Who were the Diggers, Levellers and Ranters? | English Civil War

In this video Professor Justin Champion introduces the diggers, levellers and ranters of the English Civil War.

[@TheJayman213]

You noble diggers all, stand up now.

[@wildandbarefoot]

See you at the Wigan Diggers Festival

[@ruth4376]

STAND UP NOW!! All you noble diggers, stand up now!

[@TheLoup359]

Thanks for this. Wish it was an hour long! I'd love to find out more about these groups.

[@rosserjake]

Rest in peace Justin Champion. Currently, I'm a trainee history teacher. Year 8 are currently doing this topic- though very surface level.

[@Riotdrone]

the diggers are so cool, they called themselves the 'true levellers' and can be considered the ancestors of modern anarchism

[@puremercury]

The Levellers were the true Levellers, and they were cooler.

[@dimitrisblane6368]

Reading about it's almost certain they didn't call themselves the 'true levellers' and they were trying to distance themselves from the Levellers. For Winstanley the 'true leveller' was christ. There was confusion, at the time, over the Diggers' name. Even the title of the first Digger manifesto called 'True Levellers Standard' was dropped and was replaced with a different one. I recommend 'The Digger's Life and Legacy' by John Gurney. It's a very informative book and not that big.

[@ishineandburn]

Ancestors of communists

[@oakashthorn5714]

‘Modern anarchism’ you mean the blue haired mask wearing neo liberals who are pushing a globalist agenda pretending to be pushing back at the system ‘They are the system’…

[@Riotdrone]

@@oakashthorn5714 lol anarchists are at the forefront of opposing neoliberalism and global capital. of course you're whining about 'blue hair' and 'globalists' so you might as well be from mars as far as your understanding of labor/radical movements goes

[@transvestosaurus878]

Sounds like they had some pretty good ideas

[@ericb.4313]

Ain't no party like a ranter party 'cause a ranter party don't stop.

[@veggie42]

Like the Labour Party Digger Lisa N from Wigan and Surrey Heath levellers of Gove

[@kickedinthecalfbyacow7549]

Ranters were too busy having a good time to produce pamphlets

[@mazzledazzle3946]

super helpful, thanks very very much

[@juvidotti7144]

Fico feliz que teve a legenda em português, me ajudou muito na aula de História!

[@End-Result]

Why don’t you upload the entire segment by the late Dr Champion? I could listen to him talk all day every day.

[@charlesbourgoigne2130]

I would also defend my cow in court.

[@northeastwisconsinsocialis2466]

thanks for this, it's helped for explaining a lot of the foundation of modern egalitarian ideology.

[@roostercogburn7243]

Open that hand.

[@Spiderhead1000]

Excellent.

[@Jodonho]

The Ranters are my favorite religious group.

[@Based_Stuhlinger]

Yes, I already knew the levelers and diggers but the ranters are pretty interesting.

[@FreedomIsEssential]

Same here, the Diggers are a close second for me

[@OMGwtfSTFUbrb]

you should look up adamites

[@Jack-re4tv]

You are a ranger mate

[@giovannimannelli2158]

Very very interesting, from Italy.

[@sarahfarias6266]

Thank you very much!

[@Taffy064]

2:28 Yeah, yeah, all very interesting, but what was the outcome of the trial! (seriously though, thank you for this upload, it's a subject that interests me intensely)

[@kentishkid555]

Iv just found out I'm a leveller thank you

[@hawthornetree646]

There was hierarchy and priests in the early church, there was a church. See Acts of the Apostles.

[@veggie42]

basically Johnson's levellers in Surrey Heath of Gove and diggers of Nandy's Wigan!

[@luizguilhermemoreirasales1548]

Hello i am Brasil thank you Citizens N_N

[@hannahprew8799]

Please do a video on the Cuban missile crisis and the rise of fascism ! :)

[@Colincardsfan]

This is fascinating. Does anyone have any recommendations for similar groups I could research from earlier periods, specifically the 12-14th centuries? I'm more interested in the egalitarian ideas than the religious ones, but anything similar is fine. Thanks!

[@Oprey22]

Look up the Lollards and the hedge priests, Wycliffe, the peasants revolt.

[@Colincardsfan]

@@Oprey22 Awesome, I'll do that, thanks.

[@clawsoon]

You might be interested in the classic book "The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages".

[@Colincardsfan]

@@clawsoon Woah! I totally think I would be. You rock!

[@papajack222]

@@Colincardsfan The Hussite mouvement in Bohemia (the czech republic) Will be interesting to you also.

[@davidantonsavage6207]

There's a music group called The Levellers.

[@veggie42]

and Boris Johnson's Levelling Up

[@Alphonium]

The Levellers were the forerunners of the Whig party and later Liberal party. Truly the Libertarian founders of Republican Liberty!

[@veggie42]

Surrey heath and wigan

[@ruth4376]

And he mentions the world turned upside down

[@connieharrison1241]

this was in my schools google doc :( the questions dont even go with the video :/ im so confused]

[@simranp736]

same ffs

[@Anti-CornLawLeague]

The original Land Value Tax advocates.

[@veggie42]

Good old George

[@o80y1]

Based

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

video keeps stalling. must be good then. lol. of course it is.

[@raggedyshoes9703]

i call cap no way his name is 'Champion'

[@KevTheImpaler]

I read about the Ranters before, pretty horrible lot imo. iirc they believed it was fine to exploit other people because they were divine.

[@tigerstyle4505]

Turns out my overly religious forbearers of thought where absolutely right lol

[@hawthornetree646]

Tiger Style: Absolutely? Sounds like with these groups you just kind of do your own thing, nothing objectively true.

[@tomg6589]

Disgracefully poor representation of diggers. However am not surprised considering that of course the middle/upper class are always going to put down those who challenged the establishment.

[@lilliedoubleyou3865]

Not surprising that out of the 3 groups in this short video the Levellers (proto-libertarians that they are) get the least amount of attention. Of course the group that doesn't respect private property and the group that wants to disrupt civil society are more popular than the Levellers.

[@tomasroma2333]

The Diggers were in no way Libertarian unless you mean Libertarian Socialist. They were closer to Anarchism (the left wing kind).

[@puremercury]

@@tomasroma2333 Did you not read that Amelia was writing about the Levellers, not the Diggers?

[@puremercury]

The Levellers probably would be closest to the geolibertarians and Georgists of today.

[@dubfox1691]

Anarchists care about your liberty as much as their own, Libertarians just want to be left alone to fuck their children, and they like to think they'll shoot anyone who tries to stop them. The Diggers and the The Levellers were proto-Anarchists, albeit religiously motivated.

[@flippydaflip5310]

The Levellers sound based - I don't have much patience for pacifists.