The Diggers were a group of Protestant radicals
in England, sometimes seen as forerunners
of modern anarchism, and also associated with
agrarian socialism and Georgism. Gerrard Winstanley's
followers were known as True Levellers in
1649 and later became known as Diggers, because
of their attempts to farm on common land.
Their original name came from their belief
in economic equality based upon a specific
passage in the Acts of the Apostles. The Diggers
tried (by "leveling" land) to reform the existing
social order with an agrarian lifestyle based
on their ideas for the creation of small,
egalitarian rural communities. They were one
of a number of nonconformist dissenting groups
that emerged around this time.
== Historical background ==
The year 1649 was a time of great social unrest
in England. The Parliamentarians had won the
First English Civil War but failed to negotiate
a constitutional settlement with the defeated
King Charles I. When members of Parliament
and the Grandees in the New Model Army were
faced with Charles' perceived duplicity, they
tried and executed him.
Government through the King's Privy Council
was replaced with a new body called the Council
of State, which due to fundamental disagreements
within a weakened Parliament was dominated
by the Army. Many people became active in
politics, suggesting alternative forms of
government to replace the old order.
Royalists wished to place King Charles II
on the throne; men like Oliver Cromwell wished
to govern with a plutocratic Parliament voted
in by an electorate based on property, similar
to that which was enfranchised before the
civil war; agitators called Levellers, influenced
by the writings of John Lilburne, wanted parliamentary
government based on an electorate of every
male head of a household; Fifth Monarchy Men
advocated a theocracy; and the Diggers, led
by Gerrard Winstanley, advocated a more radical
solution.
== Theory ==
In 1649 Gerrard Winstanley and 14 others published
a pamphlet in which they called themselves
the "True Levellers" to distinguish their
ideas from those of the Levellers. Once they
put their idea into practice and started to
cultivate common land, both opponents and
supporters began to call them "Diggers". The
Diggers' beliefs were informed by Winstanley's
writings which envisioned an ecological interrelationship
between humans and nature, acknowledging the
inherent connections between people and their
surroundings. Winstanley declared that "true
freedom lies where a man receives his nourishment
and preservation, and that is in the use of
the earth".An undercurrent of political thought
which has run through English society for
many generations and resurfaced from time
to time (for example, in the Peasants' Revolt
in 1381) was present in some of the political
factions of the 17th century, including those
who formed the Diggers. It involved the common
belief that England had become subjugated
by the "Norman Yoke". This legend offered
an explanation that at one time a golden Era
had existed in England before the Norman Conquest
in 1066. From the Conquest on, the Diggers
argued, the "common people of England" had
been robbed of their birthrights and exploited
by a foreign ruling-class.
== 
Practice ==
=== St George's Hill, Weybridge, Surrey ===
The Council of State received a letter in
April 1649 reporting that several individuals
had begun to plant vegetables in common land
on St George's Hill, Weybridge near Cobham,
Surrey at a time when food prices reached
an all-time high. Sanders reported that they
had invited "all to come in and help them,
and promise them meat, drink, and clothes."
They intended to pull down all enclosures
and cause the local populace to come and work
with them. They claimed that their number
would be several thousand within ten days.
"It is feared they have some design in hand."
In the same month, the Diggers issued their
most famous pamphlet and manifesto, called
"The True Levellers Standard Advanced".At
the behest of the local landowners, the commander
of the New Model Army, Sir Thomas Fairfax,
duly arrived with his troops and interviewed
Winstanley and another prominent member of
the Diggers, William Everard. Everard suspected
that the Diggers were in serious trouble and
soon left the group. Fairfax, meanwhile, having
concluded that Diggers were doing no harm,
advised the local landowners to use the courts.Winstanley
remained and continued to write about the
treatment they received. The harassment from
the Lord of the Manor, Francis Drake (not
the famous Francis Drake, who had died more
than 50 years before), was both deliberate
and systematic: he organised gangs in an attack
on the Diggers, including numerous beatings
and an arson attack on one of the communal
houses. Following a court case, in which the
Diggers were forbidden to speak in their own
defence, they were found guilty of being Ranters,
a radical sect associated with liberal sexuality
(though in fact Winstanley had reprimanded
Ranter Laurence Clarkson for his sexual practices).
Having lost the court case, if they had not
left the land, then the army could have been
used to enforce the law and evict them; so
they abandoned Saint George's Hill in August
1649, much to the relief of the local freeholders.
=== Little Heath near Cobham ===
Some of the evicted Diggers moved a short
distance to Little Heath in Surrey. 11 acres
(4.5 ha) were cultivated, six houses built,
winter crops harvested, and several pamphlets
published. After initially expressing some
sympathy for them, the local lord of the manor
of Cobham, Parson John Platt, became their
chief enemy. He used his power to stop local
people helping them and he organised attacks
on the Diggers and their property. By April
1650, Platt and other local landowners succeeded
in driving the Diggers from Little Heath.
=== Wellingborough, Northamptonshire ===
There was another community of Diggers close
to Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. In
1650, the community published a declaration
which started:
A Declaration of the Grounds and Reasons why
we the Poor Inhabitants of the Town of Wellingborrow,
in the County of Northampton, have begun and
give consent to dig up, manure and sow Corn
upon the Common, and waste ground, called
Bareshanke belonging to the Inhabitants of
Wellinborrow, by those that have Subscribed
and hundreds more that give Consent....This
colony was probably founded as a result of
contact with the Surrey Diggers. In late March
1650, four emissaries from the Surrey colony
were arrested in Buckinghamshire bearing a
letter signed by the Surrey Diggers including
Gerrard Winstanley and Robert Coster inciting
people to start Digger colonies and to provide
money for the Surrey Diggers. According to
the newspaper A Perfect Diurnall the emissaries
had travelled a circuit through the counties
of Surrey, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire,
Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Huntingdonshire
and Northamptonshire before being apprehended.On
15 April 1650 the Council of State ordered
Mr Pentlow, a justice of the peace for Northamptonshire
to proceed against 'the Levellers in those
parts' and to have them tried at the next
Quarter Session. The Iver Diggers recorded
that nine of the Wellingborough Diggers were
arrested and imprisoned in Northampton jail
and although no charges could be proved against
them the justice refused to release them.
Captain William Thompson, the leader of the
failed "Banbury mutiny," was killed in a skirmish
close to the community by soldiers loyal to
Oliver Cromwell in May 1649.
=== Iver, Buckinghamshire ===
Another colony of Diggers connected to the
Surrey and Wellingborough colony was set up
in Iver, Buckinghamshire about 14 miles (23
km) from the Surrey Diggers colony at St George's
Hill (see Keith Thomas, 'Another Digger Broadside'
Past and Present No.42, (1969) pp. 57–68).
The Iver Diggers' "Declaration of the grounds
and Reasons, why we the poor Inhabitants of
the Parrish of Iver in Buckinghamshire ..." revealed
that there were further Digger colonies in
Barnet in Hertfordshire, Enfield in Middlesex,
Dunstable in Bedfordshire, Bosworth in Gloucestershire
and a further colony in Nottinghamshire. It
also revealed that after the failure of the
Surrey colony, the Diggers had left their
children to be cared for by parish funds.
== Influence ==
=== The San Francisco Diggers ===
During the middle and late 1960s, the San
Francisco Diggers (who took their name from
the original English Diggers) opened stores
which simply gave away their stock; provided
free food, medical care, transport and temporary
housing; they also organised free music concerts
and works of political art. Some of their
happenings included the Death of Money Parade,
Intersection Game, Invisible Circus, and Death
of Hippie/Birth of Free.
The Diggers were a radical community-action
group of community activists and Improv actors
operating from 1966 to 1968, based in the
Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood of San Francisco.
Their politics were such that they have sometimes
been categorised as "left-wing". More precisely,
they were "community anarchists" who blended
a desire for freedom with a consciousness
of the community in which they lived. They
were closely associated with and shared a
number of members with a guerrilla theatre
group named the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
Like the original English Diggers, they envisioned
a society free from private property, and
all forms of buying and selling. Actor Peter
Coyote was a founding member of the Diggers.
=== Other ===
The American Diggers were echoed in the 1960s
in the UK (see Alternative Society and Sid
Rawle). Since the revival of anarchism in
the British anti-roads movement, the Diggers
have been celebrated as precursors of land
squatting and communalism.
April 1, 1999, on the 350th anniversary of
Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers' occupation
of the English Civil War on the same hill,
The Land Is Ours organised a rally, then occupied
land at St. George's Hill near Weybridge,
Surrey.
In 2011, an annual festival began in Wigan
to celebrate the Diggers. In 2012, the second
annual festival proved a great success and
the sixth took place in 2016. In Wellingborough,
a festival has also been held annually since
2011. Bolton Diggers were established in 2013
and have promoted "the commons" as a foil
to privatisation. They have established community
food gardens, cooperatives and the Common
Wealth café, a pay-as-you-feel café using
surplus food from supermarkets.
== Writings ==
[1] Many archive resources are available at
the Diggers.org site about both the English
and San Francisco diggers.
=== 17th century ===
Truth Lifting up its Head above Scandals (1649,
Dedication dated 16 October 1648), Gerrard
Winstanley
The New Law of Righteousness (26 January 1649),
Gerrard Winstanley
The True Levellers Standard A D V A N C E
D: or, The State of Community opened, and
Presented to the Sons of Men William Everard,
John Palmer, John South, John Courton. William
Taylor, Christopher Clifford, John Barker.
Gerrard Winstanley, Richard Goodgroome, Thomas
Starre, William Hoggrill, Robert Sawyer, Thomas
Eder, Henry Bickerstaffe, John Taylor, &c.
(20 April 1649)
A DECLARATION FROM THE Poor oppressed People
OF ENGLAND, DIRECTED To all that call themselves,
or are called Lords of Manors, through this
NATION... Gerrard Winstanley, John Coulton,
John Palmer, Thomas Star ,Samuel Webb, John
Hayman, Thomas Edcer, William Hogrill, Daniel
Weeden, Richard Wheeler, Nathaniel Yates,
William Clifford, John Harrison, Thomas Hayden,
James Hall. James Manley, Thomas Barnard,
John South, Robert Sayer, Christopher Clifford,
John Beechee, William Coomes, Christopher
Boncher, Richard Taylor, Urian Worthington,
Nathaniel Holcombe, Giles Childe (senior),
John Webb, Thomas Yarwel, William Bonnington.
John Ash, Ralph Ayer, John Pra, John Wilkinson,
Anthony Spire, Thomas East, Allen Brown, Edward
Parret, Richard Gray, John Mordy, John Bachilor,
William Childe, William Hatham, Edward Wicher,
William Tench.(1 June 1649).
A LETTER TO The Lord Fairfax, AND His Councell
of War, WITH Divers Questions to the Lawyers,
and Ministers: Proving it an undeniable Equity,
That the common People ought to dig, plow,
plant and dwell upon the Commons, with-out
hiring them, or paying Rent to any. On the
behalf of those who have begun to dig upon
George-Hill in Surrey. Gerrard Winstanly (9
June 1649)
A Declaration of The bloudie and unchristian
acting of William Star and John Taylor of
Walton (22 June 1649), Gerrard Winstanley
An Appeal To the House of Commons; desiring
their answer: whether the common-people shall
have the quiet enjoyment of the commons and
waste land; ... (11 July 1649), Gerrard Winstanley,
John Barker, and Thomas Star
A Watch-Word to the City of London, and the
Armie (26 August 1649), Gerrard Winstanley
To His Excellency the Lord Fairfax and the
Counsell of Warre the Brotherly Request of
those that are called Diggers sheweth (December
1649), John Heyman, An. Wrenn, Hen. Barton,
Jon Coulton (in the behalf of others called
the Diggers), Robert Cosler, John Plamer,
Jacob Heard (in The Clarke Papers volume 2,
[1894])
To My Lord Generall and his Councell of Warr
(8 December 1649), Gerrard Winstanley (in
The Clarke Papers volume 2, [1894])
The Diggers Song (circa 1649,1650) (in The
Clarke Papers volume 2, [1894]), attributed
to Gerrard Winstanley by the historian C.
H. Firth, the editor of The Clarke Papers.
The Declaration and Standard of the Levellers
of England, delivered in a speech to His Excellency
the Lord Gen. Fairfax, on Friday last at White-Hall
..., William Everard
Several Pieces gathered into one volume (1650,
Preface dated 20 December 1649), A second
edition of five of Gerrard Winstanley's works
printed for Giles Calvert, the printer for
nearly all the Diggers writings.
A New-yeers Gift FOR THE PARLIAMENT AND ARMIE:
SHEWING, What the KINGLY Power is; And that
the CAUSE of those They call DIGGERS (1 January
1650), Gerrard Winstanley
Englands Spirit Unfoulded or an incouragement
to take the Engagement ... (Ca. February or
March 1650), Jerrard [sic] Winstanley.
A Vindication of Those Whose Endeavors is
Only to Make the Earth a Common Treasury,
Called Diggers (4 March 1650), Gerrard Winstanley
Fire in the Bush (19 March 1650), Gerrard
Winstanley
An appeale to all Englishmen, to judge between
bondage and freedome, sent from those that
began to digge upon George Hill in Surrey;
but now are carrying on, that publick work
upon the little heath in the parish of Cobham...,
(26 March 1650), Jerard [sic] Winstanley [and
24 others]
A Letter taken at Wellingborough (March 1650),
probably written by Gerrard Winstanley.
An Humble Request, to the Ministers of both
Universities, and to all Lawyers in every
Inns-a-court (9 April 1650), Gerrard Winstanley
Letter to Lady Eleanor Davies (4 December
1650), Gerrard Winstanley
The Law of Freedom in a Platform, or True
Magistracy Restored (1652), Gerrard Winstanley
=== 1960s–70s ===
Ringolevio Emmet Grogan
Broadgate Gnome (mag) 67–71
Truro Diggers (Cell magazine) 77–81
International Times
== Influence on literature and popular culture
==
In 1966 a faction of the San Francisco Mime
Troupe formed a Diggers group in the hippie
community in the Haight-Ashbury district of
San Francisco. A strongly anti-establishment
group, they handed out free food in Golden
Gate Park
"The World Turned Upside Down" by Leon Rosselson,
1975, a song about the Diggers and their activities
on St. George's Hill in 1649; this song was
performed by Dick Gaughan on his album Handful
of Earth, 1981; by the Barracudas on their
album Endeavour to Persevere, 1984; by Out
of the Rain on their album A Common Treasury,
1985; by Billy Bragg on his Between the Wars
EP, 1985; by Chumbawumba on the b-side of
their single Timebomb, 1993; by Four to the
Bar on Another Son in 1995; by Attila the
Stockbroker with Barnstormer on The Siege
of Shoreham, 1996; by Oysterband on their
albums Shouting End of life and Alive and
Shouting, 1995 and 1996; by Karan Casey (formerly
of the Irish band Solas), on her Songlines
album, 1997; by Clandestine, a Houston-based
Celtic group, on their To Anybody at All album,
1999; by the Fagans, an Australian folk group,
on their album, Turning Fine, 2002; and by
Seattle Celt-rock band Coventry on the album
Red Hair and Black Leather, 2005.
Winstanley, a fictionalised 1975 film portrait
of the Diggers, directed by Kevin Brownlow,
was based upon the novel Comrade Jacob by
David Caute.
As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann, Harcourt,
2001 (ISBN 0-15-601226-X) deals in part with
the founding and destruction of a fictional
Digger colony at Page Common near London.
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy
is strongly influenced by Winstanley's writings,
including the idea of the Republic of Heaven.
Caryl Churchill's 1976 play Light Shining
in Buckinghamshire, named after the Digger
pamphlet and set in the English Civil War,
charts the rise and fall of the Diggers and
other radical ideas from the 1640s.
Jonathon Kemp's 2010 play The Digger's Daughter
tells the tale of the Diggers and quotes much
of Winstanley's teaching directly.
== Footnotes ==
== References ==
Campbell, Heather M, ed. (2009). The Britannica
Guide to Political Science and Social Movements
That Changed the Modern World. The Rosen Publishing
Group. pp. 127&ndash, 129. ISBN 1-61530-062-7.
Laurence, Ann (February 1980). "Two Ranter
Poems". The Review of English Studies (New
Series ed.). 31 (121): 56–59 [57]. doi:10.1093/res/xxxi.121.56.
JSTOR 514052.
Vann, Richard T. (January–March 1965). "The
Later Life of Gerrard Winstanley". Journal
of the History of Ideas. 26 (1): 133–136.
doi:10.2307/2708404. JSTOR 2708404.
== Further reading ==
Books
Berens, Lewis Henry. The Digger Movement in
the Days of the Commonwealth at Project Gutenberg
Hill, Christopher (1972). "Levellers and True
Levellers". The World Turned Upside Down:
Radical Ideas During the English Revolution.
London: Temple Smith. ISBN 0-85117-025-0.
Petegorsky, David W. (1995) [1940]. Left-wing
Democracy in the English Civil War: Gerrard
Winstanley and the Digger Movement. Stroud:
Alan Sutton. ISBN 0-7509-1053-4.
Johannes Agnoli. Subversive Theorie (Subversive
Theory)
Kennedy, Geoff (2008). Diggers, Leveller and
Agrarian Capitalism : Radical Political Thought
in Seventeenth Century England. United States:
Lexington Books.ArticlesBernstein, Eduard.
Chapter IX: The "True" Levellers and Their
Practical Communism from Cromwell and Communism
Fox, Jim. 1642–52: Levellers and Diggers
in the English Revolution, website libcom.org,
from Revolutions Per Minute
Staff at Elmbridge Museum. Surrey Diggers
Trail, facsimile at The Diggers Heritage Project
Staff. The English Diggers (1649–50), Digger
Archives
Staff. English Dissenters: Diggers, ExLibris
Staff. An index page: Diggers, Ranters and
other radical Puritans at Street Corner Society
