Rebecca Riots

Punch cartoon of 1846 drawing a parallel between the ‘Rebecca Riots’ which had recently afflicted southwest Wales and the decision of prime minister Robert Peel to abolish the Corn Laws.

Disturbances in southwest Wales 1842-44. They were primarily a protest against toll charges on public roads, but were also a symptom of general unrest following the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which made obtaining poor relief much harder. The rioters, many disguised as women, destroyed the tollhouses and gates. Each leader was known as ‘Rebecca’ and followers were ‘her daughters’. They took their name from the biblical prophecy that the seed of Rebekah would ‘possess the gate of those which hate them’ (Genesis 24,60).