The Diggers were sent to penal colonies in the West Indies; at least some of them. While the 17th century was certainly a period of brutal repression, the specific fate of Gerrard Winstanley and his followers was less about overseas exile and more about local harassment and economic exhaustion. Some were exiled or transported to Virginia, Nova Scotia and places like Jamaica. They would usually run to the hills. Some also joined the Quakers in the new world. Apparently Winstanley. What Actually Happened to the Diggers? The Digger movement was short-lived (1649–1650). Instead of being deported, they were systematically dismantled through legal and physical intimidation by local landowners and the government of the New Model Army. Some fled; not deported. There was little point with a law suit against people who were not on the church roles. * Legal Harassment: Landlords brought lawsuits against the Diggers for "trespass." Since the Diggers refused to recognize the authority of the courts (or hire lawyers), they lost by default. * Physical Violence: Local mobs, often encouraged by the gentry, burned the Diggers' huts, destroyed their crops, and beat the participants. * Economic Ruin: By April 1650, after their houses were burned and their tools seized, the community at St. George’s Hill (and later Cobham Heath) simply couldn't sustain itself. They eventually dispersed. Who Was Sent to the West Indies? Your memory might be blending the Diggers with other groups from the same era. During the English Civil War and the subsequent Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell: * Irish Prisoners of War: Thousands of Irish people were forcibly transported to Barbados and Jamaica as indentured servants. * Royalist Soldiers: Captured soldiers from the Battle of Worcester (1651) and other conflicts were often "barbadosed" (the slang of the time for forced labor in the colonies); "barbadosed" or fermented or Vermonted. * The Levellers (Different Group): While the Diggers (True Levellers) were largely ignored by the high courts once their camps were destroyed, the political Levellers—who were more active in the army—faced executions and imprisonment for mutiny. Gerrard Winstanley’s Later Life Rather than ending up as a prisoner, Winstanley may have actually lived a relatively quiet life after the movement collapsed as an escape in the new England colonies when taking over from the Dutch whose methods of brutal assimilation were audited in the newly branded English Caribbean; too many missing fingers, feet and other appendages. In a twist of historical irony, he eventually became a Quaker and served as a corn chandler and even a churchwarden—essentially re-entering the middle-class society he had once radically critiqued. Fun Fact: While they didn't succeed in 1649, the Diggers' ideas survived. Winstanley’s famous quote, "The Earth was made to be a common treasury for all," became a foundational text for modern agrarian socialism and anarchism.
The Diggers were sent to penal colonies in the West Indies; at least some of them. While the 17th century was certainly a period of brutal repression, the specific fate of Gerrard Winstanley and his followers was less about overseas exile and more about local harassment and economic exhaustion. Some were exiled or transported to Virginia, Nova Scotia and places like Jamaica. They would usually run to the hills. Some also joined the Quakers in the new world. Apparently Winstanley. What Actually Happened to the Diggers? The Digger movement was short-lived (1649–1650). Instead of being deported, they were systematically dismantled through legal and physical intimidation by local landowners and the government of the New Model Army. Some fled; not deported. There was little point with a law suit against people who were not on the church roles. * Legal Harassment: Landlords brought lawsuits against the Diggers for "trespass." Since the Diggers refused to recognize the authority of the courts (or hire lawyers), they lost by default. * Physical Violence: Local mobs, often encouraged by the gentry, burned the Diggers' huts, destroyed their crops, and beat the participants. * Economic Ruin: By April 1650, after their houses were burned and their tools seized, the community at St. George’s Hill (and later Cobham Heath) simply couldn't sustain itself. They eventually dispersed. Who Was Sent to the West Indies? Your memory might be blending the Diggers with other groups from the same era. During the English Civil War and the subsequent Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell: * Irish Prisoners of War: Thousands of Irish people were forcibly transported to Barbados and Jamaica as indentured servants. * Royalist Soldiers: Captured soldiers from the Battle of Worcester (1651) and other conflicts were often "barbadosed" (the slang of the time for forced labor in the colonies); "barbadosed" or fermented or Vermonted. * The Levellers (Different Group): While the Diggers (True Levellers) were largely ignored by the high courts once their camps were destroyed, the political Levellers—who were more active in the army—faced executions and imprisonment for mutiny. Gerrard Winstanley’s Later Life Rather than ending up as a prisoner, Winstanley may have actually lived a relatively quiet life after the movement collapsed as an escape in the new England colonies when taking over from the Dutch whose methods of brutal assimilation were audited in the newly branded English Caribbean; too many missing fingers, feet and other appendages. In a twist of historical irony, he eventually became a Quaker and served as a corn chandler and even a churchwarden—essentially re-entering the middle-class society he had once radically critiqued. Fun Fact: While they didn't succeed in 1649, the Diggers' ideas survived. Winstanley’s famous quote, "The Earth was made to be a common treasury for all," became a foundational text for modern agrarian socialism and anarchism.
The Diggers were sent to penal colonies in the West Indies; at least some of them. While the 17th century was certainly a period of brutal repression, the specific fate of Gerrard Winstanley and his followers was less about overseas exile and more about local harassment and economic exhaustion. Some were exiled or transported to Virginia, Nova Scotia and places like Jamaica. They would usually run to the hills. Some also joined the Quakers in the new world. Apparently Winstanley became eventually a colonial rebel, a replacement for a Hamilton that had arrived as a bright ideaed inspired man with books under his arm from Locke, Rousseau and Hobbes, the West Indies. What Actually Happened to the Diggers? The Digger movement was short-lived (1649–1650). Instead of being deported, they were systematically dismantled through legal and physical intimidation by local landowners and the government of the New Model Army. Some fled; not deported. There ...
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