Perhaps the best way to come to grips with these developments would be to recite just one story from among many that could be offered to illustrate what transpired.

Shortly after the beginning of the nineteenth century, while the Industrial Revolution was climbing steadily in intensity, a man appeared on the British scene with the somewhat unimposing name of Samuel Ludd (Note - many accounts of the story refer alternately to "Ned Ludd", or a perhaps fictional "King Ludd").

By accounts, Samuel Ludd was a commoner, uneducated but devoutly religious.   Ludd had apparently taught himself to read, and with that skill he devoured the Bible.  There is no evidence that he ever read anything else.

Ludd became a crusading minister, a crusading zealot in providing his own particular interpretation to economic events.

So ardent was his passion that he began to feel that the Lord was in direct communication with him (not unlike a certain frustrated son of a merchant from Medina, several centuries before).

According to Ludd, the Lord confided in him that the creation of all the new mills and factories was the work of Satan, who was engaged in a monstrous conspiracy to enslave the human race to industry.

Ludd preached on this theme to whoever would listen, and soon accumulated a sizeable and growing following.

Among those who joined with him were the very young, the very old, the dis-employed craftsmen unwilling to switch to factory employment, and a great many religious fanatics and others who were impressed with Ludd's claim to direct revelation.

Apparently as the story goes, on a given day the Lord gave Ludd the go-ahead, and Ludd and his followers moved against a mill, drove off the workers, and stormed the place.

Taking great care not to injure any person, they smashed the machinery, damaged the fabrics and yarns, and left the place in shambles.

Exhilarated by this apparent success and general lack of resistance, Ludd and his followers felt confirmed in their beliefs that they were indeed serving the Lord and conducting a holy crusade with the support of God.

The Luddites (as they came to be known) went into a kind of bivouac (a temporary encampment) in a neighboring valley where Ludd continued to preach the abolition of factory machinery.

Word of Ludd's preaching and successful raid spread and soon the inhabitants of a nearby town - women, old men, and babes in arms - flocked in to hear the great man decry the evils of machines which were claimed to be the tools of the devil.

As this ad hoc tent revival meeting was in progress, rumors spread that the purpose of the conclave was to plan an assault against the next factory down the line.

The owner of that factor was of course understandably alarmed by the rumor, especially in light of the trashing of the first factory.

We have no way of knowing for sure if this is what was being planned by Ludd and his followers, as no records were made or kept by the Luddites, but it was certainly not an unreasonable assumption.

The factory owner called upon the local sheriff, who invoked the powers of the government, and dispatched troops to protect the mills and factories.

The soldiers surrounded the valley where Sam Ludd was preaching, and when all was in readiness they opened fire upon the assemblage, resulting in the killing of many (11 by some accounts) and the wounding of perhaps 400 more of those in attendance.

The event came to be known as the "Luddite massacre".  Considering the educational and intellectual level of the times, it is understandable that the conclusion drawn by many thousands of persons then and since, is that the government had "teamed up" with the industrialists to hold working men in bondage, and not simply to protect the property of the factory owners and jobs of their employees.

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