Restoring the Garden of Eden in England’s Green and Pleasant Land: The Diggers and the Fruits of the Earth

Abstract

But now the "time of deliverance was at hand, and God would bring his people" (cf. Obadiah 1:17, Psalm 53:6) out of their Egyptian "slavery" (Exodus 6:5-6) and "restore them their freedoms, " thereby enabling them to enjoy "the fruits and benefits of the Earth" (James 5:7). Intending to "restore the Creation to its former Condition" (cf. Genesis 3:17, Romans 8:22), the Diggers justified their actions as a fulfilment of the prophecy "Th is Land which was barren and wast is now become fruitfull and pleasant like the Garden of Eden" (Ezekiel 36:35). In addition, by renewing "the ancient Community" and distributing the earth's produce to the poor and needy, they performed gospel injunctions to feed the hungry and clothe the naked (Matthew 25:36). Th e Diggers thus welcomed those that would willingly submit to their communal precepts-especially the Golden rule "to do to others as we would be done unto" (Matthew 7:12), promising to provide newcomers with food, drink, clothing, and other necessities. Th ey were also opposed to using weapons in self-defense, and when one was struck, he turned the other cheek. 10 Nonetheless, Walton's inhabitants were predominantly hostile to the "new Plantation" on St. George's Hill. Winstanley claimed that several Diggers were imprisoned in Walton church and beaten by the "rude multitude, " while the acre of ground they had worked was "trampled down" and "re-levelled, " their "new Creation utterly destroyed" by the "Country people" thereabouts. 11 Undeterred, a "considerable party" of Diggers returned intending to sow hempseed. Within days they had issued their first manifesto, Th e True Levellers Standard Advanced, the London bookseller George Th omason dating his copy 26 April 1649. Everard and Winstanley headed the list of 15 named subscribers, contending that so long as a system of landlords and their rent-paying tenants persisted, the "Great Creator Reason" remained "mightily dishonoured. " Buying, selling, and enclosing land, which had been gotten through oppression, murder, or theft , kept it "in the hands of a few, " placing the "Creation under bondage. " Nor would the English be a "Free People" until the landless poor were permitted "to dig and labour the Commons" and "Waste land, " averting starvation through their "righteous Labours. " 12 About a month later, while fetching wood to build a house, the Diggers were ambushed, their cart sabotaged, and a draft horse maimed. 13 At the end of May when Fairfax visited St. George's Hill with his entourage, he found nine "sober honest" men and three women "hard at work" among some sprouting barley. 14 On 1 June, Th omason acquired the Diggers' second manifesto, A Declaration from the Poor oppressed People of England, signed by 45 men. Renouncing their subordinate position-"Slaves, Servants, and Beggers" subject to the "Lords of the Land"-these poor, hungry signatories condemned hoarding the

Democracy, Markets and the Commons

“…Historically, this process of reclaiming the commons is a phenomenon that has, most likely, existed since time immemorial in struggles waged by people ('commoners') against the expropriation of their basic resources by elites. One wellknown example of reclaiming the commons are the activities and demands of the Diggers -and, to a certain extent, also the Levellers -during the enclosures of common lands during the English Civil War (1642-1651) (Hessayon 2008;Macpherson 2011: 107-159). A less well-known but possibly more significant historical example is the re-establishment of subsistence rights to enter and use forests for commoners in the Charter of the Forest of 1217, which was a central yet forgotten sub-article of the Magna Carta (Linebaugh 2008;Babie 2016).…”

Early Modern Communism: The Diggers and Community of Goods

“…Certainly Winstanley envisaged the Diggers as both a spiritual and a temporal community serving the Lord of Hosts in "community of spirit" and in "community of the earthly treasure. " 119 Living in community with one another under the righteous "Law of love, " these sons and daughters, who had lain buried under their "imaginary earth, " were being united and knitted together with Christ through the power of anointing, baptized into one mystical body (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). 120 Moreover, these believers were living in the last days before the destruction of Babylon and coming of the Lord, the King of Righteousness.…”

Las relaciones entre revolución, estado de excepción y soberanía popular en la temprana Modernidad. Un replanteo a partir de la literatura política de levellers y diggers

“…Si bien el tema es discutido (Gurney 2013, 59-60), una posible interpretación de esto radicaría en que los diggers vendrían a llevar a cabo el verdadero trabajo de igualación de los seres humanos que los levellers no llegaron a plantear completamente. Para las conexiones entre ambos grupos véase Hill (1991, 118), Gurney (2007, 136), Hessayon (2009, 4 y 17) y McLynn (2013.…”