Ned Ludd

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The Leader of the luddites, engraving of 1812

Ned Ludd or Ned Lud (possibly born Ned Ludlam^[1]) is the person from whom the Luddites took their name. His actions were the inspiration for the folkloric character of "Captain Ludd" (also known as King or General) who became the Luddites' imagined leader and founder.

Although no actual proof of his existence has been found, it is believed that he came from the village of Anstey, just outside Leicester.

The incident that inspired his transformation from 1700s common man to 1800s hero to the proletariat, was when he broke two stocking frames in a fit of rage. This incident is identified as being in 1779, rather than at the time of the Luddites in the 1810s.

1 Popular culture
2 References
3 Further reading
4 See also

[edit] Popular culture

The character of Ned Ludd has been commemorated in the folk ballad General Ludd's Triumph.

Later Chumbawamba recorded a version of this song on their 1985 release, English Rebel Songs 1381-1984.

In the same year Robert Calvert wrote and recorded another song Ned Ludd, appearing on his 1985 album Freq; which includes lyrics such as:

“

They said Ned Ludd was an idiot boy

That all he could do was wreck and destroy, and
He turned to his workmates and said: Death to Machines
They tread on our future and they stamp on our dreams.

”

The album Bloody Men (2006) by the folk-rock band Steeleye Span has a 5-part section on the subject of Ned Ludd.

The Heaven Shall Burn song The Final March has a direct reference to Captain Ludd.

Edmund Cooper's alternative-history story The Cloud Walker is set in a world where the Luddite ethos has given rise to a religious hierarchy who dominate English society and set carefully prescribed limits on technology. A hammer (the tool supposedly used by Ned Ludd) is used as a religious symbol, and Ned Ludd himself is used as a divine, Jesus-like figure.