1812: The poet Lord Byron makes an impassioned speech before the House of Lords in an attempt to convince Parliament not to enact the death penalty against the Luddites. He fails.
The Frame Breaking Act made it a capital offense for anyone convicted of "machine breaking," the willful destruction of mechanized looms and cloth-finishing machinery and other new devices that were eliminating jobs.
The Luddites were a loose association of craft workers, especially croppers and weavers, who saw coming industrialization as a mortal threat to their livelihoods. They took their inspiration, and their name, from the folkloric figure of Ned Ludd, who was said to have smashed a couple of stocking frames (knitting machines) in the late 1770s.
The movement began in early 1811, with a series of letters sent to factory owners and craft employers in the Nottingham area, calling on them not to install the new machines.
When the letters were ignored, the movement spread across England. As the salaries of apprenticed workers were cut and jobs began to be lost, the violence began.
Early attacks were carried out at night, with bands of workers breaking into locked factories to smash the machines. In one three-week period, more than 200 stocking frames were destroyed.
Even with the imposition of capital punishment and the authorities providing increased police protection, the attacks continued and increased in ferocity. In 1812, as wheat prices soared and out-of-work craftsmen were unable to feed their families, they became desperate.
In clashes around the country, scores of Luddites were killed, as were a number of mill and factory owners. Other Luddites were arrested, convicted and executed, including Abraham Charlston, a 12-year-old boy.
By mid-1812, the Luddites had been effectively broken, although sporadic attacks continued in England for several more years.
The Man has pretty much been calling the shots ever since.
(Source: Spartacus.uk)
This article first appeared on Wired.com Feb. 27, 2008.
