Luddites Smash Frames

1811

In the Nottinghamshire winter, masked weavers began breaking the wide stocking frames that were putting them out of work. They signed themselves General Ludd. Parliament made frame-breaking a capital crime; Byron's maiden speech in the Lords defended them. The machines won, but the word survived. The Luddite movement spread to Yorkshire and Lancashire, and at its peak required more troops to suppress than Wellington had taken to Portugal.