MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History July 14, 1791: Birmingham Riots against religious dissenters, the chemist and liberal political theorist Joseph Priestley, and supporters of the French Revolution. Priestly discovered oxygen and invented carbonated water. Just prior to the riots, he tried to form a society in support of universal suffrage. However, he had also published a pamphlet describing how to extract the most work out of the poor for the smallest investment. He also held religious ideas that conflicted with the orthodoxy of the Anglican Church. Throughout the 18th century, Birmingham was notorious for Church-and-King riots, stoked by the ruling elite. In 1751 and 1759, mobs attacked Quakers and Methodists. In 1780, there were the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots. One contemporary described the Birmingham rabble as the "bunting, beggarly, brass-making, brazen-faced, brazen-hearted, blackguard, bustling, booby Birmingham mob."</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/birmingham" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>birmingham</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/england" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>england</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/uk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>uk</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/riot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>riot</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/exploitation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>exploitation</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/church" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>church</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/france" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>france</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/revolution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>revolution</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/chemistry" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>chemistry</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/science" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>science</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/votingrights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>votingrights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/classwar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>classwar</span></a></p>