Gross, Robert A. In Debt to Shays: The Bicentennial of an Agrarian Rebellion (Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Vol 65) Hardcover. Fine. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1993. 1st printing, Fine/hardcover/cloth binding/published without dust jacket, Hardcover,8vo, 418pgs. Shay's Rebellion was a conflict over debts and taxes, prompted by the fiscal policies of Massachusetts in the mid-1780s.