Rebecca Rioters

“Rebecca had won a substantial victory! I t had succeeded in removing most of the under lying grievances.” How valid is this assessment of the Rebecca movement in west Wales?
The assessment above, written by historian David Williams, is fair and somewhat accurate in my opinion. The Rebecca rioters, in West Wales between the years 1839-1843, did manage to resolve the main issue of tax for use of the toll roads. The rioters also proved to be somewhat more than a disorganised rabble due to publicity from International and national newspapers at the time. This could have been a key issue in why the government decided to reform the toll gate tax. However other historians, such as Graham Longster, do not agree with the above statement. Although
The first point I would like to make is that the letter was actually written at all, during this time the vast majority of the population were very poorly educated most had no education at all, due to this not many people could read let along write, this tells me that the letter must have been written by a educated man, probably from a wealthy background as they were the only people who could afford an educated. It is not very likely in my opinion that a normal welsh farmer could have written this letter without help as the majority of them did not have the skills to do this. The letters content is mainly words of intimidation towards as the letter states “to those sworn in as constables in order to catch Becca and her children”. Also included in the letter is a reference to Hengist who was a Saxon king who in this context is used to describe the English. The name is used to tell of the welsh displeasure of a foreign power in this case England ruling over them. “It is a shameful thing for us Welshmen to have the sons of Hengist rule over us” This is an excellent quote from the letter as it describes the hatred of the English rule over the welsh, the men writing this letter do not class the landowners as native to the land and class them more as invaders who should have no control over the people. The source is obviously biased
The cartoon was first published in 1843 by the popular magazine punch. This immediately gives me the impression that the Rebecca movement was now rising from a disorganised rabble that had little effect, to an organised group who were being more noticed and talked about. This single cartoon is evidence that the Rebecca movement was becoming national news and this would only have happened if the riots were causing considerable disruption to the toll gate companies. As a result the Rebecca movement were growing in strength of numbers and popularity among the welsh people. The cartoon features many underling issues such as tax’s and laws, but the picture also displays the prominent feature of the cause of the riots, this being the toll gates, the impression I get from deciphering this picture is that the people have been growing angry due to increasing laws and tax’s pilling up and the increase in tax on the toll gates was the last straw. As depicted on the cartoon the people are expressing their anger for all the issues that have built up over the years and are hoping to use the riots to abolish them. The creator of the cartoon has been very clever in adding details that are not very obvious, one of these being the faces one the gate supports. The faces are representing the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the home secretary. The message that the cartoonist is trying to