ABSTRACT
As a consequence of the changing systems of occupation, labour relations were also being restructured, and people began to relate to their environment in a different way. The remarkable writings of the Diggers are reassessed here as an impassioned protest against the process that was depriving the erstwhile independent smallholders of their direct, unmediated relationship with the land, and making them dependent on labouring for wages on the commercial farms. The substantial employers were also dealing with the land at a greater distance, in a manner that was at once more detached, yet more controlling. Early industrial developments were having similar effects, dominating wide areas, undermining the context of the commons, and breaking up the equilibrium that had existed between the commoners and the earth.
