Resistance, Reform, and the Birth of the Labor Movement

Luddism emerged around 1811-1816 as a movement of worker resistance that destroyed textile machinery deemed responsible for artisanal unemployment; the Luddites acted under the fictitious name "General Ludd," a legendary figure symbolizing anonymous collective resistance, and their attacks concentrated especially in the textile regions of Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and Lancashire. Importantly, Luddism did not reject technology as such, but specifically its use to cut wages and replace skilled labor without adequate compensation. The British government responded with harsh legal repression, including the death penalty for the deliberate destruction of industrial machinery, and deployed thousands of soldiers to suppress Luddite activity — more troops, in fact, than were simultaneously committed to the war against Napoleon in Spain; several Luddites were executed or transported to Australia after summary trials.