Reddit reviews Shays' Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection

Want to add a couple things:

1. It's worth noting that in this instance that Benjamin Lincoln's mercenary militia was funded by the Boston merchants after Gov. Bowdoin's attempt to rise the existing Massachusetts militia failed. Because the existing militia was largely comprised of the class of people rebelling to begin with, many of the units simply refused a call to bring up arms against their neighbors, family members, even themselves. The trials that followed charged many members of the normal militia as leaders in the rebellion. Bowdoin even tried to get militias from different states to help put down the rebels, but he was unsuccessful. (Why would New Hampshire want to send forces?) So, the merchants put it in their own hands.
   
   
2. Jefferson's reaction to Shays' is difficult to unpack and going to be different than some of the other founding fathers. Someone asked a slightly similar question a while ago that I unpacked here.
   
   My go-to suggestions for Shays readings are Szatmary's Shays' Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection and Leo Richards's Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle.

A couple good books on the topic if you're further interested: Shays' Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection and Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle