Today in Labor History February 27, 1812: Poet Lord Byron gave his first address as a member of the House of Lords. In his speech, he spoke out in support of Luddite violence against industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire. He spoke specifically against the Frame Breaking Act, which gave the death penalty to anyone guilty of breaking a machine. The state hanged 60-70 Luddites during the time the law was on the books. However, most of the time, the courts used other laws to convict them.
Looking back on his early life in Aberdeen, Byron declared that he was ‘half a Scot by birth, & bred/A whole one’. To what extent should we privilege such a claim? In what ways did Byron engage with a Scottish poetic heritage, if at all?
—Dr Daniel Cook, “Byron’s Scottish Poetry”, The Byron Journal 50/1, 2022 (subscription/institutional access required)
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