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== History ==
=== Background ===
In the 18th century, occupations that arose from the growth of trade and shipping in ports, also known as "domestic" manufacturers, were notorious for precarious employment prospects. Underemployment was chronic during this period,<ref name="Charles Wilson 1965 p. 344-5">Charles Wilson, ''England's Apprenticeship, 1603–1763'' (1965), pp. 344–345. PRO, SP 36/4/22.</ref> and it was common practice to retain a larger workforce than was typically necessary for insurance against labour shortages in boom times.<ref name="Charles Wilson 1965 p. 344-5" />

Moreover, the organisation of manufacture by merchant capitalists in the textile industry was inherently unstable. While the financiers' capital was still largely invested in raw materials, it was easy to increase commitment when trade was good and almost as easy to cut back when times were bad. Merchant capitalists lacked the incentive of later factory owners, whose capital was invested in buildings and plants, to maintain a steady rate of production and return on fixed capital. The combination of seasonal variations in wage rates and violent short-term fluctuations springing from harvests and war produced periodic outbreaks of violence.<ref name="Charles Wilson 1965 p. 344-5"/>

=== Historical precedents ===
The machine-breaking of the Luddites followed from previous outbreaks of sabotage in the English textile industry, especially in the hosiery and woollen trades. Organised action by [[stockinger (occupation)|stockingers]] had occurred at various times since 1675.<ref>{{cite book|last=Binfield|first=Kevin|title=Luddites and Luddism|year=2004|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore and London}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Rude|first=George|title=The Crowd in History: A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730–1848|year=2001|publisher=Serif|author-link=George Rudé}}</ref><ref name="this" /> In [[Lancashire]], new cotton spinning technologies were met with violent resistance in 1768 and 1779. These new inventions produced textiles faster and cheaper because they could be operated by less-skilled, low-wage labourers.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Merchant |first=Brian |date=2 September 2014 |title=You've Got Luddites All Wrong |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/luddites-definition-wrong-labor-technophobe/ |magazine=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |access-date=13 October 2014 |archive-date=23 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190523172806/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ae379k/luddites-definition-wrong-labor-technophobe |url-status=live }}</ref> These struggles sometimes resulted in government suppression, via acts of Parliament such as the [[Protection of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1788]].

Periodic uprisings relating to asset prices also occurred in other contexts in the century before Luddism. Irregular rises in [[food prices]] provoked the [[Keelmen]] to riot in the [[port of Tyne]] in 1710<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43320 |title=Historical events – 1685–1782 &#124; Historical Account of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (pp. 47–65) |publisher=British History Online |date=2003-06-22 |access-date=2013-10-04 |archive-date=9 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209181804/http://british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43320 |url-status=live }}</ref> and tin miners to steal from granaries at [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]] in 1727.{{Efn|The Falmouth magistrates reported to the Duke of Newcastle (16 November 1727) that "the unruly tinners" had "broke open and plundered several cellars and granaries of corn." Their report concludes with a comment which suggests that they were not able to understand the rationale of the direct action of the tinners: "The occasion of these outrages was pretended by the rioters to be a scarcity of corn in the county, but this suggestion is probably false, as most of those who carried off the corn gave it away or sold it at a quarter price." PRO, SP 36/4/22.}} There was a rebellion in [[Northumberland]] and [[County Durham|Durham]] in 1740, and an assault on Quaker corn dealers in 1756.

Malcolm I. Thomis argued in his 1970 history ''The Luddites'' that machine-breaking was one of the very few tactics that workers could use to increase pressure on employers, undermine lower-paid competing workers, and create solidarity among workers. "These attacks on machines did not imply any necessary hostility to machinery as such; machinery was just a conveniently exposed target against which an attack could be made."<ref name="this">{{cite book|last=Thomis|first=Malcolm|title=The Luddites: Machine Breaking in Regency England|year=1970|publisher=Shocken}}</ref> Marxist Historian [[Eric Hobsbawm]] called their machine wrecking "[[collective bargaining]] by riot", which had been a tactic used in Britain since the Restoration because manufactories were scattered throughout the country, and that made it impractical to hold large-scale strikes.{{sfn|Hobsbawm|1952|p=59}}<ref name="Autor2003">{{Cite journal |last1=Autor |first1=D. H. |last2=Levy |first2=F. |last3=Murnane |first3=R. J. |date=2003-11-01 |title=The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration |url=http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/569 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |language=en |volume=118 |issue=4 |pages=1279–1333 |doi=10.1162/003355303322552801|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100315142837/http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/569 |archive-date=15 March 2010 |hdl=1721.1/64306 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> An agricultural variant of Luddism occurred during the widespread [[Swing Riots]] of 1830 in southern and eastern England, centring on breaking [[threshing machine]]s.<ref name="harrison249">{{Cite book |title=The Common People: A History from the Norman Conquest to the Present |last=Harrison |first=J. F. C. |date=1984 |publisher=Croom Helm |isbn=0709901259 |location=London, Totowa, N.J |pages=249–53 |ol=OL16568504M}}</ref>

=== Peak activity: 1811–1817 ===
{{See also|Barthélemy Thimonnier#Sewing machine riot}}
The Luddite movement emerged during the harsh economic climate of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], which saw a rise in difficult working conditions in the new textile factories paired with decreasing birth rates and a rise in education standards in England and Wales.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Rourke |first=Kevin Hjortshøj |last2=Rahman |first2=Ahmed S. |last3=Taylor |first3=Alan M. |date=2013 |title=Luddites, the industrial revolution, and the demographic transition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42635331 |journal=Journal of Economic Growth |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=373–409 |issn=1381-4338}}</ref> Luddites were not opposed to the use of machines ''per se'' (many were skilled operators in the textile industry); they attacked manufacturers who were trying to circumvent standard labour practices of the time.<ref name="Conniff">{{Cite news |last=Conniff |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Conniff |date=March 2011 |title=What the Luddites Fought Against |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114073322/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/ |archive-date=14 November 2019 |access-date=2016-10-19 |work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |language=en}}</ref>  The movement began in [[Arnold, Nottinghamshire]], on 11 March 1811 and spread rapidly throughout England over the following two years.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Beckett|first1=John|title=Luddites|url=http://www.nottsheritagegateway.org.uk/people/luddites.htm|website=The Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway|publisher=[[Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire]]|access-date=2 March 2015|archive-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402092454/http://www.nottsheritagegateway.org.uk/people/luddites.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Conniff /> The British economy suffered greatly in 1810 to 1812, especially in terms of high unemployment and inflation. The causes included the high cost of the wars with Napoleon, Napoleon's [[Continental System]] of economic warfare, and [[War of 1812|escalating conflict with the United States.]] The crisis led to widespread protest and violence, but the middle classes and upper classes strongly supported the government, which used the army to suppress all working-class unrest, especially the Luddite movement.<ref>Roger Knight, ''Britain Against Napoleon'' (2013), pp. 410–412</ref><ref>Francois Crouzet, ''Britain Ascendant'' (1990) pp. 277–279</ref>

The Luddites met at night on the [[Moorland|moors]] surrounding industrial towns to practise military-like drills and manoeuvres. Their main areas of operation began in [[Nottinghamshire]] in November 1811, followed by the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]] in early 1812, and then [[Lancashire]] by March 1813. They wrecked specific types of machinery that posed a threat to the particular industrial interests in each region. In the Midlands, these were the "wide" knitting frames used to make cheap and inferior lace articles.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Acemoglu |first1=Daron |last2=Robinson |first2=James A. |title=Why nations fail: the origins of power, prosperity, and poverty |date=2012 |publisher=Crown Publishing |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780307719225 |page=101 |edition=1. |url=https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/book/why-nations-fail/ |access-date=2 November 2024}}</ref> In the North West, weavers sought to eliminate the steam-powered looms threatening wages in the cotton trade. In Yorkshire, workers opposed the use of shearing frames and gig mills to finish woollen cloth.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Binfield |first=Kevin |title=Writings of the Luddites |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2004 |isbn=1421416964 |pages=34 |chapter=Northwestern Luddism}}</ref>

Many Luddite groups were highly organized and pursued machine-breaking as one of several tools for achieving specific political ends. In addition to the raids, Luddites  coordinated public demonstrations and the mailing of letters to local industrialists and government officials.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sale |first=Kirkpatrick |author-link=Kirkpatrick Sale |title=Rebels against the future: the Luddites and their war on the Industrial Revolution: lessons for the computer age |publisher=Addison-Wesley Publishing Company |year=1996 |isbn=0201407183 |location=Reading |pages=74–77 |chapter=The Luddites: November–December 1811}}</ref> These letters explained their reasons for destroying the machinery and threatened further action if the use of "obnoxious" machines continued.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job|last = Mueller|first = Gavin|publisher = Verso|year = 2021|isbn = 978-1786636775|pages = 20|chapter = The Nights of King Ludd}}</ref> The writings of [[Midlands]] Luddites often justified their demands through the legitimacy of the Company of Framework Knitters, a recognised public body that already openly negotiated with [[Master craftsman|masters]] through named representatives. In [[North West England]], textile workers lacked these long-standing trade institutions and their letters composed an attempt to achieve recognition as a united body of tradespeople. As such, they were more likely to include petitions for governmental reforms, such as increased minimum wages and the cessation of child labour. Northwestern Luddites were also more likely to use radical language linking their movement to that of American and French revolutionaries. In [[Yorkshire]], the letter-writing campaign shifted to more violent threats against local authorities viewed as complicit in the use of offensive machinery to exert greater commercial control over the labour market.

In [[Yorkshire]], croppers{{Efn|Croppers were highly skilled workers who trimmed the nap from fabric to produce finished cloth.}} faced mass unemployment due to the introduction of cropping machines by Enoch Taylor of Marsden.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marsden History Group |url=https://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/marsden-foundry.php |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=www.marsdenhistory.co.uk |archive-date=18 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240418160416/https://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/marsden-foundry.php |url-status=live }}</ref> This sparked the Luddite movement among the croppers of Yorkshire, who used a hammer dubbed "Enoch" to break the frames of the cropping machines. They called it Enoch to mock Enoch Taylor, and when they broke the frames they purportedly shouted "Enoch made them, and Enoch shall break them."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Enoch the Power Hammer |url=https://www.nigeltyas.co.uk/nigel-tyas-news/post/enoch-the-power-hammer.html |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=www.nigeltyas.co.uk |language=en |archive-date=18 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240418160414/https://www.nigeltyas.co.uk/nigel-tyas-news/post/enoch-the-power-hammer.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Luddites clashed with government troops at [[Burton's Mill]] in [[Middleton, Greater Manchester|Middleton]] and at [[Westhoughton Mill]], both in Lancashire.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Radicalism and Reform in Britain, 1780–1850|last = Dinwiddy|first = J. R.|publisher = Hambledon Press|year = 1992|isbn = 9781852850623|location = London|pages = 371–401|chapter = Luddism and Politics in the Northern Counties|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hI2tAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA371}}</ref> The Luddites and their supporters anonymously sent death threats to, and possibly attacked, magistrates and food merchants. Activists smashed Heathcote's lace making machine in Loughborough in 1816.{{sfn|Sale|1995|p=188}} He and other industrialists had secret chambers constructed in their buildings that could be used as hiding places during an attack.<ref>{{cite news|title=Workmen discover secret chambers|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/4791069.stm|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=31 December 2012|archive-date=24 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224043837/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/4791069.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1817 [[Jeremiah Brandreth]], an unemployed Nottingham [[stockinger (occupation)|stockinger]] and probable ex-Luddite, led the [[Pentrich Rising]]. While this was a general uprising unrelated to machinery, it can be viewed as the last major Luddite act.<ref>Summer D. Leibensperger,  "Brandreth, Jeremiah (1790–1817) and the Pentrich Rising". ''The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest'' (2009): 1–2.</ref>

=== Government response ===
12,000 government troops, most of them belonging to [[Militia (United Kingdom)|militia]] or [[Yeomanry Cavalry|yeomanry]] units, were involved in suppression of Luddite activity, which historian [[Eric Hobsbawm]] wrote was a larger number than the army that the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]] led into Portugal in 1808 during the [[Peninsular War]].{{sfn|Hobsbawm|1952|p=58|ps=: "The 12,000 troops deployed against the Luddites greatly exceeded in size the army which Wellington took into the Peninsula in 1808."}}{{efn| Hobsbawm has popularised this comparison and refers to the original statement in [[Frank Ongley Darvall]] (1934) ''Popular Disturbances and Public Order in Regency England'', London, Oxford University Press, p. 260.}} Four Luddites, led by a man named George Mellor, ambushed and assassinated mill owner William Horsfall of Ottiwells Mill in [[Marsden, West Yorkshire]], at [[Crosland Moor]] in [[Huddersfield]]. Horsfall had remarked that he would "Ride up to his saddle in Luddite blood".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGkTDQAAQBAJ&q=Horsfall++%22Ride+up+to+his+saddle+in+Luddite+blood.%22&pg=PT14|title=Grim Almanac of York|last=Sharp|first=Alan|year=2015|publisher=The History Press|isbn=9780750964562|language=en}}</ref> Mellor fired the fatal shot to Horsfall's groin, and all four men were arrested.  One of the men, Benjamin Walker, turned informant, and the other three were hanged.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maureenmitchell/luddites/luddites_william_horsfall_murder.htm|title=Murder of William Horsfall by Luddites, 1812|website=Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com|access-date=23 June 2023|archive-date=2 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102001443/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maureenmitchell/luddites/luddites_william_horsfall_murder.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/William_Horsfall_(1770-1812)|title=William Horsfall (1770–1812) – Huddersfield Exposed: Exploring the History of the Huddersfield Area|website=Huddersfield.exposed|access-date=23 June 2023|archive-date=1 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601020455/https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/William_Horsfall_(1770-1812)|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.com/2013/01/8th-january-1812-execution-of-george.html | title=8th January 1813: The execution of George Mellor, William Thorpe & Thomas Smith | date=8 January 2013 | publisher=The Luddite Bicentenary – 1811–1817 | access-date=10 October 2020 | archive-date=19 September 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919154155/http://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.com/2013/01/8th-january-1812-execution-of-george.html | url-status=live }}</ref> [[Lord Byron]] denounced what he considered to be the plight of the working class, the government's inane policies and ruthless repression in the [[House of Lords]] on 27 February 1812:

{{quote|I have been in some of the most oppressed provinces of Turkey; but never, under the most despotic of infidel governments, did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return, in the very heart of a Christian country.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1812/feb/27/frame-work-bill#S1V0021P0_18120227_HOL_7|title=Frame Work Bill. (Hansard, 27 February 1812)|website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|access-date=23 June 2023|archive-date=14 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514082629/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1812/feb/27/frame-work-bill#S1V0021P0_18120227_HOL_7|date=27 February 1812|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Government officials sought to suppress the Luddite movement with a mass trial at [[York]] in January 1813, following the attack on Cartwrights Mill at Rawfolds near Cleckheaton. The government charged over 60 men, including Mellor and his companions, with various crimes in connection with Luddite activities. While some of those charged were actual Luddites, many had no connection to the movement. Although the proceedings were legitimate jury trials, many were abandoned due to lack of evidence and 30 men were acquitted. These trials were intended to act as [[show trials]] to deter other Luddites from continuing their activities. The harsh sentences of those found guilty, which included [[execution]] and [[penal transportation]], quickly ended the movement.<ref name=Trials>{{cite web|url=http://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/people/luddites.html#link4 |title=Luddites in Marsden: Trials at York |access-date=12 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326170835/http://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/people/luddites.html |archive-date=26 March 2012 }}</ref><ref>Elizabeth Gaskell, ''The Life of Charlotte Bronte'', Vol. 1, Ch. 6, for a contemporaneous description of the attack on Cartwright.</ref> Parliament made "machine breaking" (i.e. industrial [[sabotage]]) a [[capital crime]] with the [[Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8adFAAAAcAAJ&dq=%22destruction%22%20%22stocking-frames%22%20parliamentary&pg=PA633 "Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812"] at books.google.com</ref> Lord Byron opposed this legislation, becoming one of the few prominent defenders of the Luddites after the treatment of the defendants at the York trials.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2011/no-1282-june-2011/lord-byron-and-luddites|title=Lord Byron and the Luddites {{!}} The Socialist Party of Great Britain|website=worldsocialism.org|access-date=2016-11-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624121100/http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2011/no-1282-june-2011/lord-byron-and-luddites|archive-date=24 June 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>