The Anti-Federalists by Jackson Main, 1961, Edited Excerpts
The
depression was aggravated by a number of factors:
Pre-Revolutionary
debts owed to the English and Scottish merchants was exceedingly heavy. Most of
the debt was held by Federalists, for the certificates were concentrated in the
wealthier and the urban areas.
Losses
suffered during the war and heavy buying after the war created new debts, further
debts were contracted for expansion and crop failures, and a state war debt
necessitated heavy taxation.
A
large proportion of farmers were in debt and were vulnerable to a depression.
After the war, planters hastened to repair their plantations and purchase
slaves, borrowing heavily, overextending themselves, counting of good crops and
high prices. Their situation was made worse by crop failures.
During
the mid-1780’s, economic conditions grew worse. The scarcity of money, due in
part to heavy exportations of gold and silver to England, resulted in
bankruptcies among merchants and caused high interest rates. It became
exceedingly difficult to pay taxes and private debts. By the end of 1784, the
economic depression was severely felt. Debtors were forced to sell their
property at a fraction of its true value. The principal economic hardship was
suffered in the rural towns and countryside where the people were less able to
bear financial losses. The rapacity of the lawyers was regarded as contributing
to the general distress which led to violence. There were riots among debtors
in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia,
and South Carolina.
Debts
motivated farmers to take an interest in politics. As a debtor, the farmer
hoped that the judicial process might be made more favorable to him. He
demanded the more convenient location of courts, lower court costs and lawyer
fees, laws obliging creditors to accept property at a “fair” value, the
abolition of imprisonment for debt, and laws delaying the recovery of debts.
Economic
problems gave rise to political issues.
Dorothea Lange - Photographer
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