The Luddite Riots of 1811-1816

In the spring of 1811 a series of labor riots started in Nottingham and spread throughout England. The rioters were mainly textile workers. They were protesting the knitting machines that they believed were responsible for putting them out of work and worsening their working conditions.

The rioters caused a lot of damage but they had a sense of humor, at least at first. They claimed they were working under the direction of General Ludd (or even King Ludd), a made-up personage most likely based on the name of a young mill worker who smashed a knitting machine in a burst of anger in 1779. The rioters called themselves Luddites, and they often adopted women’s clothing as part of their rioting gear.

Leader of the Luddites? An 1812 illustration.


Like their namesake, the Luddites smashed machines, too, particularly the shearing frames used in the production of cloth. From 1811 to 1816 there was rioting and frame-breaking across England. The protesters' grievances included more pay and a guarantee that workers would be hired only after completing an apprenticeship.

There was violence on both sides of the protests, but the rioters had the worst of it. During this period, one mill owner was ambushed and killed by rioters, and many knitting machines were destroyed and mills damaged. However, the British government acted quickly and decisively to quell the rioting. The British Army was called in, and rioters were beaten and in some cases shot.

Frame-breakers smashing a knitting loom machine.


Later, under new laws passed by Parliament that made frame-breaking a capital crime, at least 14 rioters were executed by the Crown. Many more were arrested and faced “transportation” - exile to a far-flung British colony such as Australia.  

At one time during this period there were more troops dedicated to quelling the labor riots than there were troops stationed with Wellington to fight Napoleon on the Iberian Peninsula. But as a result of the efforts of the British government and its military the Luddite riots were over by 1816.

Plaque commemorating the burning of Westhoughton Mill in 1812


The rioters were not entirely without supporters among the upper classes. In 1812 when the House of Lords was deliberating the Frame-Breaking Act, which made frame-breaking punishable by death, at least one lord spoke out against such harshness.

That dissenting lord was none other than Lord Byron, the famous Romantic poet and scandal-plagued heartthrob of the Regency.  In his first-ever speech to his fellow peers Byron showed compassion for the rioting laborers, despite their actions:

"But whilst these outrages must be admitted to exist to an alarming extent, it cannot be denied that they have arisen from circumstances of the most unparalleled distress . . .  nothing but absolute want could have driven a large, and once honest and industrious, body of the people, into the commission of excesses so hazardous to themselves, their families and the community.

"They were not ashamed to beg," he went on, "but there was none to relieve them: their own means of subsistence were cut off, all other employment preoccupied; and their excesses, however to be deplored and condemned, can hardly be subject to surprise."

Byron concluded his plea for leniency regarding the Luddites with these words:

"As the sword is the worst argument that can be used, so should it be the last . . . had proper meetings been held in the earlier stages of these riots, had the grievances of these men and their masters (for they also had their grievances) been fairly weighed and justly examined, I do think that means might have been devised to restore these workmen to their avocations, and tranquility to the country."

Lord Byron, portrait by Richard Westall

I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to say that the “proper meetings” Byron described eventually took place and formed the basis of trade unions, both in Great Britain and the United States.

And although the term “Luddite” has come to mean someone who resists all forms of technological progress and the changes it brings, in my view the Luddites of the Regency period weren't against new technology in their industries. They just wanted to find a way to use the new machines and still make a decent living.

Coincidentally, I got a great insight into what textile mills must have been like during the 19th century from a DVD of a 2004 BBC miniseries I found in my local library. North and South is based on a book of the same name published in 1855 by Elizabeth Gaskell. The story revolves around the culture shock a young woman raised in the rural south of England experiences when she is uprooted by her father to live in the industrial north.



This clip from the series depicts the working conditions inside a cotton mill. 






Incidentally, on one of the many blogs discussing the current season of Downton Abbey, I've read several comments suggesting that Richard Armitage (the actor who plays the mill owner) would make a worthy addition to the cluster of beaus surrounding Lady Mary. (Speaking of DA, Brendan Coyle, who plays Bates on the show, has a significant role in North and South as a mill worker.)

I have to agree with the general opinion about Armitage. Watch the clip and see if you think he'd make a good potential suitor for Mary, too. Maybe we can get Julian Fellowes to consider adding Armitage to next season's cast!


Sources for this post include:

A Regency Valentine



Ah, Valentine’s Day, the time of year when a young girl’s fancy turns to . . . chocolate. (At least if that young girl is like me.) And if the girl in question is also obsessed with the Regency, she may be wondering if chocolate was around during the Regency.

The answer is yes and no. During the Regency you could drink a cup of chocolate, but it was a gloppy, spiced brew not very similar to the hot cocoa we drink today. And on St. Valentine's Day, a lucky Regency miss could hope for a love note from an admirer, but a box of chocolates was out of the question. 

Cacao beans. The Spanish explorers  thought they looked like almonds.



By the time of the Regency chocolate had been in Europe for several centuries. Derived from the fruit of the cacao tree, chocolate was consumed in what is now Mexico and Central America by the Mayan and the Aztecs as early as the 6th century, for religious and medicinal purposes. These native Americans took their chocolate cold and unsweetened (because they didn't have sugar) and considered it a health drink.

Spanish explorers brought chocolate to Europe in the 16th century. The Spaniards made their chocolate into a hot drink, adding sugar and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg to sweeten its essential bitterness. It's no surprise that sipping this delicious mixture caught on and became not only a fashionable custom but a very exclusive one as well, not doubt due to cost. At first only members of the Spanish nobility were allowed to drink chocolate.

La Belle Chocolatière (The Chocolate Girl) - 
by Jean-Étienne Liotard. 


But that didn't last long, and soon chocolate was widely available. Chocolate houses catering to wealthy customers who could afford the expensive brew became popular in London, especially in the 18th century. These establishments were only for males (no women allowed) and were often regarded as dens of iniquity, where decadence and debauchery reigned. Many an ancient fortune or estate was lost on the roll of the dice at these gambling hells.  


Scene from William Hogarth's 1732-1735 series The Rake's Progress.
Aristocrats gambling at White's Chocolate House are so focused on their
games they scarcely notice the room is on fire.

White’s Chocolate House in London was perhaps the best known chocolate house, and it still exists today as a gentlemen's club. Now it's just called White's, but membership is still restricted to males. (In 1981 Prince Charles held his bachelor party there before he married Diana Spencer.)

White’s was famous for its betting book, where club members would enter bets on all sorts of matters, both trivial (betting on the outcome of a sporting event) and serious (betting on how long someone was going to live). A bet written in White's book regarding the outcome of an engagement or a love affair is a major plot element in many a Regency romance.

A chocolate house like White's also served less costly brews such as coffee and tea, or cheaper still, something called saloop. Saloop was made out of sugar and brewed sassafras root. It had a slight kick, but nothing like the stimulants in the more caffeinated brews. 

For a while saloop was quite popular. But unfortunately for saloop-vendors, the brew lost favor when it became known as a cure for venereal diseases. After that, no one wanted to be seen drinking saloop in public, and who could blame them?

1820 caricature by Thomas Rowlandson
of a British soldier drinking saloop. 


An upper class Regency miss might drink chocolate in the morning with her breakfast. Her chocolate would be poured from a chocolate pot, though maybe not a pot as fancy as this one:

18th century silver pot for brewing chocolate,
from the Victoria and Albert Museum. It has
a hinged lid and a place to insert a swizzle stick.


And she might have a cup specially designed for her chocolate, perhaps even one like this:

A beautiful English Chantilly porcelain cup for drinking chocolate,
also from the 18th century.


It wasn't until 1828 that a method was developed to separate the greasy cacao butter from the seeds of the cacao fruit. This discovery was a product of the Industrial Revolution, and it resulted in a much better, purer cocoa powder that was ideal for mixing with milk to make hot cocoa. 

And this new process, which I think should go down as one of the great achievements of mankind, also made the creation of edible, solid chocolate possible, leading to the chocolate candy we all know and love today.



Love and chocolate - I think they make a great combination, for Valentine's Day or any day of the year!

***

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Regency Fops

A woman "toying" with a foppish dandy.
  1818 caricature by I.R. Cruikshank
.

Beau Brummel was the quintessential dandy, and many men of his time tried to mimic his style. But some of Brummel’s followers clearly went overboard, which is one reason why we sometimes think of a dandy as being synonymous with a fop – a man who is vain and excessively concerned with his manners and appearance, to the point of ridiculousness.

The word fop has been tossed around in the English language since the 15th century, and for many years it was used to describe a fool of any kind. But over the centuries the word gradually began to apply to men who were vain and dressed foolishly because of their vanity.

Fops were standard characters in many Restoration comedies of the 17th century. These characters had names like Sir Fopling Flutter and Lord Foppington.


English actor playing Lord Foppington in The Relapse,
a 18th century play written by John Vanbrugh.
Painting by John Simon. 


More recently, there have been many fops in popular fiction, including Agatha's Christie's fussy but brilliant Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. 

My favorite fictional fop is Sir Percy Blakeney, aka the Scarlet Pimpernel. In the story Blakeney pretends to be a shallow fop to divert attention away from his true identity as a manly hero who rescues aristocrats from the guillotine during the French Revolution.

My favorite movie adaption of The Scarlet Pimpernel.


There are modern-day fops, too. Some critics say Hugh Grant adopts a foppish manner in a lot of his movie roles, like the cad he played in Bridget Jones Diary or the millionaire playboy in Two Weeks NoticeAnd Johnny Depp is distinctly foppish in his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow. His style in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies has been described as “grunge fop.”

 Johnny Depp may have started a
fashion trend  with his "grunge fop"
approach to Captain Jack Sparrow


But back to our Regency fops: many of them appear to have suffered for style, as much if not more than their female counterparts. Witness the corsets some fops would squeeze into to attain a fashionably slim silhouette:

1818 engraving by an unknown artist.
This gentleman  is smiling -
he must like the effect of his corset.


This depiction of a fop getting dressed is even more appalling: 

1819 illustration by George Cruikshank. This guy
is laced so tightly it's a wonder he can breathe.


Today's fop may be referred to as an "urban dandy" and the connotations don't seem to be as negative as they were during the Regency. 

Still, men rarely take being called a fop as a compliment. I suppose we can thank Sir Fopley Flutter and Lord Foppington for that. 

**
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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