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The 1842 Potter Riots took place mainly in Burselm, England and Staffordshire, England. Pottery workers disapproved the recent wage cuts and took matters into their own hands as they raided nearby towns and property of those in charge of the enforced wage cuts. The riots came to a halt, but full peace was never restored as their remained tension between the workers and the owners.

The 1842 Pottery Riots occurred in Burselm, England. It orignially arose from the local coal mine workers who launched the 1842 General Strike in Staffordshire, England. The coal mine workers were starting to become fed up with the recent wage cuts and the way the were be degraded. Mass amounts of the citizens in the area had experienced famine and deprivation of food as a result of these poor working wages. The coalmine workers put a halt on their production and attempted to shut down several factories. The leaders in charge of controlling the strikes failed to do their jobs as the coalmine workers took matters into their own hands and began raiding the towns. The coalmine strikes quickly spread to the nearby pottery industry, which both two industries went hand in hand and were closely associated with one another.

The coal strikers called upon the pottery makers who used their products for pottery to aid in the strike. Seeing as how the two businesses could not exist without one another, the pottery workers went on strike. In addition to the industries coinciding, the pottery workers were getting longer hours for their work with no increase in salary. These poor working conditions led to further poverty, which in this case led to a development of a revolt. The workers were tired of being treated poorly and seeing very little reward in return for their work efforts, so they came together for a common goal and fought back. Factories were shut down, police stations were invaded for weapons and economical documents were destroyed all by the workers. Houses of authority members, wealthy coal mine owners and other important members involved in the wage cuts had their houses set on fire by the furious workers. The Chartist Movement, which worked on putting power into the people’s hands, quickly picked up these strikes. This movement marched up to the town square where they pleaded their case through meetings and speeches. These meetings and speeches drew the attention of many as mass gatherings began to form. In Burselm, several volunteers met to put a cease to the incoming protestors, known as the Hanley mob, which combined with a mob from Leek. As the mob continued to advance, the volunteers who were defending Burselm were ordered to fire their weapons. As the protestors were being fired upon, they quickly spread out. As they did, it lead to complete violence, madness and chaos in Burselm. These mobs continued their raids on to surrounding towns and continued to cause destruction wherever they went. The mobs took no shame in robberies and burglaries as they pushed forward for their rights. 

A few men who were protesting marched through the Burselm Market and these protestors were soon after taken into custody. Shortly after word got out, a few hundred men traveled to Burselm and busted into the Police Station and left with their fellow gents. Chartist delegates took actions in their own hands as they continued raids and cause havoc, destroying property, setting fire to important buildings in towns. These strikes were benchmarks for workers rights groups and the rights of workers to challenger their employers. As peace was brought back between the workers and the employers, there remained uneasy tensions.

This series of strikes known as the General Strikes brought it to the attention that if the workers had aspirations to revolt, that if they worked together in unison then they could accomplish their common goals. This soon became the framework for working class institutions. At this time working conditions were poor, unemployment was skyrocketing, starvation was common and economic conditions were rough. “In a Midlands' miners' report it stated - "They did not mind being hungry themselves, but when they heard their wives and children crying for bread, it cut them through and they could not stand it"." These strikes were war cries from not just the pottery workers, but also all workers throughout the country.  At the time, the economy was weak when it came to the workers; they were neglected of any sense of reward for their craftsman ship and hard work.  Unemployment almost neared half certain area’s populations, which could have added to the high tensions between workers and their employers.  The Pottery Strike was important in that it truly showed what could be done if the workers are not satisfied with how they are treated in regards to their labor.  It also showed that the power was in the numbers, the numbers of the workers and that they could work together to achieve whatever it was that they wanted.

Socialism played a role in these strikes. In this period of time, there was no sense of socialism; on the contrary the attitude was to shut down the large groups of people. In this case, the large groups of people were the workers. The Chartist Movement, which acquired their name from the People’s Charter of 1838, was a working-class movement focused on the people, which brought in the aspect of socialism and improving socially and economically for the greater amount of people.