“We Poor Labouring Men”
Description
"O, some do say the farmer's best, but I do need say no, If it weren't for we poor labouring men what would the farmers do?...There's never a trade in old England like we poor labouring men." The singer toasts laborers; good times will come again
Long description
"O, some do say the farmer(baker, butcher)'s best, but I do need say no, If it weren't for we poor labouring men what would the farmers do? They would beat up all their old odd stuff until some new come in. There's never a trade in old England like we poor labouring men." After several of these verses, the singer offers a toast to labourers, saying that when the hard times pass, good times will come again
Notes
MacColl/Seeger [write,] "During the years between 1790 and 1816, the English peasant was turned into a wage-labourer. The transformation was not a peaceful one; the intensification of the enclosure system, repressive poor-law legislation, extension of more rigorous application of the game-laws coupled with an unprecendented rise in the cost of living, all combined to produce a new and intense class-consciousness among the labouring poor." - PJS
In fact the process took a good deal longer than this, and it was the pressure of unemployed workers which forced the British government to open the vent by sending convicts to Australia. The Industrial Revolution began to produce unemployment in the early eighteenth century, and the unrest was not entirely eased until the dawn of the twentieth. - RBW
Recordings
- Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "We Poor Labouring Men" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
References
- MacSeegTrav 103, "We Dear Labouring Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
- DT, WELABOUR
- Roud #1394
- BI, McCST103