The Duke of Stockbridge: A Romance of Shays' RebellionBellamy, Edward
General
The Duke of Stockbridge: A Romance of Shays' Rebellion
Bellamy, Edward
Shays' Rebellion, 1786-1787 -- Fiction
Besides the coolies, there was a small number of laborers who commanded
actual wages in produce or in money. Although there was no reason in
yesterday's proceedings, why these should not go to work as usual, yet
the spirit of revolt that was in the air, and the vague impression of
impending changes that were to indefinitely better the condition of the
poor, had so far affected them also, that the most took this day as a
holiday, with a hazy but pleasing notion that it was the beginning of
unlimited holidays.
All this idle element naturally drifted into the streets, and collected
in particular force on the green and about the tavern. By afternoon,
these groups, reënforced by those who had been busy at home during the
morning, began to assume the dimensions of a crowd. Widow Bingham,
at the tavern, had deemed it expedient to keep the right side of the
lawless element by a rather free extension of credit at the bar, and
there was a good deal of hilarity, which, together with the atmosphere
of excitement created by the recent stirring events, made it seem
quite like a gala occasion. Women and girls were there in considerable
numbers, the latter wearing their ribbons, and walking about in groups
together, or listening to their sweethearts, as each explained to a
credulous auditor, how yesterday's great events had hinged entirely on
the narrator's individual presence and prowess.
Some of the youths, the preceding night, had cut a tall sapling and set
it in the middle of the green, in front of the tavern. On the top of
this had been fixed the cocked hat of Justice Goodrich, brought as a
trophy from Great Barrington. This was the center of interest, the focus
of the crowd, a visible, palpable proof of the people's victory over
the courts, which was the source of inextinguishable hilarity. It was
evident, indeed, from the conversation of the children, that there
existed in the minds of those of tender years, some confusion as to the
previous ownership of the hat, and the circumstances connected with its
acquisition by the people. Some said that it was Burgoyne's hat, and
others that it was the hat of King George, himself, while the affair
of the day before at Great Barrington, was variously represented as a
victory over the redcoats, the Indians and the Tories. But, whatever
might be the differences of opinion on these minor points, the children
were uproariously agreed that there was something to be exceedingly
joyful about.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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