The English Rebels by Charles Poulsen

Author:Charles Poulsen [Poulsen, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

19. The title pages of two Digger tracts, 1649.

Winstanley, in his meditations, heard his ‘inner voice’ three times repeat: ‘Work together; eat bread together; declare all this abroad. Israel shall neither take hire, nor give hire. Whoever labours the earth for any person or persons that are lifted up to rule over others, and doth not look upon themselves as equal to all others in the creation, the hand of the Lord shall be upon that labourer.’

Obedient to this call, Winstanley and his comrade John Everard gathered their small following and established their ‘commonwealth’ on St George’s Hill. Most of them were poor labourers, but some were probably what we would today call ‘drop-outs’, people who had rejected their contemporary society.

The Diggers at once aroused suspicion and hostility among the local people, especially the freeholding farmers and clergy. They showed no desire to renounce their property. But there was sympathy as well; in the first weeks a number accepted the invitation to join them and ‘make the earth a common treasury of livelihood to all mankind’. The strength of the community rose to about one hundred activists, of whom the names of seventy-three are known.

Prominent among the enemies of the colony was a local minister, Parson Platt. He and the lord of the manor, Mr Drake, were probably the organisers and financiers of the first attack upon it. About a hundred men rushed in, trampled the planted seed, burned some huts, carried away tools, and beat up and dragged away some of the Diggers. The Kingston JPs ordered their release and dispersed the mob, as there were no charges laid against the Diggers. True to their pacifist conviction, they had made no physical resistance, but sought to convince the attackers that they were acting wrongly.

News of this affair reached the Council of State. Preoccupied with the Levellers, the army and the royalists, they passed the matter on to General Fairfax, who sent a Captain Gladman, with two troops of horse, to investigate. Gladman met the Diggers, and reported that it was a trivial matter of a few homeless eccentrics and fanatics, and he brought Winstanley and Everard to explain themselves to the General. They stood before him ‘covered’ (that is, with their hats on) symbolising their rejection of rank. Fairfax, always a courteous gentleman, heard them out while they expounded their policy and stressed their doctrine of pacifism; and then dismissed them politely. He probably agreed with Captain Gladman.

This interview did much to publicise their activities, but a local mob attacked them so fiercely that they had to abandon their ground and leave. These reverses would have disheartened others, but the Diggers, confident that their way was right, returned after a few days and began to tend the land once more.

Their position seemed hopeless. Time and again their corn and vegetables were uprooted, their huts pulled down, their precious tools smashed or stolen, their cattle maltreated. Patiently they resumed their work, repairing and replanting. They cheered and encouraged one another with their songs.

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