What sparked off shays's rebellion?

  What started Shays Rebellion was the tax on the making of whiskey. 
                                               THE STORY:
 Well, quite alot of the western farmers of Pennsylvania would make whiskey from excess corn. And congress needed some money and thought that taxing the excess corn would bring more income. But the effect of that tax, the farmers were'nt very happy and many banded together to stop the courts from seizing their land. (Land was being seized by the court to make up for the farmers' debts from taxing.) 

During the time when the Articles of confederation were still being used, the state taxes were very high. The federal government couldn't help control the taxes because they didn't have the power to do so. Farmers didn't have enough money so their debt was high. If they had high debt, they were sent to court and could possibly go to jail. So, daniel shays led a rebellion against it.