Who were the Luddites?
The Luddites were textile workers in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire, England. They were skilled artisans whose trade and communities were threatened by a combination of machines and other practices that had been unilaterally imposed by the aggressive new class of manufacturers that drove the Industrial Revolution. Stocking frames, spinning frames and power looms introduced during the Industrial Revolution between 1811 and 1816 replaced the Luddites with less-skilled, low-wage laborers, leaving the Luddites without work. The Luddite movement culminated in a region-wide rebellion in Northwestern England that required a massive deployment of military force to suppress the rebellion.
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29 Comments
Bill Coe
You are maligning an entire group of people. Luddites were SPECIFIC textile workers who opposed progress and showed their displeasure by destroying machinery that they thought was threatening their jobs.
Ken Jackson
John McLardie, No verifiable evidence? You mean apart from newspaper-of-the-day reports, commentary by the likes of Thomas Carlyle, court records of trials, public hangings and transportation to Australia? Or was all of that what we would now refer to as 'fake news'?
Kath Thomson
Wtholt: the Luddites, as Bill Coe has said, WERE textile workers. They were a radical group of English textile workers and weavers in the 19th century who destroyed weaving machinery as a form of protest. The group was protesting the use of machinery in a "fraudulent and deceitful manner" to get around standard labour practices. Luddites feared correctly that the time spent learning the skills of their craft would go to waste as machines would replace their role in the industry. It is a misconception that the Luddites protested against the machinery itself in an attempt to halt the progress of technology. Over time, however, the term has come to mean one opposed to industrialisation, automation, computerisation, or new technologies in general. The Luddite movement began in Nottingham and culminated in a region-wide rebellion that lasted from 1811 to 1816. Mill owners took to shooting protesters and eventually the movement was suppressed with military force. The origin of the name is shrouded in mystery, and probably related to the fictional Ned Ludd, who was said to have smashed two stocking frames in 1779.
Julie Allen
Richard S. Levine, Not quite right by all accounts but certainly the name Luddites originated with Ned Ludd.
Val Wilkinson
Me too- taught by a Miss Newman, Diana Newman,
Val Wilkinson
Why is it a misconception that they protested against the machinery? Why do you say they were radical? I would have said desperation to protect their jobs and income motivated them Kath Thomson,
Alan Morley
They destroyed the machines
Fred Keogh
wtholt, I think you had better read the history of Luddites. You are so wrong!
Sean Philips
They had a point..
Bewick Finzer
I had. A good guess! Got it
Diding Otico
No idea but i got!!!
Carmen Brown
Was Silas Marner a Luddite gone recluse?
Gemma Berry
Ken Jackson, I think he was referring to the existence of Ludd rather than the Luddites! Ludd himself was a Robin Hood style figure - no solid evidence for his legend, but he was representative of a wider unrest at the time and figurehead for the movement.
David Gregory
My wife said I’m one
John W Shreve
George Oliver Prince, Fingers on the home row, George.
John McLardie
Richard S. Levine, Ned Ludd is an urban myth. Or rather what he is supposed to have perpetrated is the myth. There is no verifiable evidence that any of it happened or that a man called Ludd did it. Shades of 'Liberty Valance'.