Riots
The socio-economic conditions in England led to several movements within the people. The Industrial Revolution itself had reduced the need of manual labor in several industries, since a machine could often adequately replace men. Additionally the wars with France and America had significantly reduced the amount of trade occurring with Britain . In addition to the lack of trade, there had been poor harvests for several years adding to the tension. Due to this food prices had risen steeply since grains were often bought from Russia . Additionally, George IV died, and was followed by William IV who was more liberal, shifting the weight on the political spectrum. With the change of monarch, however, there was a growing tension in the air as revolts spread through Europe – from the Belgian revolt in August against Dutch control to the Polish revolt in November. This created more social unrest and could have contributed to the rising which later occurred in England . The lower classes were also enraged due to the Poor Law. Before the Poor Law of 1834 was passed, local parishes were responsible for taking care of their poor. This act, however, took the attitude that poverty was the fault of the poor, and if they really were poor then they would accept the workhouses as an option. It ergo supported ill-treatment of the lower classes in England . An important fact to note is that much of the population living in the cities worked hard in the factories and were poor.
All these escalating tensions led to great unrest in the society. Due to this, eventually there were riots, known often as the swing riots. During these riots, there were fires, machine breaking, wages meetings and radical agitation and machine braking and tithe riots. These laborers demanded an increase in wages and a reduction of rents and tithes.
Areas which were liable to riots often included newly enclosed villages, larger villages with bigger populations, manufacturing villages, villages with a high ratio of laborers to farmers, and cereal growing areas (since low wages were paid there). Those who rioted were often young laborers (men) who were led by craftsmen.
The damages were –
• Arson resulted in damage of 100,000 pounds
• Luddism (breaking of machines) resulted in damages of 13,000 pounds
• Swing (agricultural machine breaking) resulted in damage of 8,000 pounds
• Riot damage was 600 pounds
• The TOTAL damage was 121,600 pounds
The sentences of the rioters were –
- Sentenced to death – 252
- Commuted to life transportation – 233
- Executed – 19
- Transported – 505
-Imprisoned – 644
-Fined – 7
-Whipped – 1
- Acquitted/Bound over – 800
Source
The National Archives Learning Curve. 6 May 2006
<http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/politics/g6/>.