Lewis Henry Berens

The Digger Movement: Radical Communalism in the English Civil War Lewis Henry Berens

In 1649, during the English Civil Wars, a radical peasant movement appeared under the leadership of Gerrard Winstanley, a Protestant religious reformer. Inspired by Biblical sources, Winstanley argued in favor of a radical egalitarian society in which all men would live freely in communal villages, where property ownership, rent and wages were all abolished. His followers were originally called the True Levellers, but quickly became known as The Diggers.