Tolpuddle martyrs
Tolpuddle martyrs. In 1834 six agricultural labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset, who formed a trade union lodge, were sentenced to seven years' transportation under an Act of 1797 forbidding ‘unlawful oaths’. Their leader, George Loveless, was a methodist and seems to have been in contact with delegates from Robert Owen's Grand National Consolidated Trade Union, who advised on the necessary ritual and initiation ceremony, including an oath of loyalty. Although unions were no longer illegal after the repeal of the Combination Acts, and the Tolpuddle men sought only to resist a reduction in wages, the government feared rural unrest, including rick-burning and machine-breaking. The harsh sentence provoked a campaign of petitions and mass demonstrations organized by the GNCTU. Two years later the six were pardoned. In 1838 they returned home, but five of them later emigrated to Canada.
John F. C. Harrison
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Tolpuddle martyrs
