The luddites were arguably one of the first groups pushing for a social reform movement in Britain as a direct result of the increasing industrialisation of the cotton and woolen mills in the north. When they smashed the power looms that were making spinning easier and quicker it wasn't out of a want for the traditional ways of the past, it was out of fear for their job security.

With the creation of Arkwright's Power loom in 1785 weavers could make so much more cloth than ever before, with one man being able to control a greater number of manufacturing than ever before. Although being a relative failure economically, by 1803 there were 2400 looms in the UK, mostly in the greater Manchester area and around Nottingham.

These looms and mills were able to be operated my unskilled labourers and the wages were slowly pulled down as people became a commodity, requiring no training but desperate for work. And as the cloth that they could produce was cheaper than that of the artisan workers thousands were forced out of their workshops and into the new factories, wages cuts and rights diminished. The time was ripe for a social revolution; angry workers were ready to rebel against the new machinery that had ruined their livelihoods and forced them to work in awful conditions in factory times.

In 1811, a group of men under the leadership of the mythical Ned Ludd rose up and smashed the machines in Nottingham, and groups did the same across Lancashire. 1811-12 (with isolated cases in 1813) were periods of horror for the mill owners, who took to building large, highly defensive mills with gun slits, thick stone walls, heavy locked iron doors and gates, anything to protect their investment. The working classes were seemingly revolting against the propertied classes, and they were terrified.

But not all the propertied classes were against the movement. In 1812 a pamphlet was published, "The Beggars Complaint: The Conduct of the Luddites by one who Pities the Oppressed" by J. Crome [actually George Beaumont], and defended the actions of the poor and criticized the mill owners for treating the workers for poorly. However, his view was in the minority.

The police and militia came down heavily upon the luddites, and although many groups worked under "blackface" and other disguises, Government spies were used to track down the ringleaders of the groups and many were tried and hanged or transported. During one such raid two luddites were shot but alive. They were taken into gaol and questioned but refused to talk, whereupon a priest was called for and, seeing that the two men were close to death said that if they told him the names of the others they would be forgiven. The priest wouldn't pass on the names of their accomplices, it was just for God. For three days they sat in silence, before one of the men called the priest forward. "What is it my Son?" "Father, can you keep a secret?" "Yes, of course". "Good", said the dying man, "so can I." He died with his next breath.

By 1813, when men smashing machines had been dressed as women calling themselves Ned Ludd's Wives, the "revolution" was dead. It had always been a losing battle; the mill owners were the rich, wealthy, landowners, the same people who had the power in parliament. They argued that the Luddites were "disturbing public tranquility" and were a threat to modern life, and that they were anti-technology. The name of the luddites were to be forever linked with a fear of the modern, of technology.

Some good sources for you:

Gaskell, P. Artisans and Machinery: The moral and Physical Condition of the Manufacturing Population, (London, 1836)

Crome, J. (G. Beaumont) The Beggars Complaint: The Conduct of the Luddites, (Sheffield: 1812)

Tobias, J. J. Crime and Industrial Society in the 19^th Century (London: 1967)

Lud·dite ˈlədˌīt/ noun a member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, especially in cotton and woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs (1811–16). a person opposed to increased industrialization or new technology. "a small-minded Luddite resisting progress"