1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,320 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 3 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:17,759 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. A few years ago, we 4 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:21,080 Speaker 1: did an episode on the Rebecca Riots, which started in 5 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:24,319 Speaker 1: Wales in eighteen thirty nine, and at the time I 6 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:27,319 Speaker 1: had been looking for something that had some parallels to 7 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: the Ludite uprising that started in central England a couple 8 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:35,360 Speaker 1: of decades before that. That was because the idea of 9 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:40,319 Speaker 1: workers smashing the machines that were replacing their jobs and 10 00:00:40,479 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: cranking out inferior product that just felt like it had 11 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: some relevance in the moment that we were living in. 12 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,479 Speaker 1: We had already covered the Luodites, though, all the way 13 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:52,080 Speaker 1: back in twenty thirteen, so I couldn't just do that again. 14 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,680 Speaker 1: I was looking for something else, and the Rebecca Riots 15 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 1: were not quite the same thing, but they did grow 16 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: out of some of the same context. There were some 17 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: similar themes there, including difficult economic conditions these things were 18 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:08,720 Speaker 1: growing out of, and also smashing stuff. The smashing stuff 19 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:13,840 Speaker 1: I particularly enjoy. The Rebecca Riots are most remembered for 20 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:17,319 Speaker 1: attacks on tollgates, where people had to pay money to 21 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: use the roads, while the Luddite Uprising became infamous because 22 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,679 Speaker 1: people were smashing the stocking frames that were being used 23 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:28,880 Speaker 1: in the textile industry. Of course, that is only a 24 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:33,919 Speaker 1: small part of each of those things. So another uprising 25 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:36,680 Speaker 1: came up while I was researching the Rebecca Riots, and 26 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: that was the Swing Riots that took place primarily in 27 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:43,880 Speaker 1: eastern and southern England in the years in between the 28 00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: Luddite Uprising and the Rebecca Riots. One of the hallmarks 29 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: of the Swing Riots was the destruction of threshing machines, 30 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 1: but again that is just one part of the story. 31 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:58,560 Speaker 1: When I discovered the mention of the Swing Riots, it 32 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:01,040 Speaker 1: was too late to change topic, so I decided to 33 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:04,760 Speaker 1: put that on the list for later. In the eighteen 34 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: twenties and thirties, farmers in rural England were struggling for 35 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:14,760 Speaker 1: a lot of reasons. One was enclosure. Historically, much of 36 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,160 Speaker 1: the arable land in England was considered to be common land. 37 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:22,120 Speaker 1: A person's crop was theirs, but outside of growing season, 38 00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:26,840 Speaker 1: other people could access and use that same land, including 39 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:31,440 Speaker 1: as grazing land for their animals. Livestock were also fed 40 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:35,959 Speaker 1: hey that grew in communal meadows. The process of enclosing 41 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:39,079 Speaker 1: land with fences and hedges and putting it under private 42 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 1: control started in the twelfth century and went through a 43 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:46,800 Speaker 1: couple of major waves. One of those waves started around 44 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:51,600 Speaker 1: seventeen fifty and continued through the mid nineteenth century. About 45 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:55,440 Speaker 1: six million acres of common land in England were enclosed 46 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 1: between seventeen seventy and eighteen thirty, and by the end 47 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:02,760 Speaker 1: of the nineteen century almost all of the arable land 48 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:07,639 Speaker 1: was enclosed. During this process, some people who lost access 49 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 1: to land moved to cities and towns to look for work, 50 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:14,280 Speaker 1: but other people just lost their livelihoods and they got 51 00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: no compensation. They really didn't have any other options other 52 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,679 Speaker 1: than trying to find a job working for somebody who 53 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: was now in control of that land. So in addition 54 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:29,400 Speaker 1: to losing their livelihoods, people became a lot more dependent 55 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:34,360 Speaker 1: upon landowner's goodwill or the lack of it. Also, during 56 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:37,320 Speaker 1: the Napoleonic Wars, which stretched from eighteen oh three to 57 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:41,720 Speaker 1: eighteen fifteen, agricultural workers had been able to earn higher 58 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:46,240 Speaker 1: wages because so many men were away at war. Once 59 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:50,200 Speaker 1: the war was over and surviving soldiers and sailors returned home, 60 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: there was an over supply of workers and wages dropped. 61 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:57,240 Speaker 1: The end of the war also led to fears of 62 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 1: a collapse in green prices as trade was real established 63 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:05,320 Speaker 1: across Europe. In eighteen fifteen, Parliament passed a corn Law 64 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: to regulate corn imports and try to protect landowners and 65 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:14,040 Speaker 1: farmers from falling prices, but ordinary workers saw this as 66 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:17,680 Speaker 1: making grain more expensive for them to buy, especially since 67 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:21,159 Speaker 1: eighteen sixteen was the year without a summer, which we 68 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: have talked about on the show before. Protests and riots 69 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: against the corn laws overlapped with the swing riots and 70 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:32,359 Speaker 1: continued until those laws were repealed in eighteen forty six. 71 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:36,440 Speaker 1: Attitudes about the poor were also changing in the UK 72 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: in the early decades of the nineteenth century. The costs 73 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:43,719 Speaker 1: of relief for poor people had really surged during the 74 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:48,920 Speaker 1: Napoleonic Wars, and politicians and political economists started really focusing 75 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:52,760 Speaker 1: on how to bring those costs down, and one tool 76 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 1: to try to do that was the workhouse. Although the 77 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,640 Speaker 1: idea of workhouses dates back to at least the mid 78 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: seven teenth century. In England, the Act to Amend the 79 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: Law for the Relief of the Poor passed in eighteen nineteen, 80 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: provided for the expansion of workhouses and the building of 81 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:15,320 Speaker 1: new ones. It also empowered and required the select Vestries, 82 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:20,000 Speaker 1: or the people who managed each parish, to quote, inquire into, 83 00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:23,520 Speaker 1: and determine upon the proper objects of relief and the 84 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,440 Speaker 1: nature and amount of the relief to be given, and 85 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:30,159 Speaker 1: in each case to take into consideration the character and 86 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: conduct of the poor person to be relieved. The select 87 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:38,479 Speaker 1: Vestries were also quote at liberty to distinguish in the 88 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:41,960 Speaker 1: relief to be granted between the deserving and the idle, 89 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:47,479 Speaker 1: extravagant or profligate poor. So by eighteen thirty most parishes 90 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:51,599 Speaker 1: in England had at least one workhouse, and a deserving 91 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:55,920 Speaker 1: poor person could often get cash relief, while someone deemed 92 00:05:56,080 --> 00:06:00,120 Speaker 1: undeserving would be sent to the workhouse. This was also 93 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:04,000 Speaker 1: connected to the tithe. People were expected to donate ten 94 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,280 Speaker 1: percent of their income to their local parish, and that 95 00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: could be done with an inkind donation of produce or 96 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:14,000 Speaker 1: of some other good that they grew or farmed or made. 97 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: A lot of people could not afford the tithe. In 98 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:20,800 Speaker 1: light of everything that we've just talked about, and beyond that, 99 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,000 Speaker 1: this whole practice was starting to seem out of date 100 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:27,680 Speaker 1: to people, considering the way English society and the English 101 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 1: economy were changing. Working people protested against the tithe and 102 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: against efforts to reform the tithe in a way that 103 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: would make it more expensive for them. One of these 104 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:41,800 Speaker 1: proposed reforms was a change to cash payments that could 105 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:45,160 Speaker 1: be made in lieu of tithing part of the dairy production, 106 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:48,000 Speaker 1: since fresh milk couldn't be stored in the way that 107 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:52,320 Speaker 1: some other agricultural products could. The amount of these payments 108 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:55,159 Speaker 1: hadn't changed in centuries, and the Church wanted to bring 109 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:59,000 Speaker 1: them in line with their current value. But farmers, of course, 110 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:02,200 Speaker 1: did not want to pay more on top of all 111 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 1: of that which was already a lot. The harvest was 112 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: particularly poor in eighteen twenty nine and eighteen thirty. English 113 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 1: agricultural laborers also faced increased competition for jobs as workers 114 00:07:14,720 --> 00:07:18,679 Speaker 1: moved to England from Ireland, and the thing that became 115 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:23,160 Speaker 1: emblematic of the swing riots human threshers were being replaced 116 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:27,600 Speaker 1: by machines. So threshing is the process of separating the 117 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: edible part of a grain from its stock and husk. 118 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: This was a late fall in winter activity after the 119 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:38,440 Speaker 1: grain had been harvested and allowed to dry. Before the 120 00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: development of threshing machines. This was an intensely manual process. Laborers, 121 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:46,800 Speaker 1: mostly men, would beat bundles of grain with a flail 122 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:50,880 Speaker 1: to separate the grain. Manual threshing was hard work, but 123 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:53,760 Speaker 1: it could provide up to fifty percent of a farm 124 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: laborer's winter income, and of course in the winter there 125 00:07:57,360 --> 00:07:59,800 Speaker 1: were not many other ways for a farmer to make 126 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:03,640 Speaker 1: more money. The first threshing machines were developed in the 127 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:08,000 Speaker 1: eighteenth century. Michael Menzies of Edinburgh invented a machine for 128 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:11,680 Speaker 1: threshing grain in seventeen thirty two and patented it in 129 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:15,760 Speaker 1: seventeen thirty four. In seventeen seventy eight, Andrew Meekil of 130 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:18,920 Speaker 1: Scotland invented a machine that might have been based on 131 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:24,120 Speaker 1: that earlier design. These initial attempts to make threshing machines 132 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:28,080 Speaker 1: did not work all that well, but threshing machines driven 133 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:31,480 Speaker 1: by water or horses started to become more reliable and 134 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:35,560 Speaker 1: more cost effective in the eighteen teens. These machines were 135 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:40,439 Speaker 1: vastly more efficient than human threshers, so as more landowners 136 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:43,000 Speaker 1: started buying them, people were just out of a job. 137 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: It did not take long for people to start making 138 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 1: threats over threshing machines. In seventeen ninety one, a farmer 139 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:55,160 Speaker 1: in Wimbledon named Patterson was threatened with arson after installing 140 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:58,720 Speaker 1: a threshing machine. Although it isn't fully clear whether the 141 00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:02,680 Speaker 1: threat was against the machine or against the farmer. We 142 00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:06,400 Speaker 1: will talk about how threats against threshing machines really started 143 00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 1: to grow after a sponsor break. Machine breaking as a 144 00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:22,320 Speaker 1: form of protest in Britain stretches back to at least 145 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:25,920 Speaker 1: the seventeenth century. Some of the earliest examples were in 146 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:30,079 Speaker 1: the textile industry. For example, in sixteen seventy five, there 147 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:33,560 Speaker 1: was a four day long uprising in the Spittlefields area 148 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:38,600 Speaker 1: of London in which weavers broke apart newly developed looms 149 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:40,680 Speaker 1: that were described as being able to do the work 150 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:46,120 Speaker 1: of twenty men. In seventeen seventy nine, three hundred knitting 151 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:50,240 Speaker 1: frames belonging to Samuel Nead were destroyed after he gave 152 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:55,119 Speaker 1: evidence against knitters who were petitioning Parliament for better working conditions. 153 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:59,040 Speaker 1: The Ludite Uprising of the eighteen teens was, of course 154 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:03,480 Speaker 1: another examp of this machine braking a big driver. In 155 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:05,920 Speaker 1: a lot of these protests was people being put out 156 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: of work by more efficient machinery or skilled workers being 157 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:13,720 Speaker 1: replaced by machine operators who didn't need the same level 158 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:17,400 Speaker 1: of training and expertise. There was often an argument that 159 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:21,760 Speaker 1: in the long term these innovations would increase productivity and 160 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:25,000 Speaker 1: bring down prices, which would make the goods more affordable, 161 00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:28,600 Speaker 1: which would increase demand, which would lead to more jobs. 162 00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:32,240 Speaker 1: Sometimes that was more or less true, but that didn't 163 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:36,319 Speaker 1: really help people in the short term. Sometimes the quality 164 00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:40,920 Speaker 1: of machine made goods was also an issue. This is 165 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:43,480 Speaker 1: also something to put in the context of a country 166 00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:46,360 Speaker 1: that has worked on a guild system for all labor 167 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:49,680 Speaker 1: for a long time. People either perceived that the quality 168 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:53,120 Speaker 1: of these machine made goods was worse or that was 169 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:56,439 Speaker 1: definitively true, but that drop in quality was one of 170 00:10:56,480 --> 00:10:59,880 Speaker 1: the issues in the Luddite uprising. There were also pro 171 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:05,480 Speaker 1: tests in agricultural communities in response to mechanization. In eighteen sixteen, 172 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:08,760 Speaker 1: in part because of the unusually cold, wet weather and 173 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:13,880 Speaker 1: its effects on agriculture, there were multiple disconnected protests targeting 174 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:19,080 Speaker 1: agricultural equipment. Threshing tackle was destroyed near Colchester and in 175 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:23,760 Speaker 1: South Suffolk people broke threshing machines and mole plows, which 176 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:28,240 Speaker 1: were used to dig underground drainage channels through fields with 177 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:30,920 Speaker 1: a lot less effort than you could do them by hand. 178 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:35,240 Speaker 1: This happened alongside food riots in more urban areas, and 179 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:38,040 Speaker 1: sometimes this is all known as the bread or Blood 180 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:40,839 Speaker 1: protests for a banner that was carried by some of 181 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:46,559 Speaker 1: the demonstrators. The Swing riots started in eighteen thirty. Farmers 182 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:50,199 Speaker 1: in Kent had petitioned for a postponement of attacks on 183 00:11:50,360 --> 00:11:53,520 Speaker 1: hops in eighteen twenty nine and they had been denied. 184 00:11:54,520 --> 00:11:57,760 Speaker 1: There were also political changes going on at a national 185 00:11:57,800 --> 00:12:02,280 Speaker 1: and international level. King George the Fourth died in June 186 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:04,840 Speaker 1: of eighteen thirty and he was followed by William the 187 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:08,720 Speaker 1: Fourth in July of eighteen thirty. A revolution in France 188 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:11,720 Speaker 1: led to the overthrow of Charles the tenth, which helped 189 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:16,960 Speaker 1: inspire revolutionary ideals among artisans and workers in England. The 190 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:21,200 Speaker 1: first documented attack on a threshing machine took place at 191 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 1: Wingmore in the Elam Valley area of East Kent a 192 00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:28,360 Speaker 1: month later. So for some time leading up to this, 193 00:12:28,679 --> 00:12:32,080 Speaker 1: workers and artisans in the area had been warning local 194 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:36,600 Speaker 1: landowners that if they did not stop using threshing machines, 195 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:40,040 Speaker 1: those machines would be destroyed. On August twenty fourth, the 196 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:43,640 Speaker 1: group of about twenty men started destroying all the threshing 197 00:12:43,679 --> 00:12:47,000 Speaker 1: machines that were still in use. This went on for weeks, 198 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:50,000 Speaker 1: with more people joining the mob, and that mob moved 199 00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:55,199 Speaker 1: all over Kent. In October, two people near Dover received 200 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:58,120 Speaker 1: a letter that read quote, you are to notice that 201 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:02,200 Speaker 1: if you don't put away your threshing against Monday next 202 00:13:02,720 --> 00:13:07,000 Speaker 1: you shall have a swing. Swing meant that they would 203 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:10,640 Speaker 1: swing from the gallows or be hanged. The letters were 204 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:14,480 Speaker 1: signed Swing, which took on multiple layers of meaning, the 205 00:13:14,559 --> 00:13:17,960 Speaker 1: threat of hanging, the swing of a flail in threshing, 206 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:23,120 Speaker 1: and Captain Swing. Unlike the Luddite Uprising, in which ned 207 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:26,320 Speaker 1: Lud became something of a mythical leader of the demonstrators, 208 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,680 Speaker 1: Captain Swing wasn't really the persona of a leader, just 209 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:34,120 Speaker 1: the author of menacing notes and documents demanding the end 210 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:39,240 Speaker 1: of threshing machines or other concessions. Another thing that happened 211 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:43,840 Speaker 1: in October was that journalist and political commentator William Cobbitt 212 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:48,080 Speaker 1: took a lecture tour through Kent and Sussex, and Cobbitt's 213 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:51,080 Speaker 1: story as a whole saga, he could definitely be his 214 00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:55,080 Speaker 1: own episode. I just kept finding more things about him 215 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 1: that kind of needed to go in here, or that 216 00:13:57,200 --> 00:13:59,440 Speaker 1: I wanted to put in here but didn't really fit. 217 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:03,120 Speaker 1: So we are just giving enough sense of like why 218 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:05,199 Speaker 1: he became such a big part of this whole thing. 219 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 1: He was the son of a farmer and a publican 220 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:12,000 Speaker 1: meeting His father ran a pub, and when he was 221 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:15,320 Speaker 1: young he worked as a gardener and a plowboy. He 222 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:18,240 Speaker 1: joined the army and then after being discharged, he wrote 223 00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:21,920 Speaker 1: a pamphlet called The Soldier's Friend about the harsh conditions 224 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:26,080 Speaker 1: that soldiers were subjected to. He also tried to have 225 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:30,240 Speaker 1: some of the officers who helped create those conditions court martialed, 226 00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:33,280 Speaker 1: and in seventeen ninety two, when it became clear that 227 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: this was not going to go Cobbot's way, he and 228 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:40,080 Speaker 1: his wife Nancy Ann, fled to France and then to 229 00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:43,360 Speaker 1: the United States, where he taught English to French emigrants. 230 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:47,760 Speaker 1: Cobbott's opinions at this point probably don't line up with 231 00:14:47,800 --> 00:14:50,480 Speaker 1: what you might expect based on what Tracy just said 232 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:54,360 Speaker 1: he was fiercely against the French Revolution, and he wrote 233 00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:58,120 Speaker 1: a lot about that. He called the political philosopher Thomas Payne, 234 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:01,680 Speaker 1: author of Common Sense and the Right of Man, sometimes 235 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,720 Speaker 1: also called the father of the American Revolution quote, a 236 00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:08,480 Speaker 1: man famous for nothing but his blasphemy and his hatred 237 00:15:08,480 --> 00:15:14,360 Speaker 1: of England. Cobbot was generally anti revolution, anti republican, and 238 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:18,800 Speaker 1: anti democratic reforms in England. He had to go back 239 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:23,040 Speaker 1: to England in eighteen hundred after doctor Benjamin Rush successfully 240 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:25,720 Speaker 1: sued him for libel for things that he had printed 241 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:31,520 Speaker 1: in his newspaper Porcupine's Gazette. Back in England, Cobbat continued 242 00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:35,560 Speaker 1: to write articles against democratic reforms and for things like 243 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:40,920 Speaker 1: the enclosure of common lands. But Cobbitt's attitude started to 244 00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:43,960 Speaker 1: change after he bought a farm in Hampshire in eighteen 245 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:47,120 Speaker 1: oh five and he toured the area and he saw 246 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:50,760 Speaker 1: how many farm workers were living in just desperate poverty. 247 00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:54,600 Speaker 1: He wrote a book about what he witnessed across southern England, 248 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:59,040 Speaker 1: called Rural Rides, and described himself as deceived in his 249 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:03,160 Speaker 1: earlier view us. He became a really outspoken advocate for 250 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:06,680 Speaker 1: parliamentary reform, which is what he thought was necessary to 251 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:11,520 Speaker 1: address these issues. He faced a seditious libel charge for 252 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:14,480 Speaker 1: his writing on these subjects in eighteen o nine, and 253 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:19,560 Speaker 1: after representing himself in court, he was convicted. He was 254 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,880 Speaker 1: sentenced to two years in Newgate Prison, and he went bankrupt. 255 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,720 Speaker 1: Cobbit's advocacy could be a mixed bag, not just on 256 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:30,000 Speaker 1: these issues, but on a range of others. Some of 257 00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:33,680 Speaker 1: his writing is racist and antisemitic, although some of these 258 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:37,760 Speaker 1: views did evolve over time. He was also motivated by 259 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:41,560 Speaker 1: the thought of returning to a romanticized idea of England, 260 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:46,120 Speaker 1: more like what he nostalgically remembered from his childhood. He 261 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:49,200 Speaker 1: had an idyllic picture in his mind of how things 262 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:53,560 Speaker 1: used to be an authentically English countryside of the past, 263 00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:56,560 Speaker 1: but that was something that it just never really existed. 264 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:00,840 Speaker 1: He also didn't always have the same perspective on other 265 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:05,720 Speaker 1: workers who also faced hardship outside that world of agriculture 266 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:10,440 Speaker 1: and rural life. In his eighteen sixteen letter to the Luddites, 267 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:15,080 Speaker 1: he made a very strident defense of machinery, saying quote, 268 00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:17,600 Speaker 1: I think then that it is quite clear that the 269 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:21,359 Speaker 1: existence of machinery to its present extent cannot possibly do 270 00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:25,520 Speaker 1: the Journeyman any harm, but on the contrary that he 271 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:30,520 Speaker 1: must be injured by the destruction of machinery. After Cobbett 272 00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:33,680 Speaker 1: was released from prison and got his finances back in order, 273 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:36,919 Speaker 1: he was able to buy another farm, and later a 274 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:41,119 Speaker 1: much bigger one. In eighteen sixteen, he established a periodical 275 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:46,360 Speaker 1: called The Political Register, in which he advocated for parliamentary reform. 276 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:49,240 Speaker 1: Not long after that he had to flee the country 277 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:51,840 Speaker 1: again under the threat of arrest for some of the 278 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:54,520 Speaker 1: things he had written, but he was able to return 279 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:58,119 Speaker 1: in eighteen nineteen. He brought with him the remains of 280 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,760 Speaker 1: Thomas Payne. He had become I'm an admirer of Paine's work, 281 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:04,719 Speaker 1: much different from his earlier thoughts on the man, and 282 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,560 Speaker 1: after learning that Pain had been buried in a plain 283 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:10,760 Speaker 1: field on his farm, Cobbitt wanted to give him a 284 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:15,679 Speaker 1: hero's burial back in England. That ever, actually happened, though, 285 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:19,800 Speaker 1: and Pain's remains were scattered. It's not clear where many 286 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:23,080 Speaker 1: of them wound up. This brings us back to the 287 00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:27,119 Speaker 1: Swing Riots. In eighteen twenty eight, Cobbitt had started writing 288 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:30,320 Speaker 1: that an agricultural uprising was on the way if things 289 00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:34,200 Speaker 1: did not change, and his October eighteen thirty. Lecture tour 290 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:39,240 Speaker 1: was seen as inflaming tensions in rural England as authorities 291 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:43,800 Speaker 1: started arresting and prosecuting demonstrators. They also focused on Cobbot 292 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:47,640 Speaker 1: and whether his speeches could be classified as libel or sedition. 293 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:51,920 Speaker 1: One man who was later convicted of arson, was reprieved 294 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:54,879 Speaker 1: after saying that he had been motivated by a speech 295 00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:58,520 Speaker 1: Cobbitt gave in the town of Battle on October sixteenth. 296 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,119 Speaker 1: The diets continued to spread through October and November of 297 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:08,920 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty. Demonstrators broke threshing machines, they set fire to haystacks, 298 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:13,040 Speaker 1: and sometimes they slaughtered livestock. Often this was not a 299 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:16,680 Speaker 1: matter of just showing up, smashing things and setting fires 300 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:20,240 Speaker 1: and then moving on. Demonstrators would try to negotiate with 301 00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:25,119 Speaker 1: landowners or clergy or other authority figures. First, Some farmers 302 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:28,439 Speaker 1: destroyed their own threshing machines with the hope that the 303 00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:32,080 Speaker 1: demonstrators would leave them alone, or they would make concessions 304 00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:34,000 Speaker 1: to the mob, like they would offer aid to the 305 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:37,640 Speaker 1: poor or promise better wages, or say they would get 306 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:42,760 Speaker 1: the clergy to return everyone's tithes. Sometimes these promises worked, 307 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:45,560 Speaker 1: but sometimes this did not work out, and then also 308 00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:50,000 Speaker 1: sometimes after one mob had left, another one arrived and 309 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:54,119 Speaker 1: everything just started over. In some parts of England, mobs 310 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:58,800 Speaker 1: attacked businesses, demanded food or money from landowners, or demanded 311 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:02,399 Speaker 1: that the church return their ties, but without doing any 312 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:07,280 Speaker 1: machine breaking. There were also strikes, food riots, and demonstrations 313 00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:10,679 Speaker 1: at churches and other places that offered relief to the poor. 314 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:15,520 Speaker 1: In some places, people attacked and threatened Irish farm workers 315 00:20:15,800 --> 00:20:19,160 Speaker 1: and tried to drive them out of the area. All 316 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:22,200 Speaker 1: of this is considered part of the Swing riots, even 317 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,960 Speaker 1: if nobody broke any threshing machines or made any reference 318 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:31,679 Speaker 1: to captain Swing. Meanwhile, landowners and business owners contacted the 319 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:35,440 Speaker 1: Home Office and other authorities for help, and the administration 320 00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,560 Speaker 1: of Prime Minister Charles Gray took steps to both put 321 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:44,280 Speaker 1: down the uprising and investigate Cobbet's involvement. Yeoman cavalry units 322 00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:47,320 Speaker 1: were dispashed to try to deal with the unrest. On 323 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:50,920 Speaker 1: November twenty fifth, what was probably the most violent incident 324 00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:54,280 Speaker 1: of the riots took place at the estate of John Bennett, 325 00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 1: known as Pit House. Bennett was an MP and a magistrate, 326 00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:01,639 Speaker 1: and he had previously given evidence against the workers of 327 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 1: the parish before the Poor Law Committee. Bennett had two 328 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:09,639 Speaker 1: threshing machines, which the mob destroyed after arming themselves with 329 00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:13,760 Speaker 1: tools that they got at a nearby blacksmith. They also 330 00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,960 Speaker 1: threw stones at Bennett and his steward. The Yeomanry was 331 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:21,159 Speaker 1: dispatched to try to restore order, leading to a skirmish 332 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:25,320 Speaker 1: in which one demonstrator, John Harding, was killed and many 333 00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:29,720 Speaker 1: others were injured. At least twenty five were arrested. We'll 334 00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:32,240 Speaker 1: talk about how the riots came to an end after 335 00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:45,640 Speaker 1: a sponsor break. In addition to his lecture tour, William 336 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:49,200 Speaker 1: Cobbett wrote about the issues that were affecting rural workers 337 00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:52,800 Speaker 1: and the Swing riots in his periodical two Penny Trash, 338 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:56,080 Speaker 1: which was a smaller, cheaper version of the Political Register. 339 00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:59,879 Speaker 1: In November of eighteen thirty he published to the Working 340 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:03,480 Speaker 1: People of England, in which he described the ongoing destruction 341 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:07,479 Speaker 1: and arson as things that reasonable people would see as 342 00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:10,760 Speaker 1: an abominable crime, But he went on to say that 343 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,800 Speaker 1: the question had to be asked of what would lead 344 00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:18,320 Speaker 1: hundreds of people to carry out such crimes. He wrote, quote, 345 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:22,399 Speaker 1: I know this cause, or rather these causes. I know 346 00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:25,399 Speaker 1: also that there is an effectual remedy of this great 347 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,959 Speaker 1: and melancholy evil, and I need not say that it 348 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:31,959 Speaker 1: is my duty to state them both with perfect frankness, 349 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:35,439 Speaker 1: a duty which I shall perform as briefly and with 350 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:39,000 Speaker 1: as much clearness as I am able. The great and 351 00:22:39,119 --> 00:22:43,720 Speaker 1: general cause is the extreme poverty of the working people, or, 352 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,400 Speaker 1: in other words, the starving state in which they are. 353 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,000 Speaker 1: That Bible, which they have been taught to read as 354 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,240 Speaker 1: the means of saving their souls, tells them, from one 355 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:56,000 Speaker 1: end to the other that their bodies are also not 356 00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:58,879 Speaker 1: to be left to perish for want, while the land 357 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:02,360 Speaker 1: abounds with plenty, and that plenty arising too from their 358 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:06,000 Speaker 1: own labor. It tells them, and they know it, that 359 00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:09,280 Speaker 1: the laborer is worthy of his hire, and they know 360 00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:12,159 Speaker 1: that that higher means a sufficiency not only for the 361 00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:15,399 Speaker 1: man who works, but for his wife and children, and 362 00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: of clothes and fuel, and lodging too, as well as 363 00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:22,879 Speaker 1: of victuals and drink. Can God, who commanded that even 364 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:25,480 Speaker 1: the ox should not be muzzled as he trod out 365 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:28,639 Speaker 1: the corn, be pleased to see men who have tilled 366 00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:31,880 Speaker 1: the land, sowed the corn, and reaped it and housed it, 367 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,840 Speaker 1: forbidden to touch the flower, and condemned to eat roots 368 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:39,439 Speaker 1: or herbage not sufficient to keep a pig in good plight. 369 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,440 Speaker 1: Every line of holy writ tells them that this cannot 370 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:46,639 Speaker 1: be the will of God, while tradition, while all the 371 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:49,720 Speaker 1: sayings of their forefathers tell them that such a state 372 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:53,280 Speaker 1: of things is contrary also to the laws and customs 373 00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:56,199 Speaker 1: of their native country. He went on to say that 374 00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:59,200 Speaker 1: everyone in the country used to brew and drink their 375 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,760 Speaker 1: own beer, but now almost no one did, other than 376 00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: the one or two people who were given the malt 377 00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:07,439 Speaker 1: to do it. And he said that people used to 378 00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:10,640 Speaker 1: eat a variety of food, including meat, and now everyone 379 00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:15,560 Speaker 1: was reduced to just subsisting mostly on potatoes. He described 380 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,360 Speaker 1: tax paying workers of the country as half starved, while 381 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:23,199 Speaker 1: the people who lived on those taxes were quote wallowing 382 00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:27,600 Speaker 1: in luxury and splendor. From there, he went on at 383 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,280 Speaker 1: length about how many people in Britain had lucrative sinecures 384 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:34,119 Speaker 1: where they were paid lots of money to do little 385 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:37,840 Speaker 1: to know work. Many of those people paid pensions to 386 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,240 Speaker 1: their daughters and sisters from that money, which Cobbat thought 387 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:44,879 Speaker 1: was lucky for those women. But quote, what justice is 388 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:47,679 Speaker 1: there in taking away our bread and giving it to 389 00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:51,160 Speaker 1: his daughters while we are reduced to grains and potatoes. 390 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,960 Speaker 1: He named a lot of names, multiple men who were 391 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:58,639 Speaker 1: getting big payments and their female relatives who were getting 392 00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:02,600 Speaker 1: a few hundred pounds a year. Cobbatt listed a series 393 00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,280 Speaker 1: of remedies, including the abolition of laws and taxes that 394 00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:11,000 Speaker 1: he thought were penalizing rural workers, until Parliament could be reformed. 395 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,080 Speaker 1: In December of eighteen thirty, Hobbitt published a piece in 396 00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:19,439 Speaker 1: the Political Register under the heading of Rural War. That 397 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:21,399 Speaker 1: was a phrase that he used a lot in his 398 00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:25,760 Speaker 1: writing about these issues. This piece included two letters quote 399 00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,440 Speaker 1: on the state of England in a warning to France. 400 00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:32,680 Speaker 1: They were addressed to the editor of La Revolucion in Paris. 401 00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:36,119 Speaker 1: He wrote, quote, as the working people have gone on 402 00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:40,520 Speaker 1: getting poorer and poorer, they have become more and more immoral. 403 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:43,960 Speaker 1: And indeed, it has been proved by witnesses before the 404 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:47,480 Speaker 1: Committee of the House of Commons that in innumerable instances 405 00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:51,280 Speaker 1: men have committed crimes for the purposes of getting into jail, 406 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:54,840 Speaker 1: because the felons in the jails are better fed and 407 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,760 Speaker 1: better clad than the honest working people. As the working 408 00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:02,159 Speaker 1: people have become poor, the laws relating to them have 409 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,680 Speaker 1: been made more and more severe. And the poor law, 410 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:09,320 Speaker 1: that famous law of Elizabeth, which was the greatest glory 411 00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:13,000 Speaker 1: of England for ages, has by degrees been so much 412 00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,800 Speaker 1: mutilated and nullified, that at last it is so far 413 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,040 Speaker 1: from being a protection to the working people, that it has, 414 00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:23,640 Speaker 1: by its perversions, been made the means of reducing them 415 00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:28,040 Speaker 1: to a state of wretchedness not to be described. It 416 00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:32,959 Speaker 1: is probably unsurprising that once again William Cobbett faced charges 417 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,679 Speaker 1: for all of this. He was accused of seditious libel 418 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,760 Speaker 1: and put on trial for inciting violence and disorder and 419 00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,919 Speaker 1: quote the burning and destruction of corn grain machines and 420 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:47,440 Speaker 1: other property, as he had done back in eighteen nineteen. 421 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:51,439 Speaker 1: He represented himself, but this time the case ended in 422 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,440 Speaker 1: a hung jury, so he didn't wind up going back 423 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:57,919 Speaker 1: to prison or having to flee the country. Some of 424 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:02,320 Speaker 1: the first demonstrators who faced charges during the Swing riots 425 00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:05,879 Speaker 1: got relatively light sentences. They spent just a few days 426 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:10,160 Speaker 1: in jail. But as this popular uprising grew and spread, 427 00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:13,440 Speaker 1: authorities became a lot more concerned about putting it down. 428 00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:17,399 Speaker 1: Among other things. The July Revolution in France raised a 429 00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:21,800 Speaker 1: lot of fears that something similar might happen in England. Typically, 430 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,840 Speaker 1: cases would have been heard based on when all of 431 00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:28,399 Speaker 1: this happened at the Lent Assizes in March of eighteen 432 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:32,280 Speaker 1: thirty one, but authorities did not want to wait that long. 433 00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:38,240 Speaker 1: On November twenty third Home Secretary William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne, 434 00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,320 Speaker 1: offered a reward for helping to arrest people who were 435 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:45,480 Speaker 1: involved in the Swing riots and give testimony against them. 436 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:50,800 Speaker 1: He also created special commissions to prosecute the accused. Between 437 00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:55,080 Speaker 1: December eighteenth, eighteen thirty and January fourteenth, eighteen thirty one 438 00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:59,800 Speaker 1: cases were tried before special commissions across southern and eastern 439 00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:03,959 Speaker 1: arth England. During these proceedings, two hundred and fifty two 440 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:07,800 Speaker 1: people were condemned to death, although ultimately only nineteen of 441 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:12,200 Speaker 1: those were hanged. Either four hundred eighty one or five 442 00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:16,439 Speaker 1: hundred and five people were transported to Australia both of 443 00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:20,720 Speaker 1: those numbers appear in multiple places in the research, and 444 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,760 Speaker 1: almost six hundred and fifty people went to prison. The 445 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,360 Speaker 1: people who face trial weren't just farm workers. They also 446 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:35,400 Speaker 1: included blacksmiths, cobblers, carpenters, wheelwrights, and various other workers and artisans. 447 00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:38,720 Speaker 1: Between the start of the Swing Riots in eighteen thirty 448 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:42,040 Speaker 1: and the end of these legal proceedings in eighteen thirty one, 449 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,760 Speaker 1: there were at least three thousand incidents. They took place 450 00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:49,080 Speaker 1: across most of southern and eastern England and in parts 451 00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,240 Speaker 1: of central England. This makes the Swing Riots one of 452 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:56,320 Speaker 1: the largest popular uprisings in England since the Peasant's Revolt 453 00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:58,800 Speaker 1: of thirteen eighty one, which is also known as wat 454 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:02,120 Speaker 1: Tyler's Rebellion. We covered that rebellion on the show before, 455 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:07,560 Speaker 1: and these incidents did not immediately stop with the trials 456 00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:12,040 Speaker 1: and convictions. There were more scattered incidents that continued, and 457 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:16,400 Speaker 1: Cobbitt kept writing about this rural war at least until 458 00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty four. In terms of the Swing Riots impact, 459 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:23,240 Speaker 1: the day to day lives of farm workers really didn't 460 00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,760 Speaker 1: change all that much. Some of the landowners who did 461 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:30,840 Speaker 1: promise to make changes didn't keep those promises. A new 462 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:34,400 Speaker 1: poor law passed in eighteen thirty four required that people 463 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:37,760 Speaker 1: who were sent to workhouses be clothed and fed, and 464 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:42,440 Speaker 1: for children in workhouses to be educated, but this law 465 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,640 Speaker 1: further expanded the use of workhouses, leading to the Victorian 466 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,959 Speaker 1: era workhouses that were depicted in the works of people 467 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:54,320 Speaker 1: like Charles Dickens. But the Swing Riots are seen as 468 00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:57,760 Speaker 1: a factor in Parliament's passage of the Great Reform Act 469 00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:02,200 Speaker 1: of eighteen thirty two. Correlation between the districts that saw 470 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:06,760 Speaker 1: uprisings and demonstrations during the riots and the districts that 471 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:11,680 Speaker 1: voted for pro reform members of parliament. This act got 472 00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:14,280 Speaker 1: rid of a lot of the rotten boroughs, which were 473 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:17,479 Speaker 1: represented in Parliament but did not actually have many people 474 00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:21,840 Speaker 1: living there. It also created new boroughs and it made 475 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:26,880 Speaker 1: more people eligible to vote. This included small landowners, tenant 476 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:30,400 Speaker 1: farmers and shopkeepers, as well as householders who paid a 477 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:33,800 Speaker 1: yearly rental of at least ten pounds, but under this 478 00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:36,520 Speaker 1: Act only men had the right to vote, and a 479 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:40,240 Speaker 1: lot of the poorest farm workers still did not qualify. 480 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:44,160 Speaker 1: The creation of new districts allowed William Cobbett to become 481 00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:48,200 Speaker 1: a member of Parliament. He was elected to represent Oldham, 482 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:51,080 Speaker 1: which was created under the Act, in the House of Commons. 483 00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:55,680 Speaker 1: He strongly objected to the eighteen thirty four Poor Law, 484 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,840 Speaker 1: and after it passed, he openly called for a popular uprising, 485 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:04,080 Speaker 1: something he had explicitly denounced earlier in his life and 486 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:08,520 Speaker 1: only somewhat hinted at during the Swing riots. The parliamentary 487 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:11,600 Speaker 1: reform that passed in eighteen thirty two was more limited 488 00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 1: than what Cobbat had advocated for, but he was still 489 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,720 Speaker 1: devastated that a reformed parliament, which he had been so 490 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,520 Speaker 1: sure was needed to improve things in rural England, had 491 00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:28,120 Speaker 1: instead voted to penalize poverty even further. His later writing 492 00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:31,120 Speaker 1: included a number of books that explored the way the 493 00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:34,880 Speaker 1: Crown had dispossessed poor people in England, and he was 494 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:38,360 Speaker 1: bankrupt when he died of influenza in eighteen thirty five. 495 00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:43,200 Speaker 1: I find him very interesting. He is interesting, kind of 496 00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:47,320 Speaker 1: a pill. Yeah, he's a lot of things. There are layers. 497 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:50,520 Speaker 1: We'll talk about that more on Friday. I'm sure I 498 00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:53,520 Speaker 1: have some listener mail to wrap this up, and this 499 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:57,160 Speaker 1: is from Rachel. Rachel wrote, Hi, Tracy and Holly, very 500 00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,760 Speaker 1: long time listener, fourth time writer, behind the scenes about 501 00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:03,880 Speaker 1: the Bunker Hill monument and Elizabeth Blackwell struck a chord 502 00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:06,440 Speaker 1: with me. I will be making my first visit to 503 00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:09,760 Speaker 1: London this Fall to see the Bayeux Tapestry and whatever 504 00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:12,400 Speaker 1: else I can manage to enjoy in two weeks. Yes, 505 00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:16,120 Speaker 1: I already have tickets to see the tapestry. When Tracy 506 00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 1: told us about the Blackwell exhibit at Oxford, I looked 507 00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,080 Speaker 1: it up and was disappointed that it will be over 508 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:24,360 Speaker 1: before my trip. The discussion about Bunker Hill and the 509 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,920 Speaker 1: steps brought back memories of taking my boys to at 510 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:30,200 Speaker 1: American History vacation in two thousand and doing the Freedom 511 00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:33,239 Speaker 1: Trail in Boston. When we got to Bunker Hill, they 512 00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:35,720 Speaker 1: still had enough energy to climb to the top. I 513 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,240 Speaker 1: had a knee problem that made stairs painful, so I 514 00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:41,520 Speaker 1: took the time to rest. Now the problem is long gone. 515 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:43,240 Speaker 1: I guess I should try to go back and climb 516 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,360 Speaker 1: to the top of the monument. Back to my London trip, 517 00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:50,640 Speaker 1: I have reserved a place for a tour of Big 518 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:54,320 Speaker 1: Ben and they tell you multiple times that you have 519 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:56,520 Speaker 1: to be able to walk up three hundred and thirty 520 00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:59,680 Speaker 1: four steps, not all at once, as there are stops. 521 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,280 Speaker 1: They are also very careful to tell you that you 522 00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:04,800 Speaker 1: must be able to tolerate the noise of the bells 523 00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:07,560 Speaker 1: and walk through narrow passageways since I live in a 524 00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:09,680 Speaker 1: three story town home, the steps are not a problem. 525 00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:12,360 Speaker 1: I probably get that many done before noon. It's not 526 00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,360 Speaker 1: a to hour many people take and I'm looking forward 527 00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:17,240 Speaker 1: to being one of them. No pet photos, but I 528 00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:19,600 Speaker 1: did read this article in the New York Times and 529 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,960 Speaker 1: that made me think of you both. Thanks for keeping 530 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,920 Speaker 1: me company at the gym and the kitchen, Rachel. Thank 531 00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,640 Speaker 1: you for this email, Rachel. There are a lot of 532 00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:32,200 Speaker 1: things so number one, So many cool things to do 533 00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:36,080 Speaker 1: in Oxford, even though that exhibit will not be there 534 00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,000 Speaker 1: by the time of your trip, So if you have 535 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:40,480 Speaker 1: time to make it out to Oxford, there's a jillion 536 00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:46,520 Speaker 1: great things to do. I'm also impressed by anybody who 537 00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:51,400 Speaker 1: does the whole Freedom Trail, Yeah, because I think it's 538 00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:55,920 Speaker 1: something like two point seven miles maybe, which does not 539 00:33:56,200 --> 00:34:00,520 Speaker 1: sound that long to me because I go on like 540 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:05,480 Speaker 1: five to seven mile hikes with some regularity. But walking 541 00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:08,319 Speaker 1: that long on city streets feels a little different and 542 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:12,600 Speaker 1: people often wind up. Wait, does it sound harder to 543 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:16,760 Speaker 1: you too? It sounds harder because it's not nice, soft 544 00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:21,720 Speaker 1: giving ground. It's it's hard pavement under my feet, total opposite. Yeah, 545 00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:26,600 Speaker 1: this is fascinating. Well, because it's an Uh, it's inconsistent 546 00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:29,960 Speaker 1: if you're out in nature and you know it. Yeah, 547 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,400 Speaker 1: like you know, I mean, city streets can also be inconsistent. 548 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,480 Speaker 1: They're gonna be paving problems, et cetera. But to me, 549 00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:36,919 Speaker 1: that's sure. Like when I was running regularly, I would 550 00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:41,440 Speaker 1: always rather run a sidewalk than on a trail. Yeah. 551 00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:43,600 Speaker 1: I know a lot of people start the Freedom Trail 552 00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:46,919 Speaker 1: and wind up kind of clocking out because they sort 553 00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:49,080 Speaker 1: of realize this feels a lot farther than I thought 554 00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:51,480 Speaker 1: it was going to based on it being two point 555 00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:56,920 Speaker 1: seven miles or however exactly long it is. So the 556 00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:02,359 Speaker 1: article that was sent is an article in the New 557 00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:06,480 Speaker 1: York Times that is headlined your cat is being nice? 558 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:10,480 Speaker 1: Think again. A new study finds that sometimes cats groom 559 00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:15,799 Speaker 1: each other specifically to be annoying. And this finding does 560 00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:19,400 Speaker 1: not surprise me either, because I will for sure watch 561 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:23,319 Speaker 1: my cats, like start out with a nice little bath 562 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:25,600 Speaker 1: and it looks like they're being kind of cuddly, but 563 00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:31,880 Speaker 1: one of them is slowly transitioning that into antagonizing her sister. Yeah, 564 00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:34,200 Speaker 1: I mean, when we had both of our Siamese, they 565 00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:37,799 Speaker 1: engaged in what we called competitive grooming where it would 566 00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:40,719 Speaker 1: just be like, no, I'm clicking you, and they would 567 00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:42,840 Speaker 1: just back and forth with that. For a long time. 568 00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:45,480 Speaker 1: I thought they were going to come away bald. Sometimes 569 00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:51,600 Speaker 1: aw I can imagine exactly what that looks like. So 570 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,680 Speaker 1: thank you Rachel for this email and for sending that article. 571 00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:57,880 Speaker 1: I had not seen that. If you would like to 572 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:00,640 Speaker 1: send us a note or a history podcast that iHeartRadio 573 00:36:00,719 --> 00:36:03,200 Speaker 1: dot com. If you would like to see the show 574 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:05,800 Speaker 1: notes where we have all the research for our episodes, 575 00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,920 Speaker 1: us at our website, which is missinhistory dot com, and 576 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,799 Speaker 1: you can subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app 577 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:20,000 Speaker 1: or wherever else you'd like to get your podcasts. Stuff 578 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:22,760 Speaker 1: you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 579 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:27,719 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 580 00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:30,120 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.