The Rebecca Riots: A Study in Agrarian Discontent

The Rebecca Riots in west Wales began in the summer of 1839. They ceased as suddenly as they had started, and for three and a half years the countryside was undisturbed. Then, in the winter of 1842, they broke out again with greater violence. By day the countryside seemed quiet, but at night fantastically disguised horsemen, many dressed as women, careered along highways and through narrow lanes on their mysterious errands. The movement has been unusually been represented as the uprising of an oppressed peasantry, particularly against the burden of the toll-gates. Its causes, however, were far more deep-seated than that.