Today, Luddite is often used as a derogatory term to describe a technophobe, any person who scorns new technology. But its origin dates back over two hundred years to an early 19th-century English labor rebellion. Luddites railed against mechanized manufacturing that threatened the livelihood of skilled craftsmen and artisans during the Industrial Revolution.
The original Luddites were British cotton/wool weavers and textile makers. They objected to the increased use of new mechanized looms and knitting frames to create cloth. After all, they were trained artisans who had spent years honing their craft. They believed the machinery and the lower-paid, unskilled machine workers were robbing them of their livelihood. Sound familiar?
Their argument was not one against all modernization, but with the way that wealthy factory owners were robbing them of their historic way of life. Angry weavers began breaking into factories and smashing textile machines. The disturbances became known as the Luddite Riots.
The movement began with a folk hero-like figure called Ned Ludd.
He was an angry, young apprentice who in 1799 destroyed the new, stocking knitting frames in Leicester. Ironically, its not clear if Ned Ludd ever existed. But much like Robin Hood, he became a folk hero. He also evolved into the legend others would rally behind years later. His name became synonymous with rejecting new technology that disrupted society – an association that lasts to this day.
Fast forward a decade when British worker frustrations finally came to a head. These weavers and textile workers were highly-skilled, middle-class craftsmen. The advent of factories with new machinery also introduced the employment of lower-skilled and poorly-paid laborers.
The momentum of the Industrial Revolution was impossible to halt. As it grew, so did the level of worker discontent. Weavers protested against this new type of market, based on how much profit the rich factory owners could garner, rather than recognizing skilled craftsmanship. New steam-powered mills fueled by Welsh coal threatened their profession and the livelihood of thousands of textile makers.
The craftsmen initially tried negotiating with the owners. This included demands for a minimum wage, labor standards, and taxes for workers’ pensions. While not unreasonable requests in today’s world, wealthy factory owners at the time balked at the very idea.
After receiving no support from their local government, they took matters into their own hands. With their valid concerns ignored, and no unions yet to fall back on, the first riots of machine vandalism occurred in Arnold, Nottingham in 1811. Here is where the name Ned Ludd resurfaced.
The rebel workers called themselves Luddites and claimed they were taking orders from “General Ludd” or “King Ludd.” They even issued threats and a manifesto in his name. Luddites used Ned Ludd’s legend to frighten owners and hopefully shock their government into submission.
The rebellion that began in Nottingham quickly spread throughout the countryside, to factories in Yorkshire and Lancashire in 1812, and to Leicestershire and Derbyshire in 1813. They protested against wage reductions for craftsmen and wanted the new power looms causing unemployment removed from factories.
The Luddites met at night in secret at isolated locations to organize their attacks.
They destroyed factory machines and even burnt entire mills to the ground. Luddites demolished or damaged hundreds of machines in the first year. The attackers used long, heavy sledgehammers, axes and in some cases guns when factory guards arrived to shoot protesters. The Luddites were very effective, some of their biggest attacks involved as many as 100 men, and there were relatively few arrests.
Workers sent threatening letters to employers, signed Ned Ludd. When that had no effect, they attacked employers, magistrates, and textile merchants. Parliament realized that the Luddite movement was getting worse by the day. Their first response was the Protection of Stocking Frames Act, which increased penalties for destroying factory equipment. This had little effect. Luddites wanted a ban of all mechanical weaving machines.
Parliament had no intention of doing that. The wealthy factory owners held great sway over London, so the government responded to help owners not workers. Parliament instead moved to quash the uprisings by making machine breaking punishable by DEATH. Seventeen men were arrested and executed the following year.
The Luddite unrest nevertheless escalated and there seemed to be no end in sight. To catch the culprits, owners hired guards to protect the factories and offered rewards for information. Parliament sent 14,000 soldiers into the manufacturing cities and towns. Luddites actually battled with the Redcoats at Burton’s Mill in Greater Manchester. The military also infiltrated the group with spies.
The Luddite rebellion reached its peak in April 1812, when Redcoats gunned down a dozen Luddites during an attack on a mill near Huddersfield in Yorkshire. Several thousand troops rounded up most of the dissidents in the days that followed.
Dozens of Luddite leaders were publicly hanged.
Groups of Luddites were sent around the world to the dreaded Australia penal colony as punishment. The combined harsh response was enough to finally quell the Luddites. By the end of 1813, their activities had dwindled, and by 1814 the group had more or less vanished. The Industrial Revolution had prevailed. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the British woolen industry had completely moved away from hand-production.
It wasn’t until the 20th century that the name Luddite re-entered popular speech as a synonym for “technophobe.” Today, anyone called a Luddite is often considered a technically incompetent or tech-resistant person, or even an entire older generation. Think, ‘I can’t figure out how to use this mobile phone!’ Or, ‘Hand me a piece of paper, I refuse to scan a QR code!’
In 2015, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking jointly were nominated for a Luddite Award by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. Why? Because at the time, they raised concerns about the future dangers of AI, artificial intelligence. As innovators, they obviously weren’t rejecting tech, but rather presented a cautious view that not every advance is ultimately good for humanity.
Silicon Valley’s “Launch, then Learn” approach towards new tech has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. But just like the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, it has been largely unstoppable either at the corporate or government level. Robotic assembly lines have cost thousands of jobs around the world. AI will soon replace even more jobs in the unceasing demand for higher profits.
In an age of exponential development of robots, augmented reality, self-driving vehicles, CRISPR, and other futuristic tech, maybe a little Luddite “pumping of the breaks” would not be such a bad thing? That is, before we end up with a worse-case scenario of a Terminator-movie like hellscape.
‘Neo-Luddites’ emerged at the beginning of our 21st century.
Neo-Luddites recognized the motivation of the Luddites and relate it to a growing disconnect between tech and impacts on society. They believe that powerful, responsible tech can positively change the future for the better. But they are also leery of the potential dangers of too rapid, “leap before you look” innovation. They worry that technologies being rapidly launched by unchecked corporations are putting our fragile Earth at risk. Like the Luddites or yore, they too are simply trying to protect livelihoods and communities soon to be obsolete and abandoned on the technology roadside.
Yes, the story does sound familiar. People are often resistant to change especially when it involves their livelihoods. Just hang them. The poor in England had to endure some pretty rough times. “Piss poor” and so on. Dicken’s “Hard Times” illustrated how many were just instruments to make the wealthy even more so. The lifestyles of abuse extended into modern times. Ever see pictures of child labor a hundred years ago and the coal miner’s even recently. Some states even want to bring back child labor. Quality of life only extended to those of great means.