But conditions were supposed to have been restored to normal with the cessation of hostilities, and creditors were generally inclined to demand payment.

These demands, coinciding with the heavy taxes, drove the people of western Massachusetts into revolt.
Feeling ran high against lawyers who prosecuted suits for creditors, and this antagonism was easily transferred to the courts in which the suits were brought.

The rebellion in Massachusetts accordingly took the form of a demonstration against the courts.

A paper was carried from town to town in the County of Worcester, in which the signers promised to do their utmost "to prevent the sitting of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the county, or of any other court that should attempt to take property by distress." The Massachusetts Legislature adjourned in July, 1786, without remedying the trouble and also without authorizing an issue of paper money which the hardpressed debtors were demanding.

In the months following mobs prevented the courts from sitting in various towns.