The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic
Peter Linebaugh , Marcus Rediker, Beacon Press, 2000,2013
“ The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from the common
But lets the greater villain loose Who steals the common from the goose”
This classic book is a fascinating, riveting account of the role of the developing Atlantic proletariat in the rise of capitalism and resistance to it. It discusses the various ideological strands of opposition to exploitation, oppression and slavery as well as the physical struggles. Resistance was multi-racial and international. The book focuses on Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas, especially North America.
The Destruction of the Commons
One of the key themes is the destruction of the commons, the land that peasants used collectively for subsistence. This occurred in different ways in Europe, America and Africa. The result was similar, the conversion of communally used land into private property. Privatization destroyed subsistence rights in communal land and drove the original inhabitants off the land. This creation of a “ free” labor force and seizure of land was the main element of the “so-called primitive accumulation of capital” (Marx). This is the process that allowed capitalism to take off.
In Europe, the dispossessed peasants became the basis of the growing wage labor class first in the putting out system and in hand production and then machine production. In Africa, Black people were stolen and turned into slaves in the Americas. Slavery as Marx said was the pedestal of modern industry. (“Without slavery, no cotton. Without cotton, no modern industry.”)
In the Americas, native people were enslaved when it was possible. However, the main effect was genocide and destruction of native societies.
Dispossession in Europe laid the basis for colonialism in the Americas. Rising capitalist industry was not able to absorb all the people kicked off the land. The ruling class forced and encouraged emigration to reduce the “surplus population” in Europe. Often the ruling class gave vagrants with no legal means of subsistence a choice of severe punishment at home or emigration to the colonies. (Pg.20) (Pg.124) These dispossessed peasants became the agents of dispossession in the New World. The victims of privatization in Europe became the enforcers of privatization in the Americas.
The stealing of people was not confined to adults:
“to nab was to take a person into custody; to kidnap was to seize a child;”(Pg. 110)
The abduction of children was so widespread that kidnapping soon became a term applying to all ages.
Resistance!
There was continual resistance to this process of dispossession. “Commoners” (those who lived off the commons, socially owned land) resisted over centuries. They tore down fences and stopped enclosures. Slaves revolted. Sailors organized against impressment. They took over ships and became pirates who ran their ships collectively. The resistance was multi-racial and multi-national. This is where the term “motley crew” comes from. This resistance was fierce enough that the consolidation of capitalism was in doubt. ( Pg. 193)( Pg.32)
The rulers saw the multiracial rejection of capitalism as coming from many sources. Referring to Greek mythology, they called it a “many headed hydra”. They identified with Hercules who had chopped off the hydra’s heads just to see more of them grow back. He finally killed it with fire. The ruling class saw itself as restoring order against the unruly masses.
Force Created Capitalism
“People saw working for a wage as a form of slavery. They resisted it whenever possible”
In contrast to Libertarian myths, this book shows clearly that capitalism had to be imposed by force! (Pg. 56) This included widespread use of execution. The current dominant structure of free wage labor did not arise automatically. People saw working for a wage as a form of slavery. They resisted it whenever possible. They wanted to return to living off of common land and directing their own labor. Capitalism imposed wage labor on the resistant population with brute force. Vagabonds were jailed, maimed, and deported to force the rest into wage labor. Africans and Native Americans were subjected to direct slavery. The capitalists had to impress i.e. enslave people from Europe and Africa to staff their navies and merchant ships. The dominance of the ship captains and their backers could only be enforced with the harshest punishments. Impressment was a cause of the American Revolution. Slaves had to be physically chained. The independence of women and their control of reproduction had to be crushed. Witch burning was therefore a key feature of capitalist development. (Pg. 52) Pg.92)
In spite of the harsh brutality used to produce the new capitalist mode of production, resistance continued. Slaves revolted. They ran away and formed maroon societies where they shared land and labor. Sailors deserted and seized ships. Workers went on strike. In one case cited by the authors in 1647 workers in Naples actually took political power briefly (Pg.113) In 1741, a similar revolution almost broke out in New York City. (Pg.179). Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia almost toppled the colonial government. (Pg.136)
This resistance continued well into the 19th century and finally resulted in the end of chattel slavery and impressment. The seizure of the commons and resistance to it persisted into the 1800’s as well. Once capitalism was well established much of the struggle was aimed at reducing exploitation and oppression within capitalism rather than returning to the commons.
Importantly, these forms of resistance were not isolated from each other. Those opposing dispossession in Europe often supported opposition to slavery. Slaves and ex-slaves sailed the ships with European sailors. Some of these sailors became pirates who disrupted the slave trade. People traveled back and forth between Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean. They carried their opposition to oppression and exploitation with them.
The goal of the resistance to the rise of capitalism was the restoration of the commons. A related goal was eliminating the extreme distribution of wealth. Various ideologies developed to pursue these goals. Often these were expressed in religious terms. Quakers, Methodists and Baptists (Pg.80) took up the cause, though there were often class and political divisions in these religious establishments. Another was antinomianism which rejected laws and religious imposition. During the English Revolution, the Levelers and Diggers were radical opponents of the ruling classes. People from different continents participated in these and influenced each other.
The English Bourgeois Revolution Attacked the Poor
“The bourgeois revolution under Cromwell which defeated the radical elements made British imperialism possible”
The authors make a strong point that the English Bourgeois Revolution of the 1640s led by Cromwell consolidated capitalism against the poor:
“Among the first acts of the leaders of the young English republic was thus direct military intervention on behalf of private property. They feared that rural commoners and the city proletariat might join forces in the conflux as they had done in Naples.”(pg.118)
The result was that,
“The idle rich commanded others to labor, the thieving rich commanded others not to steal, and together they made thieves by Act of Parliament and hanged them” (Pg.118)
“Cromwell and the Restoration… assured the triumph of racialized slavery.” (Pg.101)
This in turn led to the growth of White Supremacy (Pg. 134, 139)
Further, the bourgeois revolution under Cromwell which defeated the radical elements made British imperialism possible.
“Domestic repression of the radicals had made possible new adventures for the English bourgeoisie in Ireland, Barbados, Jamaica and West Africa.” (Pg.132)
Limited Horizons
For most of the period covered by this book, capitalism was on the rise but not firmly established. This meant that the horizons of the resisters were limited. They wanted to restore what they had lost. They wanted the commons back. They wanted to be their own bosses to the degree they had been under Feudalism. Even under Feudalism, they had been exploited. However, they were able to largely direct their own work. They were not tied to a clock. They had no labor on numerous feast days. They had traditional rights.
The authors make clear that the imposition of capitalism was not inevitable. It was the result of the victory of the rich over the poor. Capitalists implicitly understood this and this is why their repression was so severe.
Was Capitalism Progressive?
“for those undergoing the transition to capitalism it was a colossal step backwards”
Capitalism ultimately laid the basis for the vast increase in living standards based on industrialization. It created a collective working class who could overthrow capitalism and create communism at a higher level of development. However, for those undergoing the transition to capitalism it was a colossal step backwards. Exploitation increased. Living standards dropped. Caloric intake plummeted. This was true of the survivors. This doesn’t even account for the massive death toll from direct brutal violence. Capitalism was progressive only in the long run. In the short run it was regressive.
During the rise and consolidation of capitalism it had not yet created the abundance on which modern communism could be based. Therefore, those resisting capitalism looked back to a previous structure where they had access to the commons. Their ideologies were against dispossession and massive wealth accumulation but had no specific transformative goal. They could not at this stage of history. In Europe, they looked back to common rights. Africans and Native Americans looked to the primitive communism that had existed, even when this had often already been somewhat undermined by the rise of classes.
Lessons for Today
The authors make important points that resonate today: 1) Racism is not inherent in human nature. For hundreds of years, people from different races and continents cooperated against the rising ruling class. Rulers of different nationalities also cooperated against the poor. The book documents how the rulers had to ingrain racism to divide the emerging proletariat. 2) International cooperation against capitalism is not only feasible, it is entirely possible. Even with primitive means of communication, workers fought back across national boundaries. 3) Capitalism is an international system. Its development was never strictly national. England, the dominant rising capitalist power, relied on slavery, colonization and international trade. Just as capitalism is international, so must socialism be. 4) Capitalism is not based on human nature. It took extreme brutality to break people away from cooperative living based on the commons.
The American Revolution
“Far from being a wing of the struggle by common people to defend the commons, the American Revolution was a part of the privatization of the commons”
Despite these important positives, the book has some weaknesses. It sees the class struggle in the American Revolution as an integral part of the rebellion against colonialism on which capitalism was based. It correctly notes that the American Revolution helped to spur the French Revolution which ended up striking a blow against slavery. The book identifies the class struggle in the American colonies as part of the same arc as the struggle in Britain and the revolts of sailors and slaves generally.
However, the American Revolution is more contradictory than the book asserts. It is true that there was intense class struggle within the colonies and during the Revolution. It took the Constitution to consolidate the power of the merchant capitalists and slave owners. There was an ongoing struggle between debtors and creditors, merchants and farmers, bankers and artisans. However, the participants in the class struggle were all settlers whose private property mode of production was responsible for stealing the land, the common land, of the Native population. One of the most important issues that caused the Revolution was Britain’s attempt to prevent settlers from seizing land beyond the Appalachian Mountains.
Far from being a wing of the struggle by common people to defend the commons, the American Revolution was a part of the privatization of the commons. It was an oppressive war against the Native population. Further, the Revolution was led in part by slave owners that consolidated their power as a result.
Optimism for Struggle Today?
Another problem is that the authors seem to see the unified, international, multiracial struggle against rising capitalism as ending in the early 1800’s. They believe that the development of capitalism split apart the opposition into separate strands. In fact, the consolidation of capitalism shifted the forms of resistance but did not end its international character.
Examples of this abound. In the 1860s, the British industrial working class opposed the South and slavery in the American Civil War even though this hurt its immediate economic interests. It was a large factor preventing the open intervention of Britain in support of the Confederacy. Anti-war and anti-imperialist movements have emerged again and again since the Civil War. Workers have formed several internationals to coordinate struggle. Unions have supported each other across national, racial and continental lines. The strands of resistance to capitalism have never been perfectly coordinated nor generally revolutionary, but they have existed and continue to exist.
The authors seem very excited about the resistance to capitalism during its rise and less excited about the possibility of resistance after its consolidation. They talk about the separation of working class organizing from “the narrative of Black Power” (Pg. 334). The authors go on to say that,
“The emphasis in modern labor history on white, male, skilled, waged, nationalist, propertied artisan/citizen or industrial worker has hidden the history of the Atlantic proletariat of the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.” (Pg.332)
In contrast to the modern working class, the authors describe the early proletariat as this way:
“It was landless, expropriated.” “It was mobile, transatlantic” “It was terrorized, subject to coercion” “It was cooperative and laboring.” “It was motley” (Pg. 332)
In fact, the modern working class is not just transatlantic, but fully international as the attack on immigration and immigrant rights worldwide shows. It is still largely landless and suffering from previous expropriation. It is still often terrorized and subject to coercion. It is still cooperative and laboring. It is even more motley than ever before! The modern international working class contradicts the authors’ description of labor history as about “white, male, skilled “workers. The majority of the world’s working class as a majority of the world’s population is people of color! Women make up a significant portion and likely a majority of the world’s workforce and an absolute majority of the working class.
In concrete terms, the working class is no longer confined, if it ever was, to the Atlantic. It encompasses the whole world!
The authors’ downplaying the potential of modern working class anti-capitalism is not just practically misplaced but also wrong theoretically. The fighters of the 16th through early 19th century were fighting capitalism primarily to restore lost rights. Their struggles were of necessity backward looking. Even though they cooperated across national and racial lines, their goals were often very local. They aimed at the liberated pirate ship, the isolated maroon, the restoration of local commons. Of course they opposed concentrations of wealth, but largely accepted the continuation of private property.
In contrast to the opposition to capitalism during its rise, anti-capitalism today can rest on a more solid foundation. Capitalism has developed the forces of production so that communism no longer has to be local, the maroon, the pirate ship or the individual commons. It is possible now to create an international communist society based on modern technology, and international working-class solidarity. We can now meet the basic needs of people across the world if we sweep away the parasitic ruling class and the private property that their wealth and power is based on. The prospects for not just fighting against capitalism, but abolishing it and creating a new world are on the agenda today when they were not in earlier centuries. The working class is capitalism’s grave digger. The number of gravediggers has expanded exponentially!
This book is an inspiration! It shows that even in the worst, most oppressive, most coercive conditions people will fight back against exploitation, oppression and domination. It helps us understand that workers today are in a long and admirable tradition of resistance to ruling class greed, exploitation and oppression. We face better conditions for fighting capitalism than our ancestors did. We should use those better conditions not just to oppose and protest the beast, but to kill it once and for all!
