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 defied 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 land in common
And to make the waste land grow
This earth divided
We will make whole
So it can be
A common treasury for all.
The sin of property
We do disdain
No one has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Rise 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 men starve
We work, we eat
together
We need no swords
We will not bow to masters
Or pay rent to the lords
We are free men
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 Diggers' claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed -
Only the vision lingers on
You poor take
courage
You rich take care
The earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace
The order came to cut them down.
DIGGERS [definition from the Encyclopedia Brittanica]
A group of agrarian
communists who flourished in England in 1649-50 and were led by Gerrard
Winstanley and William Everard. In April 1649 about 20 poor men assembled at
St. George's Hill, Surrey, and began to cultivate the common land. These
Diggers held that the English Civil Wars had been fought against the king and
the great landowners; now that Charles I had been executed, land should be made
available for the very poor to cultivate. (Food prices had reached record
heights in the late 1640s.) The numbers of the Diggers more than doubled during
1649. Their activities alarmed the Commonwealth government and roused the
hostility of local landowners, who were rival claimants to the common lands.
The Diggers were harassed by legal actions and mob violence, and by the end of
March 1650 their colony was dispersed. The Diggers themselves abjured the use
of force. The Diggers also called themselves True Levelers, but their communism
was denounced by the leaders of the Levelers.