The Tolpuddle Martyrs (1834)
In 1834, in Tolpuddle, a rural village in Dorset, five farm labourers were arrested and transported to Australia for seven years of penal service. Their ‘crime’ was the attempt to form a trade union to combat their ever decreasing wages, which had reached starvation level. After three years of serving their sentence, under immense public pressure, the government pardoned the men, and they returned to their homes in England as heroes.
During the 18th Century, the land enclosures had denied the common people their rights to work the land, and they became fully dependant on the land-owning employers to make a living. Furthermore, mechanisation of many aspects of farming, which had traditionally been carried out by farm labourers, such as threshing, lowered wages and put many men out of work. These were brutal and harsh conditions under which to live, dependant on good harvests and altruistic employers. While all rural areas of Southern England were hard hit, the farm workers in the village of Tolpuddle were particularly so. During 1834, their wages had lowered with each passing month from 8 shillings a week, to 7 shillings, and then there was a proposed further drop to six shillings a week. Already at starvation level, workers could barely stretch their wages to keep their families alive, and the infant mortality rate was extremely high. George Loveless, a 37 year old labourer, also a respected methodist lay preacher, proposed that something must be done to combat the increasingly worse conditions that were imposed on them by their employers.
The political organisation of working people into trade unions was already happening in the big cities, and Loveless proposed that the farm labourers should attempt to do the same. It had to be done in secret as the establishment and the landed-gentry were weary about the occurrences of French revolution, and any signs of rebellion were firmly squashed. The sycamore tree on the village green became a popular meeting place, where Loveless and his associates would try to drum up support from other farm workers. Since there were no binding contracts, people were initiated by swearing a solemn oath of solidarity to the workers.
However, Squire Frampton, one of a long-line of landed gentry, learnt of these clandestine activities, and hired a spy to infiltrate the group and find out exactly what was happening. He consulted the home secretary, and although trade union membership was not illegal, they found a loophole using a law that prohibited the administering of an unlawful oath. Subsequently, on 22nd February 1834, a notice was posted by Dorset magistrates. It warned that anyone who joined a secret society or administered or took an illegal oath would be guilty of felony and liable for transportation. Two days later Loveless and his companions were charged and arrested (even though the men had made their oaths four months previously and had no idea that their activities were illegal). They were quickly brought to court, found guilty and shipped off to Australia.
On hearing of his fate, George Loveless wrote on a scrap of paper lines from the union hymn "The Gathering of the Unions"
God is our guide! from field, from wave,
From plough, from anvil, and from loom;
We come, our country's rights to save,
And speak a tyrant faction's doom
We raise the watch-word liberty;
We will, we will, we will be free!
Few rarely survived the brutality of penal servitude, and it was reasonable to assume that the five men would never to see their homes again. Their wives and families received no support from the authorities, as they were to be made an example of. They would have starved if it were not for public donations.
However, the plight of the Tolpuddle workers caught the public imagination. After the men were gone there was an outpouring of public anger, which manifested in massive demonstrations and petitions to Parliament. Under great duress, the government eventually backed down. The men were pardoned and returned home as heroes, after just three years of penal service.
Every year a festival is held in Tolpuddle in remembrance and celebration of the five farm labourers, who became known as the Tolpuddle martyrs. Their legacy is a reminder that ordinary people do not have to accept the circumstances imposed on them by their employers, and that they have the right of association to form trade unions. During the festival, there is a procession of trade union banners throughout the village in honour of this.
During the 18th Century, the land enclosures had denied the common people their rights to work the land, and they became fully dependant on the land-owning employers to make a living. Furthermore, mechanisation of many aspects of farming, which had traditionally been carried out by farm labourers, such as threshing, lowered wages and put many men out of work. These were brutal and harsh conditions under which to live, dependant on good harvests and altruistic employers. While all rural areas of Southern England were hard hit, the farm workers in the village of Tolpuddle were particularly so. During 1834, their wages had lowered with each passing month from 8 shillings a week, to 7 shillings, and then there was a proposed further drop to six shillings a week. Already at starvation level, workers could barely stretch their wages to keep their families alive, and the infant mortality rate was extremely high. George Loveless, a 37 year old labourer, also a respected methodist lay preacher, proposed that something must be done to combat the increasingly worse conditions that were imposed on them by their employers.
The political organisation of working people into trade unions was already happening in the big cities, and Loveless proposed that the farm labourers should attempt to do the same. It had to be done in secret as the establishment and the landed-gentry were weary about the occurrences of French revolution, and any signs of rebellion were firmly squashed. The sycamore tree on the village green became a popular meeting place, where Loveless and his associates would try to drum up support from other farm workers. Since there were no binding contracts, people were initiated by swearing a solemn oath of solidarity to the workers.
However, Squire Frampton, one of a long-line of landed gentry, learnt of these clandestine activities, and hired a spy to infiltrate the group and find out exactly what was happening. He consulted the home secretary, and although trade union membership was not illegal, they found a loophole using a law that prohibited the administering of an unlawful oath. Subsequently, on 22nd February 1834, a notice was posted by Dorset magistrates. It warned that anyone who joined a secret society or administered or took an illegal oath would be guilty of felony and liable for transportation. Two days later Loveless and his companions were charged and arrested (even though the men had made their oaths four months previously and had no idea that their activities were illegal). They were quickly brought to court, found guilty and shipped off to Australia.
On hearing of his fate, George Loveless wrote on a scrap of paper lines from the union hymn "The Gathering of the Unions"
God is our guide! from field, from wave,
From plough, from anvil, and from loom;
We come, our country's rights to save,
And speak a tyrant faction's doom
We raise the watch-word liberty;
We will, we will, we will be free!
Few rarely survived the brutality of penal servitude, and it was reasonable to assume that the five men would never to see their homes again. Their wives and families received no support from the authorities, as they were to be made an example of. They would have starved if it were not for public donations.
However, the plight of the Tolpuddle workers caught the public imagination. After the men were gone there was an outpouring of public anger, which manifested in massive demonstrations and petitions to Parliament. Under great duress, the government eventually backed down. The men were pardoned and returned home as heroes, after just three years of penal service.
Every year a festival is held in Tolpuddle in remembrance and celebration of the five farm labourers, who became known as the Tolpuddle martyrs. Their legacy is a reminder that ordinary people do not have to accept the circumstances imposed on them by their employers, and that they have the right of association to form trade unions. During the festival, there is a procession of trade union banners throughout the village in honour of this.
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