Support “The Whiskey Rebellion”

The Whiskey Rebellion

A WPSU Documentary Film Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the United States

July 15th, 1794. Federal Marshall David Lennox and chief tax inspector John Neville arrive at a farm ten miles south of Pittsburgh to deliver a subpoena to one of hundreds of farmers in western Pennsylvania who refuse to pay the whiskey tax.

Warning shots force them to flee. The next day thirty local rebel militiamen surround Neville’s fortified home and demand the surrender of Lennox, who they believe to be hiding inside. Neville shoots and mortally wounds their leader. The rebels open fire but are forced to retreat. They return the next day 600 strong. Women and children are allowed to leave the house before both sides open fire. By end of day, Neville has fled and rebels burn his house to the ground. It was the first bloodshed in the Whiskey Rebellion.

The Whiskey Rebellion (1791-1794) was a major domestic political crisis in the formative years of the United States, triggered when treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton’s tax on the making of whiskey sparked a violent insurrection by settlers on the western frontier. The Whiskey tax was the first tax levied on a domestic product by the federal government, meant to pay down loans taken from wealthy backers in support of the American Revolution. Hamilton intended the tax revenue to help stabilize the economy, but it severely hurt small farmers who relied on the distilling of grain for economic survival.

Resentment and anger erupted into violence in western Pennsylvania as vigilantes tarred and feathered tax collectors and threatened those who paid the tax. The protesters, most who served in the American Revolution, found themselves at odds with the very Nation they helped create.

The feud reached fever pitch in July 1794. After failed negotiations, President George Washington left the nation’s capital in Philadelphia to take command of thirteen thousand troops and march on the western counties, the only American president to personally lead a military force against his own people.

The Whiskey Rebellion challenged Washington’s administration with its most serious crisis and sorely tested American unity as angry voices beyond the Alleghenies called for secession. Would a tax revolt tear the young nation apart? What emerged was the establishment of an American national identity and acceptance of the Constitution as the Law of the Land.

Never before told on public television, the story of the Whiskey Rebellion serves as an example of the tension between citizen rights and federal authority and highlights the importance of establishing a strong national government while respecting individual liberties. The issues raised reflect the polarization of today and WPSU will take on this very relevant chapter in Pennsylvania history to produce The Whiskey Rebellion, a half hour of engaging television well remembered.

On Camera Interviews

Carol Berkin is a marvelous early American scholar, author of A Sovereign People: The Crises of the 1790s and the Birth of American Nationalism and appeared in American Experience: Alexander Hamilton.  She can speak specifically to how Washington, Hamilton, and John Adams navigated the crises of the 1790s and ultimately bound the states into a unified nation.

William Hogeland, author of The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America’s Newfound Sovereignty and the new book The Hamilton Scheme and will appear in Ken Burns’ upcoming PBS series The American Revolution.

Brady Crytzer at Robert Morris University is the author of The Whiskey Rebellion: A Distilled History of an American Crisis and hosts the weekly podcast Dispatches: The Podcast of the Journal of the American Revolution.

Jared Frederick at Penn State Altoona has a lifelong passion for American history and is an experienced historical presenter. He presented the Whiskey Rebellion for one episode of PA Past, WPSU’s history short subject online series. Frederick has appeared on C-SPAN, PBS, the Pennsylvania Cable Network, WW2TV, National Park Service productions, and various online documentaries.

Producer/Writer/Director

Kristian Berg is an award-winning television producer, writer and director for WPSU public television. Starting in 1989 he produced stories for nine seasons of the Emmy®-winning PBS series Newton’s Apple. He also contributed stories to the PBS series ZOOM!, DragonflyTV, NOVA: ScienceNOW, and History Detectives.  He wrote and produced the PBS documentaries The Dakota Conflict, Dakota Exile, Seth Eastman: Painting the Dakota and the Court TV documentaries The Scottsboro Boys and The Capture and Trial of Adolf Eichmann. At WPSU, he produced the series Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  His independent film Poustinia: The Art of Gendron Jensen won the jury prize at the 2013 Woodstock Film Festival and the audience award at the 2014 Minneapolis/St.Paul Independent Film Festival. His awards include a national Emmy® Award nomination; nine regional Emmy® Awards; and the Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Kristian’s great (5) grandfather, Leverton Thomas, was a whiskey rebel in Washington County Pennsylvania and was made to sign a loyalty oath after George Washington put down the rebellion.

Support the Project

If you are interested in supporting the project, contact Rob Butler at rmbutler@psu.edu or 814-865-8283.