The word Luddite has entered the vocabulary to denote an
attitude of stubborn resistance to change an innovation. But the
original Luddites were not ignorant, indiscriminate despoilers.
They were skilled men who attacked specific targets. Nor was
machine-breaking a new phenomenon. Spinning jennies, water-
frames and carding engines were all attacked in Lancashire in
the 1770s. Gig mills (left) and shearing frames were attacked at
the same time by ‘croppers’ or ‘shearmen’ (raised and cut level
the nap of woollen cloth) in the west of England. In 1804 French
weavers attacked the Jacquard loom in Lyons. The phenomenon of
Luddism needs to be set against the crisis years 1811-12:
economic hardship, disillusionment at the Regent’s failure to
dismiss his Tory ministers, War of 1812 with the United States.
The peak of Luddite activity coincided with an alarming rise in
bread prices. The Luddite movement can be said to have begun in
1811 when the first anonymous threatening letter bearing the
pseudonym of Ned Ludd was