Whigs and hunters : the origin of the Black act

Type

Book

Authors

Thompson, E. P.

ISBN 10

0394400119

ISBN 13

9780394400112

LCCN

KF 9219 .T46

DDC

345

Tags

The Black Act, Great Britain, laws, Statutes, 1723, Famous Trials, United Kingdom Famous Trials, United Kingdom Crime and Punishment, Crime and punishment, Forestry law and legislation, 1700-1799, Louis A. Knafla

Abstract

With Whigs and Hunters, the author of The Making of the English Working Class, E. P. Thompson plunged into the murky waters of the early eighteenth century to chart the violently conflicting currents that boiled beneath the apparent calm of the time. The subject is the Black Act, a law of unprecedented savagery passed by Parliament in 1723 to deal with 'wicked and evil-disposed men going armed in disguise'. These men were pillaging the royal forest of deer, conducting a running battle against the forest officers with blackmail, threats and violence. These 'Blacks', however, were men of some substance; their protest (for such it was) took issue with the equally wholsesale plunder of the forest by Whig nominees to the forest offices. And Robert Walpole, still consolidating his power, took an active part in the prosecution of the 'Blacks'. The episode is laden with political and social implications, affording us glimpses of considerable popular discontent, political chicanery, judicial inequity, corrupt ambition and crime.

Description

Contents:
Part I, Windsor -- Windsor Forest -- The Windsor Blacks -- Offenders and Antagonists -- Part 2, Hampshire -- The Hampshire Forests -- King John -- Awful Examples -- The Hunters -- Part 3, Whigs -- Enfield and Richmond -- The Politics of the Black Act -- Consequences and Conclusions -- People -- Forests -- The Exercise of the Law -- The Rule of Law.

Biblio Notes

Includes biographical references (p.270-301) and index.
Appendices: page 270-294.
Item has been generously donated by Louis A. Knafla.

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