Idea of Progress 6

Fighting the Luddites
Today we tried to finish what we started last time. We studied two documents that explained how the Luddites worked : they would form a band of about 30 people, go to the house of a machine owner (Propriétaire) by night, and break the machines, sometimes hitting the owner.

Initial reactions were to try and calm the rioters (émeutiers), by appealing (en faisant appel) to their patriotism and threatening them (en les menaçant), mentioning their families and (underpaid) jobs. Authorities also blamed the Napoleonic Wars for the troubles.

Eventually, laws were voted to make machine-breaking punishable by death, and the army was sent against them.

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