During the late 18th and early 19th century if a Welshman wanted to rent farmland, he would have to pay his rent money to an English landlord. By the time of the Rising the farmland was run on an annual tenancy agreement. Having only one year to harvest enough crops for the next year's rent, and very rarely succeeding, they would end up in debt. To add to the problem of debt, the money was collected not by the absentee landowner but by debt collectors who would most likely have scared the farmers into giving up the rent. The farmer would have to move on with the dissatisfaction of knowing that an English man had caused his downfall.

By that point farming areas were subject to enclosures. After 1780 the enclosure acts had accelerated, leaving the labouring classes dependant on wages and making them homeless, this forced them into...