ry of this divide being so clearly demonstrated.
Marissa: Right, and I think that, surely there was this feeling of um, success after kind of kicking the British out, and feeling like hey, we stuck it to the man, and now there’s like a new man in town. And I’m sure there was a lot of resentment, especially by veterans, who thought, “I fought in this war for freedom and now I’m taxed unfairly just as I was before.”
I know among a lot of Quakers that, who were pacifists anyway- that’s what they said. That this new government is doing the same thing that Brits were doing, so whatever. They thought it was all the same.
So what may have begun as a bunch of unruly, ungovernable country bumpkins defying federal power ended up having a number of really important lasting legacies. First, the frustrated and thwarted frontiersmen of the rebellion picked up stakes and moved further inland, where they could better avoid contact with the federal government. I think, kind of as you both suggested, kind of upping the ante between rural and urban divide. Making themselves even more removed from the center of power. And as they left, in a way, they took the frontier with them – Western PA was no longer the frontier; instead, it moved inland to the Mississippi river region. This had other consequences, of course – the further west white settlers moved, the greater conflicts arose with Native Americans. In some cases, they live in those regions that become places of internal conflict later on in the 19th century: West Virginia, southern Ohio, Kentucky, etc. all places that have populations of poor, non-slaveholding whites and conflicted loyalties when it comes to slavery and support for the federal government. Places that become really interesting during the Civil War and the sectional crisis.
Another factor after the Whiskey Rebellion is that just in its very existence, it brought attention and money to Western PA. In order to have that number of soldiers in the area, the government had no choice but to pay local residents for food, lodging, and other necessities. Ironically, this influx of cash boosted the local economy – which I think is so bizarre and fascinating; this conflict arises over the refusal of these frontiersmen to pay the whiskey tax, and then in order to force them to pay, the army has no choice but to pay *them.*
Marissa: To patronize them, their villages.
Sarah: Right, and another interesting aspect of this who came out to quell the rebellion fell in love with the rolling hills of Western PA, bought tracts of land, and moved to the area to settle. So as a result of this bitter conflict, the population of the area increased and economy improved. So there were these unexpected consequences.
Marissa: Right but at the same time they were still growing apart. These kind of rural areas- I read a lot about 1790s Philadelphia and I know that they were pissed that Philadelphians had to leave in 1794, what was it June? And head out and kind of take care of these backwoods “a-holes.” They were kind of like, really resentful of that.
Sarah: Right, so the locals, now having cash in hand, used it to invest in more land; land prices went up by 50% after 1794. This had one beneficiary in particular and that is George Washington himself, who had extensive land holdings in Western PA, that he’d had for a long long time. I don’t want to venture what the actual number was but the land he owned around modern Pittsburg was really enormous. He had decided just before the rebellion itself to start selling off this land and his plans were placed on hold by the rebellion – afterwards this idea became even more lucrative. He held on to his land until 1796, when he began to sell most of it off, partly because of the market, and partly because he was so frustrated with his irritating Western PA tenants! Which is an ironic twist is that George Washington ends up profiting off of this land boom that happens after the Whiskey Rebellion. So there are some really strange things happening here.
The event also had larger consequences. I think as both Mariss