Deering, Amelia

The Whiskey Rebellion in a National Context

In the 1790s, the newly-founded United States was deeply in debt and had no reliable sources of revenue. The 1789 Constitution had given the Federal government the right to levy both direct and indirect (excise, import, etc.) taxes, something the Articles of Confederation made almost impossible.

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The Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania and Carlisle

The Pennsylvanians who led the Whiskey Rebellion were disproportionately affected by the 1791 excise tax on domestic liquor because the majority of western farmers were small-scale distillers, who also had the expensive disadvantage of having to transport their product over the Allegheny mountain

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