Gerrard Winstanley Quotes
Work together, Eate Bread together, Declare this all abroad.
The Diggers were a religious-economic movement that even today would be considered very radical. They advocated the right of the poor to go onto public lands and farm them—thus the name “Diggers.” Beyond their opposition to the private ownership of land to the exclusion of the poor, Winstanley and the Diggers promulgated another very modern doctrine: That the poor should take the responsibility and have the right to determinine how the society should provide for the poor. A version of this became one of the Mottos of the Poverty Program of 1964. See {616966}.
Gerrard Winstanley, Mid 17th Century, English Quaker and Leader of The Diggers, The True Levellers Standard Advanced: Or, The State of Community Opened, and Presented to the Sons of Men, 1649
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
There are those who claim that the principle was created by other staff of Shriver’s Office of Economic Opportunity. However, there is little consensus about this. There is no doubt that Shriver, as the Director of the Program, signed the papers and made the speeches implementing it. Ironically, this was the most unpopular aspect of the Poverty Program with all other elements of society. The principle of this motto was first espoused in the middle of the 17th century by Gerrard Winstanley, the leader of the English Digger Movement. See for example {616965}.
The Diggers were a religious-economic movement that even today would be considered very radical. They advocated the right of the poor to go onto public lands and farm them—thus the name “Diggers.” Beyond their opposition to the private ownership of land to the exclusion of the poor, Winstanley and the Diggers promulgated another very modern doctrine: That the poor should take the responsibility and have the right to determinine how the society should provide for the poor. A version of this became one of the Mottos of the Poverty Program of 1964. See {616966}.
- Born: October 19, 1609
- Died: September 10, 1676
- Nationality:
- Profession:
Gerrard Winstanley was an English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, and activist during the period of the Commonwealth of England. Winstanley was the leader and one of the founders of the English group known as the True Levellers or Diggers. The group occupied formerly common land that had been privatised by enclosures and dug them over, pulling down hedges and filling in ditches, to plant crops. True Levellers was the name they used to describe themselves, whereas the term Diggers was coined by contemporaries.
