1811: Textile Industry
In the early 1800s, Luddite became a blanket term for people who opposed technology, as weavers and textile workers stood up in protest of machines taking over their factory jobs. Many of the textile workers had spent years, possibly decades honing and perfecting their craft when cost-saving machinery started to take over.
Gig mills, a wool shearing machine, produced wool at a faster rate using only one person instead of several, and the stocking frame machine sped up the process of producing stockings to six times the rate as before.
Some weavers protested by smashing the textile machines while others burned factories or exchanged gunfire with guards and soldiers.
The military eventually quashed the rebellion by 1813 and instated a new law that the act of damaging machine equipment was punishable by death.
