WPSU will have a screening of "The Whiskey Rebellion" at the State Theatre Thursday at 6:30 p.m. followed by a Q&A with with producer, director and writer Kristian Berg and a few of the historians featured in the documentary. Register to attend the free screening and watch a trailer at WPSU.org.
"The Whiskey Rebellion" will debut on WPSU-TV on June 8 at 9 p.m.
The Whiskey Rebellion, which took place right here in Pennsylvania, was one of the first political tests of the newly created United States. The television side of WPSU has a new documentary about the uprising as part of celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary.
WPSU’s Emily Reddy talked with producer, director and writer Kristian Berg about the half-hour documentary.
Here's a transcript of their conversation, but for the best experience, please listen using the play button above.
Emily Reddy:
Kristian Berg, thanks for talking with us.
Kristian Berg:
Oh, thanks for having me.
Emily Reddy:
So, when this documentary begins, it's 1791. We're a few years into George Washington's presidency. The country needs money to pay off debt from the American Revolution. Treasurer Alexander Hamilton comes up with a tax on whiskey, and it is not popular. If people want to know all the details, they can watch the documentary, but in broad strokes, tell us the history of the Whiskey Rebellion.
Kristian Berg:
Yeah. So, Alexander Hamilton was tasked with putting the country's finances in order and dealing with this crushing debt. And a lot of people think that it was all foreign debts. But he had also taken on all the state's debts as well. And there was also the money owed to wealthy Americans who had financed the revolution. And that was the part that Hamilton had his plan for. So, he wanted to put those payments on long-term interest payments to wealthy Americans. But he had to have revenue for that. And the money from tariffs, the money from land sales. Those were the two biggest sources of revenue for the young government. And it just wasn't enough. So, he looked at alcohol, and he kind of felt it was kind of a luxury tax, too. And maybe they shouldn't be drinking so much anyway.
But the place that it hurt the most was Western Pennsylvania, which was across the mountains, geographically isolated, also fairly politically powerless to fight back through legal channels. And that's where he placed the tax, which was on the production of whiskey. And it wasn't a sales tax. They had to pay for the production and then maybe make it up later.
But they didn't have any cash money out in western Pennsylvania. They were using whiskey as money. So, there was really a disconnect between the eastern government types and the people who lived on the frontier.
Emily Reddy:
And the people rise up. I have a clip from the documentary I'd like to play, about the ‘welcome’ a new tax collector gets when he comes to collect this whiskey tax.
The documentary is narrated by Peter Coyote, who's known for narrating documentaries by Ken Burns. And you'll also hear from Penn State Altoona historian Jared Frederick.
Peter Coyote narrating in "The Whiskey Rebellion":
On September 6, 1791, a party of armed men waylaid Robert Johnson, newly hired collector of revenue for Allegheny and Washington counties. They seized him, stripped him of his clothes, shaved his head and tarred and feathered him.
Jared Frederick in "The Whiskey Rebellion":
This is boiling hot pitch that can create third degree burns. It is an incredibly painful form of punishment, and it is also a very pronounced form of political protest.
Kristian Berg:
Since they didn't really have any power in political channels, intimidation and violence were ways that people fought back. And tarring and feathering was actually a tradition held over from the Revolution. They had tarred and feathered British tax collectors, too. And most of these frontiersmen and farmers were Revolutionary War veterans. And they really felt betrayed. They felt this was taxation without representation. And what they were taught by the revolution is that you resist. So, they did.
And Hamilton really didn't take kindly to the criticism of his law. And there's a critical point at which he could have let up, but he didn't. And it set off even more violence, which culminated in the destruction of a tax collector's house and actually a march on Pittsburgh of some 5,000 rebels who wanted to burn down the city.
Emily Reddy:
And so, Washington sends in 12,000 men and stops this. They arrest some of the rebels. At the end of the documentary, one of the historians says this could have been a much bigger crisis. But Washington quells this uprising with a mixture of firmness and leniency. So really an early challenge to our country.
Kristian Berg:
Yeah. Yeah. This was the first serious domestic challenge to the authority of the federal government. The ink was barely dry on the Constitution, and no one knew whether the states would follow federal law.
People thought of themselves as New Yorkers or Pennsylvanians or South Carolinians. They didn't think of themselves as Americans. So, whether or not the federal government was going to have any sway at all, especially imposing taxes on people, was a huge question mark.
And when people saw how Washington handled it, that the federal government could handle a violent armed insurrection, people came around. People started to think of themselves as Americans.
Emily Reddy:
As I was watching this, I was thinking a major hurdle for you must have been that there's no footage to use from the 1790s. You know, you've got old paintings, some lithographs, maps, interviews with experts. But you created a lot of reenactments for this. Was it challenging figuring out how to visualize this story?
Kristian Berg:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And reenactments are fraught, too. It's really hard to maintain a level of authenticity. Ken Burns does it.... Well, he finally relented and did it, because he hasn't done a whole lot of pre photography stories. And when he has done it, you'll see that he's shooting a lot of feet, a lot of hands, a lot of people in silhouette. And we had the same issues. I mean, I wasn't as strict. I wasn't as strict at all. Because, you know, a lot of these gifts for telling this story came from the community. We shot at five different historic sites that were extant during the Whiskey Rebellion.
Um, this is this is a complex bit of history. There was an "American Experience" on PBS done on Alexander Hamilton. They barely mention the Whiskey Rebellion. In the musical Hamilton, he gets one line. Jefferson comes out and says, ‘Just wait until you try to tax their whiskey.’
So, as I dove into this, I found out why they left it out. It was very difficult to tell and to depict. I had plenty of portraits of Hamilton and Washington. I had very few of any of these rebel leaders or rebel characters.
Emily Reddy:
It seems like you put it together quickly, too.
Kristian Berg:
Mmm. Well, I've been thinking about this for a very, very, very long time. Ever since I came here, I've wanted to do this story. And I have an ancestor who was a rebel.
Emily Reddy:
In this rebellion?
Kristian Berg:
In this rebellion. I found where he had to take a loyalty oath after Washington put down the insurrection. His name was Leverton Thomas, and he was a Welshman.
Emily Reddy:
Kristian Berg, thanks for talking with us.
Kristian Berg:
Thanks for having me.
