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Forgotten Heroes: The 1820 Radical War |
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© SCRAN |
In the first decade of the 19th century the average wage of a weaver halved, and the devaluation of their work continued in the second decade until the situation became unbearable for many. In 1813, a general strike of an estimated 40,000 weavers lasted over two months, until the authorities arrested the leaders, and unions grudgingly returned to work. As the post-Waterloo recession gripped Scotland, the situation worsened, with 1816 being a particularly black year for Glasgow, resulting in major bankruptcies across the city and its environs. This sparked another gathering of tens of thousands at Thrushgrove near Glasgow, demanding reform.
By 1820, the reformists had a long tradition, locally, nationally and internationally; the economic situation only seemed to worsen, and the stage was set for the rising that would result in the deaths of Wilson, Hardie and Baird.
There existed in Scotland a covert group called the Committee for Organising a Provisional government, which consisted of committed radicals, elected by their respective unions, who would assume responsibility of organising the new social structure of Scotland in the aftermath of a successful rising. However, it seems clear in retrospect that the committee had also been infiltrated by government spies, who were rife at the time, being one of the government’s most important defences against underground radical activities.
The committee had the misfortune to convene in Marshall’s Tavern in Glasgow’s Gallowgate on March 21 1820, in the presence of a man who we can only assume was a spy – he was one John King, a weaver from Anderston. King left the meeting early, just before the entire committee was arrested and detained in secret by the authorities.
This is a vital point in relation to the events that unfolded over the next few weeks, because the organising committee, the body of people who would be the centre of any radical rising, were off the streets and obviously not able to organise very much from their prison cells.
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