Crime, Riot and Morality in Wales 1750-1850

Wedi cwblhau'r modiwl dylai'r myfyrwyr fedru:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the secondary source material and the ongoing debates in the study of crime and riot in Wales in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
2. Critically analyze primary sources from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including newspaper reports and crime records.
3. Evaluate the historical evidence relating to crime and riot in a balanced manner in order to produce coherent written arguments.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the historiographical developments relating to ‘history from below’ and the influence of the Marxist historians who developed this approach.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of contemporary attitudes towards issues of morality and the use of community justice.

This module concentrates on the period between the Methodist Revival and the Treachery of the Blue Books, two significant developments in the history of Wales and the formation of modern Welsh identity. It has been suggested that part of the response to the Blue Books was the creation of an image of Wales as ‘the land of white gloves’ untainted by lawlessness and immorality. Yet historians have also identified riotous and violent elements which co-existed side by side with the moralizing influence of the Revival and the growth of Nonconformity. The aim of this module is to investigate these conflicting sides of Welsh society and to explore the attitudes of the population in general to crime and immorality, along with some of the causes of riot and unrest in the period. Students will be introduced to some of the ongoing historical debates relating to these themes, such as the discussion of whether or not eighteenth-century society was inherently violent and the extent to which protests such as food riots arose out of notions of social justice and the moral economy of the crowd.

This module gives students the opportunity to explore the themes of crime, riot and unrest in Wales in this period within the context of the rich secondary literature available in this field. It introduces students to some of the debates, issues and problems which arise for historians researching in these areas. This will broaden the range of choice available to English-medium students of Welsh history and to those studying on the medieval and early modern degree scheme, as well as history students more broadly.

Lectures:
1. Introduction
2. The secular authorities and the ‘bloody code’
3. Maintaining order: courts and policing
4. The religious authorities and moral standards
5. Murder and Malice
6 Punishment: to fit the crime?
7. Punishment: developing alternatives
8. ‘Social’ crime: crime as protest?
9. A violent society?: life, death and recreation
10. ‘Rough justice’?: community justice and morality
11. Riot and protest in the eighteenth century
12. The 1790s: a revolutionary decade?
13. Rural unrest in the early nineteenth century
14. Industrial unrest in the early nineteenth century
15. The 1830s and the Merthyr Rising
16. Chartism and the Newport Rising of 1839
17. ‘And they blessed Rebecca’?
18. Conclusion

Seminars:
1. The gentry, paternalism and the ‘bloody code’
2. Crime, punishment and society: capital offences
3. Crime, punishment and society: public execution
4. The tradition of riot in the eighteenth century
5. The early nineteenth century: industrial unrest
6. The early nineteenth century: rural unrest and Rebecca

Mae'r modiwl hwn yn cydymffurfio a FfCChC Lefel 6