Workers, Protest and Reform in Industrial Britain

Imagine a worker in 1815. Bread costs a lot. Wages are low. A machine may soon take the job. Meetings and unions are risky. This was daily life for many people in industrial Britain.

In this lesson, we follow how ordinary people protested and how the state replied. We see the Luddites, the Swing riots and Peterloo. Then we see how new laws slowly improved factories and mines.

1What were the Corn Laws?

In British English, “corn” means all cereal grains. These include wheat, oats and barley. The Corn Laws were rules that blocked cheap grain from abroad. They ran from 1815 to 1846.

The bill became law on 23 March 1815. Landowners gained from high grain prices. Poor families paid more for bread. The laws became a symbol of unfair rule.

• Corn Laws: 1815 to 1846.
• They blocked cheap grain imports and kept prices high.
• Landowners gained. Poor families paid more for bread.

2How did the state treat meetings and unions?

The French Revolution made British rulers nervous. In December 1795, Parliament passed the Seditious Meetings Act. It limited public meetings to fifty persons. People called it one of the “Gagging Acts”.

The Combination Act of 1799 came next. A second act followed in 1800. Together they banned trade unions and collective bargaining. The prime minister was William Pitt the Younger.

Here is a trap. The fifty-person rule belongs to the 1795 law, not to the Combination Acts. The Combination Acts were repealed in 1824. Strikes followed. So a new law in 1825 allowed only limited union activity.

• 1795: Seditious Meetings Act, meetings limited to fifty.
• 1799 and 1800: Combination Acts banned unions.
• 1824: acts repealed. 1825: new limits on union activity.

3Who were the Luddites?

The Luddite movement began in Nottingham in 1811. It spread to the North West and Yorkshire. It lasted until about 1816. Members took the name of “Ned Ludd”.

Ned Ludd was probably a legend. The story said he smashed two stocking frames in 1779. Letters to mill owners were signed in his name.

Luddites did not hate all machines. They targeted machines they called “obnoxious”. They also held demonstrations and wrote petitions. Smashing frames was one tool among several. Mill owners shot at protesters. In the end, law and soldiers crushed the movement.

• 1811 to 1816: Nottingham, then the North West and Yorkshire.
• Ned Ludd was an apocryphal figure.
• Machine-breaking was one tool of a wider campaign.

4What were the Swing riots?

Farm workers had their own protest. In 1830, they destroyed threshing machines in the south and east of England. It began in East Kent in the summer. It spread to the whole of southern England and East Anglia by December.

Workers were angry about low wages and tithes. The authorities were harsh. Nearly 2,000 people were tried. A total of 252 were sentenced to death, but only 19 were hanged. Another 644 were imprisoned. A total of 481 were sent to Australia.

• 1830: threshing machines destroyed, starting in East Kent.
• Nearly 2,000 tried. 252 sentenced to death, 19 hanged.
• 481 transported to Australia.

5What happened at Peterloo?

After the Napoleonic Wars, Britain fell into a slump. Few men could vote. Radicals wanted reform of Parliament. On 16 August 1819, a huge crowd met at St Peter’s Field in Manchester. The star speaker was Henry Hunt.

Magistrates sent in the Yeomanry to arrest Hunt. Then the 15th Hussars charged with sabres. The crowd was about 60,000. Eighteen people were killed. Some 400 to 700 were hurt. Crowd and death figures vary a little between sources.

A Manchester newspaper called it the “Peterloo massacre”. The name mocks the Battle of Waterloo. The government then passed the Six Acts. They aimed to stop radical meetings.

• 16 August 1819, St Peter’s Field, Manchester.
• About 60,000 people. 18 killed. 400-700 injured.
• Speaker: Henry Hunt. Cavalry: Yeomanry and 15th Hussars.
• Reply: the Six Acts.

6How did factory laws grow?

Early laws were weak. The Cotton Mills and Factories Act of 1819 banned children under 9 from cotton mills. Children aged 9 to 16 were limited to 12 hours a day and no night work. Sir Robert Peel brought it forward. The law was almost impossible to enforce.

The Act of 1833 made the real change. It created a professional Factory Inspectorate. Laws now had officials to check them.

In 1844, hours were limited for women too. The Factories Act of 1847 is known as the Ten Hours Act. It met a long demand by mill workers for a ten-hour day.

• 1819: no children under 9. Weak, no real enforcement.
• 1833: Factory Inspectorate created.
• 1844: hours limited for women.
• 1847: the Ten Hours Act.

7How did reform spread after 1832?

The Reform Act of 1832 changed the voting system. Many workers still had no vote. So in 1838 the People’s Charter began the Chartist movement. Chartism lasted until 1857.

Mines also came under the spotlight. A Royal Commission reported in 1842 on children’s work. Lord Ashley, an MP, led it. The Mines and Collieries Act of 1842 followed. It banned women and girls from working underground. Boys had to be at least ten.

The Corn Laws fell next. The Anti-Corn Law League, led by Richard Cobden and John Bright, campaigned from 1838. The Irish famine forced the issue. Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel repealed the laws in 1846.

• 1832: Reform Act. 1838: People’s Charter.
• 1842: Mines Act. No women or girls underground, boys at least ten.
• 1846: Corn Laws repealed by Peel.

8What are the exam traps?

• The fifty-person limit is the 1795 Act, not the Combination Acts.
• The Combination Acts were 1799 and 1800, repealed in 1824.
• Peterloo took place in 1819. The 1833 Act added inspectors.
• The 1847 Ten Hours Act is the later one. 1844 covered women first.
• Swing was farm workers in 1830. Luddites were textile workers.