I read in the Telegraph Sports Section(20 April 2023) that Manchester Football Clubs are being urged to alter badges with ‘slavery links’. They quote an article in the Guardian which states “If slavery is part of what made Manchester great, then Manchester needs to know it and name it, from ships on football shirts to cotton mills of the industrial revolution’.
This statement raises major issues, by limiting the concerns about the Industrial Revolution to a sectional interest of slavery.
Important though this is, and we should all raise our voices to object to the way that racism is and has been a major factor in social, economic and political life, we should not ignore other features of the Industrial Revolution.
From our local history in Gillingham, Kent, we know that the struggle, in strikes and in Chartism, through the example of William Cuffay, united black and white, male and female, in a class war against a common enemy.
I have been reading a book, entitled ‘A descent into Hell: Luddism, Chartism and the Leicestershire Framework Knitters, 1811 - 1850, by Steve Marquis.
In this book he links the situation faced by the framework knitters, in their struggle to maintain their livelihood, with the many different struggles that were taking place throughout the Country.
He shows how Luddism and Chartism, far from being separate episodes, were part of a continual struggle by workers, including the framework knitters, spinners, weavers, miners, pottery workers and agricultural workers, in a class war that involved machine breaking, fence breaking, strikes, political activity and campaigns, and riots, as a means of preserving their existence.
They were not opposed to progress or to machines but they refused to accept the devastation, hunger,poverty, and inhumanity that the developing capitalist system was forcing upon them.
This book recounts the activities, in my home county of Leicestershire, of the workers as they fought back against oppression. From a period in which the hosiery industry had provided a relatively good living, to a period when these workers were faced with a choice between starvation or the workhouse in which they could be forced to work at hard labour on a treadmill for a pittance.
This embryo working class did not benefit from slavery, they passed through decades of suffering. They were my ancestors.
The land enclosures and highland clearances has brought to an end the feudal system and set in motion a change in the way of life of working people.
The French Revolution had brought fear to the ruling class in Britain and they responded with brutal force.
The approach was exemplified by a situation that arose in a small village in Leicestershire, Barrow on Soar. A crowd of hungry men surrounded a waggon carrying wheat and confiscated its load. Two men were shot dead and eight were wounded by the Yeomenary.
The Luddite movement originated in Nottingham and spread to Derbyshire, Lancashire, and West Yorkshire. In Leicestershire stocking frames were destroyed and people rioted.
Even the mildest form of peaceful protest was suppressed. The example of Peterloo is well known. 60 000 workers in Glasgow came out on strike, the first major independent political action by the working class in Britain. Their leaders were sentenced to being hung, drawn and quartered.
When volcanic activity erupted in 1883, world food production failed. Bread and blood riots broke out across Europe. In Britain 65 000 people died of typhus whilst in Ireland 100 000 died from starvation. The resulting hunger in Britain led to political tension culminating in the Spa Fields riots.
The actions of the working class fluctuated between strikes, riots, violence and political campaigns. The Government introduced the ‘Six Acts’ which virtually banned all forms of association, public meetings, and free speech. The Stamp Act and other forms of censorship made the publication of critical newspapers and pamphlets almost impossible. Punitive punishment for minor indiscretions and the threat of mass transportations intimidated much of the population into submission.
But the situation of workers did not improve. Further Government restrictions following the second French Revolution led to further strikes.
The class war was not confined to the urban districts. In the 1830s the ‘Swing Riots’ were essentially an outbreak of rural Luddism with farm labourers destroying new threshing machines which they saw as a threat to their livelihoods.
The failure of the 1831 Reform Act led to rioting across the country. Nottingham Castle was burnt down, rioters released prisoners from jail in Derby. Three men were hanged for these offences.
An insurrection in Merthyr Tydfil in 1831 led by miners saw Red flags flying as a symbol of working class defiance. 24 protesters were killed and 26 either transported or imprisoned. In Bristol four protesters were killed and as many wounded, up to 500 may have died in fires during the disturbances.
The Reform Act of 1832 proved a great disappointment leading in Leicester to a number of working men who had previously been entitled to vote actually losing that right.
Working class organisation now turned to independent politics in the ‘People’s Charter’. Improved economic conditions and the rise of Owenism gave new confidence.
However, ill will in the Leicestershire hosiery industry was growing leading to further strikes. Employers sought to force workers to sign up to agree not to join unions. Those who were members of unions, or refused to sign, were instantly dismissed. Magistrates became more severe. Of five women who struck in support of a fellow worker who had been dismissed, one was sentenced to three months hard labour, the rest to one month.
The Grand National Consolidated Trade Union of Great Britain and Ireland was formed. After a lockout at a large factory in Derby around one third of the silk workers never returned to work having been black listed.
This was the time of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
In 1834 the Government introduced the ‘New Poor Law’ which included workhouses to replace outdoor relief. The poorest section of the working class were seen as ‘the undeserving poor’ and were labelled as the ‘criminal class’. Destitute families on wages too low to support themselves or who had been temporarily laid off would have no choice but to enter the workhouse or to starve to death.
The workhouses were horrendous, designed to be a deterrent to all but the most desperate. Once confined to the workhouse, the framework knitters would lose his home and be in a state of permanent destitution, unable to return to his trade.
Conditions for the hosiery workers worsened in 1838/9 and their leaders turned to Chartism as a way forward. Chartism was the first independent working class political movement and the charter their first political manifesto. Rejection of the Charter led to rioting even in moderate areas like Birmingham.
The first serious attempt at insurrection took place in Newport, Monmouthshire. Those involved were met with gunfire with twenty people being killed and others wounded. Further insurrections took place in Sheffield and Bradford. Several leaders were transported or sentenced to long prison sentences with hard labour.
Further deterioration took place in 1839/40 with a quarter of the population in Leicester dependent upon relief and increasing numbers forced into the new workhouse. In 1841/2 the winter was particularly bad, forcing 5000 people into the workhouse which was ten times the number for which it was designed.
One item that had been introduced into the workhouse was a mill for grinding corn. Treadmills had been introduced into prisons in 1818. Men weakened by hunger found the long hours grinding corn unbearable and refused to work the mills.
In 1842 strikes by miners and pottery workers turned violent. Strikers in Leek and Burslem were fired upon, killing one and wounding others. 247 people were arrested, 146 sent to prison and 54 were transported.
The first general strike of labour began with violent confrontations as 4 men were shot in Preston and 6 in Halifax. Starvation and harsh repression brought the action to an end. In August of that year miners in Whitwick and surrounding villages struck and action took place in Loughborough and other places in the county.
The trade slump of 1839 was followed by several years of bad harvests. In Ireland the potato crop was blighted in 1845/6 leading to the Irish Famine.
The phrase ‘as poor as a stockinger’ became a national idiom as high food prices added to the woes of Leicestershire framework knitters.
As examples of how people were affected , one report described a female worker working from nine till ten at night; she had 15 children, ten of whom became stockingers; she earned 2s 6d (12 ½ new pence).
The hours of stone breaking were increased to begin at 6am (formerly 8am) until 9 pm for which labour the labourer received 10d (old money) per day and some bread.
Such was the life of the working class.
[Note: the information contained within this blog is taken from ‘A Descent into Hell’ by Steve Marquis.
This is by way of acknowledgement and an encouragement for people to read his book which contains much more details about events during those years 1811 - 1850]
Scribar 20.4.2023
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