fulfill their debt and tax obligations.
This leads to strong resentments against tax collectors and the courts, where creditors obtain and enforced judgments against debtors, and where tax collectors obtain judgments authorizing property seizures.
Overlaid upon these financial issues is the fact that veterans of the war had received little pay during the war and face difficulty collecting pay owed them from the State or the Congress of the Confederation.
Some of the soldiers, Daniel Shays among them, begin to organize protests against these oppressive economic conditions.
Shays had been a farmhand from Massachusetts when the Revolution broke out; he joined the Continental Army, saw action at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill and Saratoga, and was eventually wounded in action.
In 1780, he resigned from the army unpaid and went home to find himself in court for nonpayment of debts.
He had soon realized that he was not alone in his inability to pay his debts and began organizing for debt relief.
A second, larger-scale protest takes place in the Massachusetts town of Uxbridge, in Worcester County on the Rhode Island border.
On February 3, 1783, a mob seizes property that had been confiscated by a local constable and returned it to its owners.
Governor Hancock orders the sheriff to suppress these actions.
Great Britain had taken over the Ohio Country, as its eastern portion is known, but a few months later had closed it to new European settlement by the Royal Proclamation of 1763.
The Crown had tried to restrict settlement of the thirteen colonies between the Appalachians and the Atlantic, which raised colonial tensions among those who wanted to move west.
With the colonials' victory in the American Revolutionary War and signing of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the United States claimed the territory, as well as the areas south of the Ohio.
The territories are subject to overlapping and conflicting claims of the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia dating from their colonial past.
The British will be active in some of the border areas until after the Louisiana Purchase and the War of 1812.
The region has long been desired for expansion by colonists.
The states are encouraged to settle their claims by the US government's de facto opening of the area to settlement following the defeat of Great Britain.
In 1784, Thomas Jefferson, a delegate from Virginia, proposes that the states should relinquish their particular claims to all the territory west of the Appalachians, and the area should be divided into new states of the Union.
Jefferson's proposal to create a federal domain through state cessions of western lands is derived from earlier proposals dating back to 1776 and debates about the Articles of Confederation.
Jefferson proposes creating ten roughly rectangular states from the territory, and suggests names for the new states: Cherronesus, Sylvania, Assenisipia, Illinoia, Metropotamia, Polypotamia, Pelisipia, Washington, Michigania and Saratoga.
The Congress of the Confederation modifies the proposal, passing it as the Land Ordinance of 1784. This ordinance establishes the example that will become the basis for the Northwest Ordinance three years later.