Diggers

Or True Levellers (to be distinguished from the Levellers). Proto-socialist movement advocating the abolishing of private landownership and instead practiced a communal rural lifestyle in harmony with the environment.

Context of the Digger movement

The idea of common land has a long tradition in Britain. But enclosures constantly reduced the amount of common land, much to the detriment of the poor. Radical elements of the Army, in 1646, call for an Agrarian law, restricting the maximum amount of land a man can own, thereby effectively stopping further enclosures and freeing up a great amount of land in the case of the wealthiest landowners. In December 1648 a Buckinghamshire Leveller group called for equality of property in a pamphlet entitled Light Shining in Buckinghamshire: "All men being alike privileged by birth, so all men were to enjoy the creatures alike without property one more than the other." Thus, while being more radical in their ideas, and the first to put them into practice, the Diggers were by no means a unique phenomenon. The combination of a radical rethinking of religious ideas, the practical possibility of changing the hierarchy as evidenced by Charles' execution and the disaffected poor masses suffering from war and famine were a fertile breeding ground for such ideas.

Theory

The theoretical basis for the Digger movement was never unified and homogeneous, but can be said to have roughly three distinct strands:

• Ecology. They understood the land as not merely given to them for their benefit, but advocated its responsible use. In what would be called ecological thinking today, they realised that the land (including plant and animal life) and the people living upon it form a relationship that affects both parties.
• Communism or Anarchism. They felt that once all the people of England followed their example and formed communes, thus working the common land together and for everyone's benefit, they would essentially have abolished the ruling class. Without peasants and labourers working for them, the former members of the elite would be forced to join the communes themselves, thus losing their privileges.
• Religion. Digger tracts emphasised a strong belief in God and the writings of the Bible. This justifies the reverence for the common land as a replay of Paradise as well as the premiss that - before God - everyone is created equal.

Practice

Diggers began to form small rural communities in Surrey and Buckinghamshire and cultivated common land. However, the local landowners, obviously aware of the radical implications the Diggers' presence had, started to recruit gangs to harass Diggers or even destroy their crops and tools, going as far as to burn down their houses. Local courts did not recognise the Diggers, in one case even prosecuted them as being Ranters, a forbidden Puritan group. Thus the Digger movement never took off, by 1651 the last communities had collapsed under the constant harassment.

See also

• Levellers

Primary Sources

• Everard, William, et al. The True Levellers Standard Advanced: Or, The State of Community opened, and Presented to the Sons of Men. London: Private printing, 1649. Online Version
• Winstanley, Gerrard. A Declaration from the poor oppressed people of England, directed to all that call themselves, or are called Lords of manors, through this Nation; That have begun to cut, or that through fear and covetousness, do intend to cut down the Woods and Trees that grow upon the Commons and Waste Land. London: Private printing, 1649. Online Version
• Winstanley, Gerrard. A New-yeers Gift for the Parliament and Armie: Shewing, what the kingly power is; And that the cause of those they call Diggers is the life and marrow of that cause the Parliament hath Declared for, and the Army fought for; The perfecting of which work, will prove England to be the first of nations, or the tenth part of the city Babylon, that fals off from the Beast first, and that sets the crown upon Christs head, to govern the world in Righteousness. London: Giles Calvert, 1650. Online Version

References

• Hill, Christopher. The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution. London: Temple Smith, 1972.
• Berens, Lewis. The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., 1906.
• Bernstein, Eduard. Cromwell and Communism. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1930.
• Coward, Barry. A Companion to Stuart Britain. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
• Petegorsky, David. Left-Wing Democracy in the English Civil War. Oxford: Alden, 1995.

Weblinks

• Online Version of Berens, Lewis. The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., 1906.
• Online Version of Bernstein, Eduard. Cromwell and Communism. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1930.
• English Dissenters: Diggers
• Diggers, Ranters and other radical Puritans
• Wikipedia article "Diggers"