The Fries Rebellion: Farmers Against the Federal Tax Man

In seventeen ninety-eight, a newly muscular federal government levied a tax on houses, land, and enslaved people to fund a possible war with France. Pennsylvania Dutch farmers in this region, who had just watched the federal government crush the Whiskey Rebellion a few years earlier, were in no mood to comply.

In early seventeen ninety-nine, a group of armed farmers led by John Fries, an auctioneer and militia captain, marched to Bethlehem and freed prisoners who had been arrested for tax resistance. President John Adams called it treason and sent in the army. Fries was captured, tried, and sentenced to death. Adams then pardoned Fries, believing the offense did not rise to treason. The Federalist Party never forgave him. Adams considered it one of the most virtuous acts of his presidency.