Veterans Return from the War to Unfulfilled Promises
Many Massachusetts farmers were Revolutionary War veterans who were disgruntled because the Continental Congress had failed to provide them with back pay and pensions after the war. Because of the national government’s limited funds, soldiers had returned home with government-issued IOU notes, only to find failing crops and farms that had been neglected or damaged during the war.
"Veterans of 1776 Returning from the War" by William Tylee Ranney, 1848. Click to enlarge.
A colorful painting shows four white men in their Revolutionary War clothing and weapons, traveling by a horse-drawn cart on a dirt road in a countryside. One man is on the horse, two men are in the cart, and one man is walking along side the cart. The background shows a mostly cloudy sky, green hills, trees, and three men and a horse also in transit.