SOURCE: Bailey, Brian. “Local Responses and Government Reactions.” In The Luddite Rebellion, pp. 33-52. Gloucestershire, Eng.: Sutton Publishing, 1998.

In the following excerpt, Bailey describes the industrial unrest that took place in several regions in the early nineteenth century and examines the responses to the troubles by manufacturers, the government, newspapers, writers, and the workers themselves.

Colonel Ralph Fletcher, a magistrate of Bolton, Lancashire, was among the first to voice his conviction that the Nottinghamshire machine-breakers had set a dangerous example to northern manufacturing districts where machinery was held at least partly responsible for the economic distress of workers.¹ The literate among aggrieved Yorkshiremen were reading almost daily accounts of fresh Midland outrages in the pages of the Leeds Mercury and other newspapers, as well as reports that the hosiery masters were in some cases ready to give way to the knitters' demands. Between November 1811 and January 1812 inclusive, Midland...