I am interested in the way folk songs, and folk music, often deal with dark subjects in humorous ways, and the invention of the folk hero Ludd by the protesting Weavers of the early 1800s seems to me a variety of this. Deprived of the means to make a living, and of any means to legally protest their cause, they took to breaking the machinery that was making them redundant. Mill owners received a letter from General Ludd and his men explaining that the offending machinery should be decommissioned or else they would call in and do the job themselves. The hammers they used to make their point were manufactured by a company called 'Enoch', and may be heard in the second section of the jig.
The Notes.
Performance by Lucy Alessio.
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