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Luddites 10

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William Cartwright went on to become quite the hero among his fellow industrialists and they awarded him £3000 for the "heroic" defence of Rawfolds Mill. Benjamin Walker, the man who's treachery had helped send seventeen men to the gallows, served a short sentence for his part in the events and returned with his reward to his home near Marsden. Neither he nor the locals forgot his broken oath and he lived out his years both scared and shunned by former friends.
New and improved types of "finishing" machines were installed in the mills and within twenty years the croppers trade was nothing but a distant memory. Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo and worldwide trade was possible again. Steam had replaced water and the industrial revolution with its "dark satanic mills" loomed on the horizon.
Since those few short months in 1812 Britain has never again come so close to civil war and revolution.

This song was sung at the time of the Yorkshire Luddite revolution; it quite accurately sums up their exploits.

Click the note to play the song!

Click HERE to play the song

The Croppers Lads Song

Come, cropper lads of great renown,
Who love to drink good ale that's brown,
And strike each haughty tyrant down
With hatchet, pike and gun.

Chorus
The cropper lads for me,
And gallant lads they'll be,
With lusty stroke the shear frames broke,
The cropper lads for me.

What though the specials still advance,
And soldiers nightly round us prance,
The cropper lads still lead the dance,
With hatchet, pike and gun.

And night by night when all is still,
And the moon is hid behind the hill,
We forward march to do our will,
With hatchet, pike and gun.

Great Enoch he shall lead the van,
Stop him who dares, stop him who can,
Press forward every gallant man,
With hatchet, pike and gun.

 

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