Rural Discontent III: A Common Treasury for All
An American Commoner's Explanation of the Diggers
Howdy dear reader. This is the continuation of a monthly mini-series on agrarian peoples’ movements, and we’ve made it to the mid-17th century at last! The complete text of this piece, as well as the rest of the series, and the complete archives of the Fox Holler Almanac are available to supporting members, which means that until we seize the means of production and permanently install the egalitarian social order the Diggers dreamt of, you’ll have to toss a few coins in my hat. Thanks for reading either way.
If you look through the Earth, you shall see, That the landlords, Teachers and Rulers, are Oppressors, Murtherers, and Theeves in this manner; But it was not thus from the Beginning. And this is one Reason of our digging and labouring the Earth one with another; That we might work in righteousness, and lift up the Creation from bondage: For so long as we own Landlords in this Corrupt Settlement, we cannot work in righteousness; for we should still lift up the Curse, and tread down the Creation, dishonour the Spirit of universal Liberty, and hinder the work of Restauration.
-Gerrard Winstanley, The True Levellers Standard Advanced (1649)
And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
-The Bible
(More specifically, The Book of Acts, Chapter 2, Verses 44-45)
Down in the neglected stands of beech and oak and downy birch, the eroded remains of bronze-age ramparts, rooted through by ancient trees, peak out from thickening private woodlands of St. George’s Hill, Weybridge, Surrey UK. It is unlikely that anyone has ventured down into these woods for an armload of fuel in some time. St. George’s Hill, which is Surrey’s lowest hill registered in the national database, is currently a 964 acre gated community– lined with pristine hedgerows, dotted with mansions and tennis courts and subdued into private golf courses. John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Elton John, and the richest man in Pakistan have all called it home, or at least one of their homes– but 400-odd years ago, it was the communal garden of non-conforming proto-socialist agrarian dissenters who sought to reform their world into one without class or property.
I imagine the story of the Diggers is nothing new for my English readers. As a person living in a place where so much history has been erased, I’m always a bit astonished with the irony that sometimes presents itself when dense human habitation is recorded upon the land over generations… as if there comes a time when there is no longer room for the past, because folks are literally stubbing their toes on it. I consider the histories of other places– for instance the Oak of Reformation being cut down to make way for a parking lot, or in this case a luxurious gated community built upon the common fields of righteous utopians who endeavored to build an egalitarian society. I appreciate the transparency of the “old world”. In comparison with the U.S., land is a limited resource in the isles, and until fairly recently nobody had made many qualms about building on top of bones or cutting trees of great age and historical import to make room for the practicalities of modern life. We tend to sweep that shit under the rug entirely in this country, where the bones and homes of the past underlay all of manifest destiny, entirely unknown and unrecorded, not because of inconvenience and spacial limitations, but because it is often purposeful cultural erasure.
So to English readers, I hope to at least bring a Midwestern-American sensibility to my coverage of the Diggers/True Levelers, if you want it, or at least consent to reading it, and for my fellow Americans– good luck and I trust you can google Oliver Cromwell if you need. Short version: he’s a controversial dude.
The year is 1649. The ruff is out of fashion, but broad lace and linen collars are in. Everyone wants a floppy hat, and men’s hosiery has given way to buttoned breeches. Other folks are happy just to receive turnips. There have been two civil wars in England within a decade, and King Charles I physically loses his head before a groaning crowd. Civil unrest and religious reformation have been simmering, and much like today, this leads to the establishment of some fringe groups.
First were the Levellers a populist group advocating for something akin to modern democracy, replete with suffrage for all and religious tolerance. Gerrard Winstanley, a bankrupt businessman, cowherd, reformer and pamphleteer publishes a pamphlet with the help of 14 other non-conformist protestant dissenters, The True Levellers Standard Advanced, and goes on to co-found the True Levellers alongside William Everard, distinct from the earlier Levellers.
Winstanley’s concept of levelling (British spelling, we’ll go with it…) referred to the creation of a new, equal social order, and the literal levelling or working of the land. The True Levellers’ vision was of a communal, agrarian lifestyle that even hinted at the ecological connection between natural communities and humans. Winstanley declared, “true freedom lies where a man receives his nourishment and preservation, and that is in the use of the earth”.
Enclosure (as originally discussed in this previous almanac entry and further elaborated upon in the first piece in this series) was transforming the social order of the day, meaning as it often does, that the poor were becoming poorer, and the rich were becoming richer. In the century since Kett’s rebellion, the peasantry were increasingly driven off the commons from which they could forage a meek existence. This was exacerbated by food shortages, war, a minor reemergence of the plague, and economic decay. So nothing like today…