Religious Freedom | A Moment in Time

Blacks in the Gordon Riots – II

Lead: The wave of anti-Catholic riots that ripped apart the City of London in 1780, also gave a unique snapshot of life for blacks in the eighteenth century England.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: The passage of the Catholic Relief Bill in 1778 aroused in many parts of English society lingering and ugly vestiges of religious bigotry. Lord George Gordon, an eccentric anti-papist, established the Protestant Association, organized street demonstrations and passed petitions urging Parliament to repeal the Relief Bill. Apparently, he did realize the monster he had unleashed. On July 2, 1780 Gordon led a crowd of nearly 50,000 people to the House of Commons to demand repeal. The demonstration morphed into a riot that lasted five days. Buildings including the Bank of England and many jails were damaged, known Catholic businesses were destroyed and life in the vibrant metropolis ground to a halt. Only after King George III ordered troops out and 285 rioters were killed did the disturbances fade and die out.

Blacks in the Gordon Riots – I

November 20, 1999PermalinkGabe OffenbackToday's AMITEnglish History, Religious Freedom

Lead: During the American Revolution, an attempt to increase the civil liberties of English Roman Catholics provoked a storm of protest. For five days in summer of 1780 the City of London was convulsed by the Gordon Riots.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Roman Catholics in post-Reformation England suffered near intolerable discrimination. Associated in the English mind with the hostile foreign policy of Catholic Spain and France, Roman Catholics were thought to constitute a fifth column of traitors. The Black Legend asserted that Catholic spies and Catholic subversives were lurking behind every tree. The truth of the matter was that by 1580 under the deft manipulation of Queen Elizabeth I, the tiny minority of Catholics remaining in England were largely domesticated. They were mostly content to worship in private and endured in relative silence the periodic bursts of anti-catholic sentiment and only occasional enforcement of recusancy laws under which those who refused to attend Church of England services had to pay a fine.