Six agricultural laborers from the Dorset village of Tolpuddle, having formed a friendly society to resist further wage cuts, were sentenced under an obscure law against secret oaths and transported to penal colonies in Australia. Public outrage at the harshness of the sentence sparked one of Britain's first large-scale labor protests, with tens of thousands marching in London, and the men were eventually pardoned and returned home, becoming enduring icons of the British trade union movement.
Six agricultural laborers from the Dorset village of Tolpuddle, having formed a friendly society to resist further wage cuts, were sentenced under an obscure law against secret oaths and transported to penal colonies in Australia. Public outrage at the harshness of the sentence sparked one of Britain's first large-scale labor protests, with tens of thousands marching in London, and the men were eventually pardoned and returned home, becoming enduring icons of the British trade union movement.
Key people: George Loveless