ABSTRACT
When the Diggers challenged the law of property by sowing seeds and building houses on George Hill, the economic and social positions of the women and men were radically different. Male domination was enforced in law, and justified theologically. In the revolutionary years this came under direct pressure, as women formed and joined radical congregations of Quakers and Baptists, and argued that their divinely ordained role was one of action and intervention, not wifely obedience, or silence. This essay places Digger writings in the context of women’s activism. It concludes that Digger pamphlets are haunted by the possibility that their arguments for equality might be extendable to women, but that the case is never fully developed.
