E.J. Hobsbawm and George Rudé: Captain Swing. Lawrence & Wishart, 70/-.
In the autumn and winter of 1830, within an area stretching from Somerset in the west to East Anglia and Lincolnshire in the east, bands of up to several hundred normally respectable farm labourers were marching systematically round their localities, smashing the local farmers' threshing machines and demanding higher wages. To the £3,000-worth of damage done to rural capitalists' property in this way was added the wide-spread burning of ricks, sending of threatening letters, angry wages-meetings and riots involving thousands against the "special" police. In a year of revolution in France and Belgium, when the Radicals were calling for blood and revenge and the new urban proletariat were rapidly unionising in the industrial slums, the British authorities saw the riots as the first demonstration of power by the rural working [illegible]. The Government was, however, nervous of using the army because of urban unrest, and finally found a successful tactic in the "Sussex Plan"—the occupation of villages by special constabulary units before trouble started. At the trials afterwards, over 1,000 were imprisoned, transported, or hanged. As Justice Alderson said, "We do not come here to enquire into grievances. We come here to decide law."
Official reactions to the outbreak differed. The Kent riots were variously blamed on foreign revolutionaries, Irish labourers, O'Connell agents, Papists, bigoted Protestants, government agents, Radicals, the French, and the nonconformists. The Earl of Hardwicke called hysterically for a "General Union of all Classes...for the Preservation of Property and the Detection of Incendiaries". Wellington sent out the local magistrates and their retainers on horseback to hunt down the rioters with horsewhips and guns ("It is astonishing how soon the country was tranquillised, and that in the best way, by the activity and spirit of the gentlemen," he commented). At Pyt House in Wiltshire the yeoman cavalry were called out with their muskets, killing one labourer and [illegible] several others.
The 1½ million landless English "peasants" formed the bottom layer in rural society's three-part hierarchy, supporting above them the tenant-farmer who hired them by the week or the day, and the wealthy land-owner—one of the 4,000 who owned roughly 4/7 of England and Wales. Huge surplus labour problems and high prices left over from the Napoleonic boom-years were aggravated by an archaic poor-relief system which reduced most labourers to virtual paupers in an effort to combine the stable social hierarchy with the profits of a capitalist market.
Labourers were worst hit in the cereal-producing south and east, where seasonal fluctuation of the labour demand was most marked; threshing-machines introduced by progressive farmers took away what little winter employment there was, and became a focal point of grievance. Security of employment and a living wage were, however, the starving labourers' only demands. There was no interest in land-reform, most of them believing the Government would sympathise with their attempt to regain the security of pre-capitalist society and their "customary rights as free-born Englishmen". Mostly Radicals completely failed to understand the movement, hopefully urging the rioters to "give up all these petty outrages against property, so unworthy of you, and unite for a Glorious Revolution", and although many local Radical craftsmen emerged as leaders, there was virtually no coordination between them, and they only provided a minimum of organisation on a local level. The revolutions across the Channel may have provided encouragement but had very little direct influence beyond inspiring red or black flags, or tricolours, in places.
In spite of what the letters said ("Revenge to thee is on the wing/ From thy determined Captain Swing"), and apart from a few parsons being pushed in the village pond or locked in the vestry until they agreed to lower their tithes, nearly all the violence was directed against property, and often had a festive spirit, with the rioters in their Sunday best. (Though feeling ran high against the "special" police: "Blast my eyes, I will smash the bloody Buggers' heads, six at a time" somebody is reported to have said). Another common tactic was the mass walk-out from church on a Sunday, followed by a meeting in the graveyard.
Many farmers were surprisingly sympathetic and readily agreed to have their machines smashed; they were usually on hire, or insured, in any case; growing unemployment put the parish rates up; and a sneaking feeling persisted that machines were slightly immoral. Where they could, farmers channelled the movement in their own interests, e.g. against tithes; although the labourers would have no truck with opposing taxation ("It was the King's money, and it wouldn't do").
On a local level the movement had great impact. Local solidarity during the riots was high—the authorities had great difficulty finding anyone ready to sign on as a "special"—even where support remained passive. A burning rick would produce a crowd of admiring onlookers, busy lighting their pipes at the flames, saying they should have brought some potatoes to bake, and making not the least attempt to put it out. Mass decisions were democratically taken in places, and delegates voted on; some villages adopted the slogan "We are all as one" to prevent victimisation of "leaders". But by their very nature, as spontaneous and sporadic outbursts, the Swing riots could not succeed. Between villages there was scarcely any unity, apart from the single wage demand of 2/6 a day, and labourers generally had no perspective beyond their own village, or parish at the most, and certainly had no thought of linking up with the urban movement. With the slight increase in wages and signs of reform bills beginning to move slowly through Parliament, people afterwards said, "Ah, them there riots and burnings did the poor a terrible deal of good"; but in fact the failure and brutal repression of the movement finished the resistance of the rural working class for another half-century.
Captain Swing is the first book since 1911 to deal with this subject; the authors give an extremely detailed account of their findings, and fully explain the conclusions they draw from their research. If you haven't got time to read the whole book, read the Introduction which gives a good historical and social background, and is an excellent summary of the main conclusions drawn from the bulk of the text.
Felicity Trodd