The Luddites Attack
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2022
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
April 20, 1812. An angry crowd approaches a mill in Lancashire, England. They’re fed up with what’s happening to their knitting industry, and they’re here to smash the machines taking their jobs. They call themselves the Luddites. Today, their name is invoked when talking about anyone who is anti-technology. But what actually drove this group of knitters to take up arms against their employers? And what does their struggle show us about the relationship between workers and employers today?
Thank you to our guest, Dr. Richard Gaunt from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.Thank you also to Dr. Kevin Binfield, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in English at Murray State University, for speaking with us for this episode.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone, really quick before we get into today's episode, I want to let you know we have some exciting news. |
| 0:06.0 | History this week was nominated for a Webby Award for Best Series, along with another History Channel podcast, Blind Spot Tulsa Burning. |
| 0:14.0 | This is History this week's second time getting this nomination. We're very proud. |
| 0:18.0 | And with your support, we could win. Your vote will make the difference. |
| 0:22.0 | So go to vote.webbyawards.com and click the Category section and then select Podcasts. We are under Best Series. |
| 0:31.0 | Voting closes April 21st, so get to it before then if you can. Again that is vote.webbyawards.com. |
| 0:38.0 | And that is enough about our exciting present and possible future. Now back to the past. |
| 0:44.0 | The History Channel, Original Podcast. |
| 0:48.0 | History this week, April 20th, 1812. |
| 0:55.0 | I'm Sally Helm. |
| 0:59.0 | There are about 50 men stationed at the mill in Lancashire, England, armed and waiting. |
| 1:09.0 | And at around 5pm, they see a crowd of people approaching. Angry people. Ready to attack. |
| 1:20.0 | This place is known as Burton's Mill. It's owned by one Daniel Burton. |
| 1:25.0 | And inside it is the latest in industrial technology. A loom. But as a newspaper at the time put it, a species of loom worked by power. |
| 1:36.0 | The word power is italicized. As if to say, can you believe this? The loom moves by itself. |
| 1:44.0 | It's not driven by human hands but by steam. It leaves threads together in the intricate patterns that people have been using to make cloth for generations. |
| 1:55.0 | And it's those very people, the workers, who now approach the guards at Burton's Mill. |
| 2:02.0 | They throw rocks to try and smash the windows. Fire shots into the factory. Try to break down the door. |
| 2:12.0 | These machines are costing them their jobs. And so they've decided to destroy the machines. |
| 2:21.0 | They call themselves the Luddites. It's said that as they swarm Burton's Mill, they carry a straw effigy representing their leader. |
| 2:31.0 | A shadowy, legendary figure known as General Ludd. |
| 2:37.0 | The men guarding the mill shoot off some blanks to try and scare the mob away. But it doesn't work. |
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