The Luddites: Machine Breakers or Labor Protesters?

Between 1811 and 1816 groups of textile workers in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire broke machines and attacked mills, signing threatening letters in the name of a mythical leader, 'General Ned Ludd'. They acted during hard times: war with Napoleon had disrupted trade, food prices were high and wages were falling. The government responded harshly, deploying thousands of soldiers and making frame-breaking a capital offense in 1812; in 1813 a mass trial at York ended in many executions.

Today 'Luddite' is often used to mean someone who opposes all technology, but historians stress that the Luddites targeted specific machines and employers they blamed for cutting wages, lowering quality or using unapprenticed labor. Some historians view them as early labor activists defending their livelihood in an age when trade unions were illegal; others see them as resisting unavoidable change.