Editing Luddite (section)

{{Short description|Member of an 1810s English anti-textile-machinery organisation}}
{{For|the musical recording|Luddite (EP)}}
{{Distinguish|Ludites|Lyddite|Lydite}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2015}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}

[[File:Luddite.jpg|thumb|''The Leader of the Luddites'', 1812. Hand-coloured [[etching]]]]
The '''Luddites''' were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers who opposed the use of certain types of automated machinery due to concerns relating to worker pay and output quality. They often destroyed the machines in organised raids.<ref name=Conniff /><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-were-the-luddites |title=Who were the Luddites? |publisher=History.com |access-date=2016-12-12 |archive-date=20 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220215250/http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-were-the-luddites |url-status=live }}</ref> Members of the group referred to themselves as Luddites, self-described followers of "[[Ned Ludd]]", a legendary weaver whose name was used as a pseudonym in threatening letters to mill owners and government officials.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|title = Writings of the Luddites|last = Binfield|first = Kevin|publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press|year = 2004|isbn = 1421416964|pages = xiv|chapter = Foreword}}</ref>

The Luddite movement began in [[Nottingham]], England, and spread to the [[North West England|North West]] and [[Yorkshire]] between 1811 and 1816.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Linton |first=David |date=Fall 1992 |title=The Luddites: How Did They Get That Bad Reputation? |journal=Labor History |volume=33|issue=4 |pages=529–537|doi=10.1080/00236569200890281}}</ref> Mill and factory owners took to shooting protesters and eventually the movement was suppressed by legal and military force, which included [[execution]] and [[penal transportation]] of accused and convicted Luddites.<ref name=Trials/>

Over time, the term has been used to refer to those [[Criticism of technology|opposed]] to the introduction of new technologies.<ref>{{Cite OED|Luddite (n.), sense 1.b|5449079592|access-date=2024-09-15|date=March 2024}}</ref>