Editing Swing Riots (section)

{{Short description|1830 uprisings by English agricultural workers}}
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[[File:Batteuse 1881.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Horse-powered [[threshing machine]]]]
The '''Swing Riots''' were a widespread uprising in 1830 by agricultural workers in southern and eastern England in protest of agricultural mechanisation and harsh working conditions. The riots began with the destruction of [[threshing machines]] in the [[Elham Valley]] area of [[East Kent]] in the summer of 1830 and by early December had spread through the whole of [[southern England]] and [[East Anglia]].<ref name="harrison249">{{Cite book|last=Harrison, J. F. C. (John Fletcher Clews)|title=The common people of Great Britain : a history from the Norman Conquest to the present|date=1985|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-20357-0|edition=1st Midland book|location=Bloomington|pages=249–253|oclc=11443785}}</ref> It was to be the largest movement of social unrest in 19th-century England.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Aidt |first1=Toke |last2=Leon-Ablan |first2=Gabriel |last3=Satchell |first3=Max |date=2022-01-01 |title=The Social Dynamics of Collective Action: Evidence from the Diffusion of the Swing Riots, 1830–1831 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/714784 |journal=The Journal of Politics |language=en |volume=84 |issue=1 |pages=209–225 |doi=10.1086/714784 |issn=0022-3816}}</ref>

As well as attacking the popularly-hated threshing machines, which displaced workers, the protesters rioted over low wages and required [[tithe]]s by destroying [[workhouse]]s and [[tithe barn]]s associated with their oppression. They also burned [[hay|ricks]] and maimed cows.<ref name="harrison249" /><ref name="hungerfordmuseum">{{Cite web |date=25 March 2018 |title=1830 Agricultural "Swing" Riots |url=https://www.hungerfordvirtualmuseum.co.uk/index.php/9-events/37-1830-agricultural-swing-riots |access-date=2020-05-22 |website=Hungerford Virtual Museum}}</ref>

The rioters directed their anger at the three targets identified as causing their misery: the tithe system, requiring payments to support the established Anglican Church; the [[English Poor Laws|Poor Law]] guardians, who were thought to abuse their power over the poor; and the rich [[tenant farmer]]s, who had been progressively lowering workers' wages and introduced [[agricultural machinery]].<ref name="harrison249"/> If captured, the protesters faced charges of [[arson]], robbery, riot, machine-breaking and assault. Those convicted faced imprisonment, [[penal transportation|transportation]] and possibly [[execution]].<ref name="leslie74">Andrew Charlesworth, Brian Short and Roger Wells. "Riots and Unrest", in Kim Leslie, ''An Historical Atlas of Sussex'', pp. 74–75</ref>

The Swing Riots had many immediate causes. The historian [[J. F. C. Harrison]] believed that they were overwhelmingly the result of the progressive impoverishment and dispossession of the English agricultural workforce over the previous fifty years leading up to 1830.<ref name="harrison249"/> In Parliament, [[Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon|Lord Carnarvon]] had said that the English labourers were reduced to a plight more abject than that of any race in Europe, with their employers no longer able to feed and employ them.<ref name="hammondxi">Hammond. ''The Village Labourer 1760–1832''. Ch XI. "The Last Labourers' Revolt"</ref><ref name="hansard1">Hansard. ''House of Lords'' Debate 22 November 1830, vol 1 Column. 617</ref> A 2020 study found that the presence of threshing machines caused greater rioting and that the severity of the riots was lowest in areas with abundant employment alternatives and the highest in areas with few alternative employment opportunities.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Caprettini|first1=Bruno|last2=Voth|first2=Hans-Joachim|date=2020|title=Rage against the Machines: Labor-Saving Technology and Unrest in Industrializing England|journal=American Economic Review: Insights|language=en|volume=2|issue=3|pages=305–320|doi=10.1257/aeri.20190385|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Kill the machines|url=https://www.aeaweb.org/research/thresher-machine-england-civil-revolt|access-date=2020-09-08|website=www.aeaweb.org|language=en}}</ref>