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Swing Riots
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A wave of uprisings by agricultural laborers across southern and eastern England in 1830, driven by the spread of the threshing machine and collapsing rural wages, and marked by machine-breaking, arson and threatening letters signed by the fictitious Captain Swing. Whether land enclosure or mechanized threshing was the true trigger is argued among historians.
Historians differ on the primary driver: Hobsbawm and Rude's tally found land enclosure directly implicated in only three of 1,475 recorded incidents, pointing instead to collapsing wages and the spread of threshing machines; a 2020 quantitative study confirmed a direct link between local threshing-machine presence and rioting.
Facts
Milestone Year WhenUprisings across 1830, concentrated in the autumn and winter of that year. 2 LocationSouthern and Eastern England 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Swing Riots (Wikipedia)
WikipediaBackground sectionQuote, Background section
only three of a total of 1,475 incidents as being directly caused by enclosure
1. Swing Riots (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead sectionQuote, Lead section
The Swing Riots were a widespread set of uprisings in 1830 by agricultural workers across Southern England and Eastern England in protest of agricultural mechanisation and harsh working conditions.
1. Swing Riots (Wikipedia)
WikipediaAssociated With: Threshing Machine, Industrialisation sectionQuote, Associated With: Threshing Machine, Industrialisation section
In the late 18th century, the threshing machine was invented and spread swiftly among the farming community, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farm-workers.
2. What Caused the Swing Riots in the 1830s? (The National Archives, UK)
The National Archives (UK)Background sectionQuote, Background section
Prompted by a decline in the prices of agricultural produce and wages, the introduction of threshing machines, and an influx of Irish labour, the rioters wished to restore their standard of living.
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
Hobsbawm and Rude's tally of the riots found land enclosure directly implicated in only three of 1,475 recorded incidents, arguing that the collapse of wages and the spread of threshing machines, not enclosure, were the true drivers of the unrest.
A dissenting reading, from Eric Hobsbawm and George Rude (historians)Swing Riots (Wikipedia), Wikipedia
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