P-Pix

[Dave Monroe]

When I think "Diggers," I think ...

"The World Turned Upside Down"
(c) 1981 by Leon Rosselson

In 1649, to St. George's Hill 
A ragged band they called the Diggers came
   to show the people's will 
They defied the landlords, they defined the laws
They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs 

We come in peace, they said, to dig and sow
We come to work the lands in common and to
   make the waste ground grow 
This earth divided we will make whole 
So it will be a common treasury for all 

The sin of property we do disdain
No man has any right to buy and sell the
   earth for private gain 
By theft and murder they took the land 
Now everywhere the walls spring up at their command 

They make the laws to chain us well 
The clergy dazzle us with heaven or they damn us
   into hell
We will not worship the God they serve 
The God of greed who feeds the rich while
   poor folks starve 

We work we eat together, we need no swords
We will not bow to the masters or pay rent
   to the lords
Still we are free though we are poor 
You Diggers all stand up for glory, stand up now 

>From the men of property the orders came 
They sent the hired men and troopers to wipe out
   the Digger's claim
Tear down their cottages, destroy their corn
They were dispersed but still the vision lingers on 

You poor take courage, you rich take care
This earth was made a common treasury for
   everyone to share
All things in common, all people one
We come in peace, the orders came to cut them down

http://www.web.net/~smorton/Billy_Bragg/The_World_Turned_Upside_Down.html

And check out the links there, e.g. ...

http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www?specfile=/web/data/journals/EH/www/eh.o2w&act=text&offset=57185&textreg=1

Not to mention ...

http://www.diggers.org/english_diggers.htm


http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~royhan/film/index2.html

And see ...

Hill, Christopher.  The World Turned Upisde Down:
   Radical Ideas in the English Revolution.
   New York: Penguin, 1972.

Which I've tended to carry with me to those Billy
Bragg shows ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> I wonder if that mention of a "diggers ass" in the
> last line of what is
> apparently one of the letters (right at the bottom
> of the page) is a
> reference to the derogatory label which the American
> settlers gave to their
> West Coast Indian slaves in the 1870s and 1880s

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