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Who were the Suffragettes?| Definition, History & Examples

On June 21, 1908 in Hyde Park, London, a group of women marched and spoke to the gathering crowd. Dressed in purple, white, and green, these women wore matching scarves and buttons as well as military sashes with “Votes for Women” written across them. They held banners, some reading “Votes for Women” while others said “Deeds not Words.” This event, Women’s Sunday, was run by women who were part of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) organized by Emmeline Pankhurst, and these female activists, marchers, and campaigners weren’t just women interested in politics: They were suffragettes. 

The suffragettes were women who, between 1903 and 1914, campaigned for women’s suffrage in public elections in  Britain. By the late 1800s, women in various countries had gained the right to vote, known as “suffrage.” Most notably, in 1893, New Zealand enfranchised women over the age of 21 (Patricia Grimshaw, Women's Suffrage in New Zealand, 2013). By 1896 in the United States, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Idaho had granted women full suffrage (Dawn Durante, 100 Years of Women's Suffrage, 2019). However, by the early twentieth century, women in Britain still faced obstacles to their voting rights. Inspired by women gaining the right to vote in other countries,  feminists began to rally and call for change.

The term “suffragette” was coined by a journalist from the Daily Mail. Originally seen as a slur, the women-only group WSPU adopted the term as it identified its members as being separate from non-militant suffrage groups, such as the suffragists (Eileen Luscombe, History and Legacy of the Suffragette Fellowship, 2023). Known for taking direct action approaches to their cause, the suffragettes also took part in civil disobedience exercises and weren’t afraid to utilize militancy in their movement. According to Jeanette Winterson in Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere, the title of which is taken from a speech by suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett in 1913, the suffragettes took part in many controversial tactics that disrupted society, particularly aristocratic society: 

Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere

From that day forward, women went militant. Middle-class women, aristocratic women, working women. Women confronted politicians at meetings, at their homes, even on the golf course. Women chained themselves to railings. Women blew up letterboxes – the Victorians and Edwardians loved writing letters, and the Empire depended on paperwork – so getting the post blown up was really annoying. (2018)

The suffragettes faced imprisonment and took part in other militant activities, including bombings and hunger strikes. 

This guide will discuss the origins of the suffragette movement, the actions of the suffragettes in the fight for women’s right to vote, and the lasting impact of the suffragettes in Britain and around the world. 

The women’s suffrage movement began years before the suffragettes came to the scene. In 1865, the Kensington Society was formed in London for women to meet and discuss topics related to women’s rights in society and female education, as many of the attendees were educated, middle-class women who were barred from higher education. In 1867, the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage was founded, along with sister societies in London and Edinburgh, all of which focused on women’s suffrage specifically. 

Later in October 1897, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was formed under the leadership of Millicent Fawcett (1847-1929). Fawcett was an English writer and political activist who became interested in women’s rights after watching her sister struggle to become a doctor. The NUWSS focused on women’s suffrage in the UK and supported the idea that suffrage could be granted to women through non-militant and legal actions. Women in the NUWSS considered themselves suffragists, meaning they wished to achieve suffrage through lawful means and persuade politicians through words. They believed that if they followed the rules and obeyed the law, politicians couldn’t accuse them of being irresponsible and unworthy of the vote.  As indicated by Fawcett in Women's Suffrage, the women believed that violence would turn the government away from their cause,

Women's Suffrage

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies endeavoured to steer an even keel. They never weakened in their conviction that constitutional agitation was not only right in itself, but would prove far more effective in the long run than any display of physical violence, as a means of converting the electorate, the general public, and, consequently, Parliament and the Government, to a belief in women's suffrage. But the difficulties for a long time were very great. A few of our own members attacked us because we were not militant; others resigned because they disapproved of the militantism which we had repudiated. (1912, [2015])

Emmeline Pankhurst and the formation of the WSPU

In 1903, the Women’s Social and Political Union was formed by Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), an English political activist, writer, and lifelong campaigner for women’s rights, and three of her children, Sylvia, Christabel, and Adela. The WSPU met in Emmeline Pankhurst’s Manchester home where women came together on a weekly basis to discuss ideas for achieving enfranchisement. There was no formal membership list and the group was mostly financially supported by Emmeline herself and donations from supporters. They advocated for women’s suffrage through traditional means, as indicated by Andrew Rosen in Rise Up, Women!:

Rise Up, Women!

The WSPU was at this time almost exclusively concerned with trying to instil enthusiasm for women’s suffrage in Labour organizations, and the effort of persuading such organizations was conducted by orthodox means. The WSPU’s most extensive proselytizing was directed at the ILP [Independent Labour Party], which was divided over the wisdom of working for extension of the existing franchise to women, as opposed to (2013)

At first, the WSPU was focused on bringing the issue of women’s subjugation to light through “constitutional” exploits, using their talent for persuasive speech to champion their rights. For instance, in February 1904, at a meeting for the Free Trade League in Manchester’s Free Trade Hall, Christabel Pankhurst stepped forward and proposed an amendment to Winston Churchill’s resolution, explaining that the Representation of the People Acts only used masculine words, thus excluding women (Rosen, 2013). Over time, women in the WSPU started to believe that proactive, substantial change wouldn’t be achieved through words alone. Thus, they began to take direct action.

‘Deeds, not words’: The radical activism of the suffragettes

In October 1905, inspired by Christabel’s bravery at the Free Trade Hall, fellow suffragette Annie Kenney joined Christabel in disrupting a speech given by Sir Edward Grey. This was the first of many direct action demonstrations delivered by women in the WSPU. Once Grey had finished his speech, Kenney stood up and shouted, ‘Will the Liberal government give women the vote?’ Following this statement, Christabel unfurled a ‘Votes for Women’ banner she had snuck in and asked the question again. When Edwards still wouldn’t answer, even after they followed procedure and wrote the question down for Edwards to look over, the two women decided to stand on their chairs and shout the question. 

They were escorted out by police but not before Christabel attempted to spit in police officers’ faces and hit one of them at least twice. Both were charged with disorderly conduct, assaulting a police officer, and causing an obstruction. Christabel explained that they had to conduct uncivil acts because of the legal position of women. When Emmeline pleaded that she would pay fines for Annie and Christabel, Christabel insisted that she wouldn’t go home if the fine was paid. They became the first martyrs of the WSPU as Jad Adams explains,

Pankhurst

The principal aim of the protest had been achieved: women’s suffrage had risen up the agenda. The suffragists even had a new slogan. Their banner had been going to call for ‘Women’s Suffrage’ but at the last minute they had changed it. ‘Votes for Women’ was a slogan for the 20th century: direct and to the point. (Pankhurst, 2018)

The WSPU continued to hold meetings and demonstrations, garnering more attention to their cause. Emmeline and her daughters remained outspoken and inspired women across Britain to join the movement. As the media began to spotlight their cause, the women began to see the potential for participating in militant activities. They smashed windows, especially targeting government offices, businesses, and establishments frequented by the wealthy, and even set fire to post boxes. Their tactics then became more severe, as they initiated bombings, participated in hunger strikes, and, subsequently, faced imprisonment. 

Beginning in 1912, the WSPU started using arson and bombings as part of its campaign. According to Simon Webb in The Suffragette Bombers (2014), for the suffragettes, bombings made logical sense. If they created enough devastation and insurance companies had to pay out millions for damages, the government would have to start listening to their demands:

The Suffragette Bombers

The decision to resort to bombings in public places was almost certainly a deliberate and calculated move by the WSPU, once they saw that attacks limited to the government and its agents were proving ineffective in rousing the public and persuading them to support the suffragettes. There were, at least at the beginning of the terrorism, sound historical reasons for favouring such a strategy. (Webb, 2014)

Between 1909 and 1914, the suffragettes embarked on a hunger strike campaign. The first to go on hunger strike was Marion Wallace Dunlop, a suffragette sent to Holloway prison in 1909 who refused to eat as a form of protest for not being considered a political prisoner. In an effort to ensure Dunlop would not be considered a martyr for the suffragette cause, she was released early. However, her courage inspired other suffragettes to participate in hunger strikes, including the Pankhursts. In her memoir My Own Story, Emmeline Pankhurst reflects on her admiration for the hunger strikers, expressing her dedication to the campaign:

My Own Story

I warned the magistrate that I should at once adopt the hunger strike, and I told him that if I lived at all until the summer it would be a dying woman who would come up for trial. (1914, [2020])

The British government were concerned that if the suffragettes died in prison, the prison would be held liable for their deaths. Therefore, the government began enforcing force-feeding to hunger strikers. The force-feeding was brutal; rubber tubes were used, causing not only extreme discomfort but injuring throats and digestive systems permanently (Winterson, 2018). In April 1913, Reginald McKenna from the Home Office passed the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, otherwise known as the Cat and Mouse Act. The Act ensured that the suffragette, the “mouse,” would be temporarily released from prison if she became ill and be readmitted only once her health improved, being recaptured by the British government, i.e., the “cat.” The British government would be absolved of blame if a suffragette died or became injured. After the Act was passed, most force-feeding ceased (Martin Farr, Reginald McKenna, 2004).

The public was outraged by the treatment of the suffragettes in prison, believing that they should hold political prisoner status and be treated with more respect. Though the public held differing opinions regarding the lengths the suffragettes were taking to achieve suffrage, they recognized that the force-feedings were inhumane and should be stopped.

Until the beginning of the First World War, hundreds of suffragettes were imprisoned, usually due to unpaid fines or disorderly conduct offences. The suffragettes worked to be considered political prisoners with the unfailing support of the WSPU. In her work, The Suffragette (1931), prefaced by Emmeline Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst discusses the growth of the WSPU, highlighting the tactics of its members, including the suffering suffragettes endured as they were arrested, force-fed, and imprisoned. According to Sylvia Pankhurst, though the suffragettes suffered greatly,  they knew that their suffering would be worth it in the end:

The Suffragette

As yet most of us knew little of the interior of a prison, but, on those burning July days, we knew enough to think with sorrow and anxiety of our comrades shut away from the beauty of the summer in the heat of their small, stifling cells. We heard with joy that they were happy and contented to suffer imprisonment for the women’s cause. And now it seemed to us as though the spirit of revolt against oppression were flowing onward and spreading, like some great tide to all the womanhood of the world. (1931, [2015])

For the suffragettes, imprisonment was a necessity for the suffragette cause. Imprisonment would ultimately deliver liberty. They believed that sacrifice would help support the greater suffrage cause in both Britain and around the world. Their work paid off when, in 1928 under the Equal Franchise Act, women over the age of 21 were granted the right to vote.

The influence of the suffragette movement 

Most notably, the influence of the suffragettes can be seen in the United States, where they inspired American women to take direct action in the name of women’s suffrage. Sylvia Pankhurst toured the US in 1911, visiting states across the country, from California to Illinois to Massachusetts to Tennessee, where she gave speeches and inspired many women to engage in local politics and support the women’s suffrage cause. Like their British counterparts, American women began participating in civil disobedience activities and hunger strikes. Women like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were influenced by the militant campaign ushered in by the British suffragettes and held their own protests and parades. During Sylvia's tour, she was received by Alice Paul in Philadelphia, where she stayed at the Women’s Graduate Club and learned more about the women’s suffrage movement in the US. 

In her introduction to A Suffragette in America (2019), Katherine Connelly explains that not only did Sylvia’s tour inspire American women to fight for the right to vote by all means necessary, but it also helped pave the way for changes in the way British suffragettes worked to dismantle the patriarchy in British society. Sylvia recognized the lack of voting rights for women as being aligned with systemic oppression and inequality, and was a contradiction to democratic ideology:

A Suffragette in America

The lecture tours of America provided Sylvia with the opportunity to explicitly situate the demand for women’s political emancipation as a part of wider struggles against oppression and disempowerment which sustained capitalist exploitation [...] In so doing, Sylvia begins to articulate her view of democracy as an instrument to dismantle inequality by providing all with an equal voice. On her return to Britain, Sylvia sought to apply these ideas to the militant suffragette movement, with profound political and personal consequences. ("Introduction", Connelly, 2019)

Believing in “deeds not words,” the suffragettes used direct action approaches in their fight for female suffrage. In the early twentieth century, the suffragettes engaged in militant activities, conducted bombings, and hunger strikes, and spent time in jail, all for the women’s suffrage movement. Spearheading the movement was the WSPU under the leadership of the Pankhurst family, though women like Millicent Fawcett and the NUWSS had inspired women to support the suffrage movement years earlier. However, the WSPU believed that women had to move away from merely taking part in speeches and had to start disrupting British politics and society through more militant actions. Though these women suffered for the suffrage cause, they inspired other suffragettes in places like America to take direct action for the cause. This ushered in more interest in the suffragette movement and women in both countries gained the right to vote in the 1920s. 

While the suffragettes were oftentimes considered controversial for their militant actions, they inspired women around the world to stand up against oppression, challenge masculine norms in their communities, and participate in politics. 

The legacy left by the suffragettes continues to influence feminists to campaign for women’s rights, minority rights, and rights for the disadvantaged. Feminism today, currently in its fourth wave, has become more inclusive, with activists campaigning for equality regardless of gender, sexuality, or socioeconomic status. For example, many feminists have participated in the Black Lives Matter movement, recognizing the importance of intersectional feminism. The rise of social media has provided women a platform to discuss experiences of sexism. You can learn more about different branches of feminism through our study guides "What is Black Feminism?" and "What is Postcolonial Feminism?".

Today, the suffragettes are honored in a number of ways, including through monuments and statues, like the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in St. Peter’s Square in Manchester, England and the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial in Centennial Park in Nashville. These women paved the way for women to find their place in politics and finally have their voices heard in their communities. 


Voices from History: East London Suffragettes (2014) by Sarah Jackson and Rosemary Taylor 

Mrs Despard and the Suffrage Movement (2020) by Lynne Graham-Matheson and Helen Matheson-Pollock 

Ireland's Suffragettes (2014) by Sarah-Beth Watkins 

The Rebel Suffragette (2021) by Beverley Adams 

The Scottish Suffragettes and the Press (2017) by Sarah Pederson 

Suffragette City (2019) edited by Elizabeth Darling and Nathaniel Walker 

March, Women, March (2021) by Lucinda Hawksley

Suffrage and the Pankhursts (2013) by Jane Marcus 

Adams, J. (2018) Pankhurst. Haus Publishing. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/2801376/pankhurst-pdf 

Connelly, K. (2019) “Introduction” in A Suffragette in America: Reflections on Prisoners, Pickets, and Political Change. Pluto Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/962045/a-suffragette-in-america-reflections-on-prisoners-pickets-and-political-change-pdf 

Durante, D. (2019) 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage. University of Illinois Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/2382807/100-years-of-womens-suffrage-a-university-of-illinois-press-anthology-pdf 

Farr, M. (2004) Reginald McKenna. Routledge. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/717046/reginald-mckenna-pdf 

Fawcett, Garrett, M. and Dame (2015) Women’s Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement. Perlego. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1729160/womens-suffrage-a-short-history-of-a-great-movement-pdf 

Grimshaw, P. (2013) Women’s Suffrage in New Zealand. Auckland University Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1465325/womens-suffrage-in-new-zealand-pdf 

Hume, L. (2016) The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies 1897-1914 (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1480828/the-national-union-of-womens-suffrage-societies-18971914-routledge-revivals-pdf 

Luscombe, E. (2023) History and Legacy of the Suffragette Fellowship: Calling all Women. Routledge. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/4214330/history-and-legacy-of-the-suffragette-fellowship-calling-all-women-pdf 

Pankhurst, E. (2020) My Own Story. Open Road Media. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/2432712/my-own-story-pdf 

Pankhurst, S. (2019) A Suffragette in America: Reflections on Prisoners, Pickets, and Political Change. Pluto Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/962045/a-suffragette-in-america-reflections-on-prisoners-pickets-and-political-change-pdf 

Pankhurst, S. (2015) The Suffragette: The History of the Women’s Militant Suffrage Movement. Dover Publications. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/109879/the-suffragette-the-history-of-the-womens-militant-suffrage-movement-pdf 

Rosen, A. (2013) Rise Up, Women!: The Militant Campaign of the Women’s Social and Political Union. Routledge. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1676400/rise-up-women-the-militant-campaign-of-the-womens-social-and-political-union-19031914-pdf 

Webb, S. (2014) The Suffragette Bombers: Britain’s Forgotten Terrorists. Pen and Sword. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/2445570/the-suffragette-bombers-britains-forgotten-terrorists-pdf 

Winterson, J. (2018) Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere. Canongate Books. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1457493/courage-calls-to-courage-everywhere-pdf

Who were the Suffragettes?

What is Imperialism?

What is Modernist Literature?

What is the Southern Renaissance?

What is the Harlem Renaissance?

What is Great Man Theory?

What is Sectarianism?

What is the Irish Literary Revival? | Definition, Examples, & Analysis

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Irish literature, art, theater, and culture flourished in what became known as the Irish Literary Revival, or the Irish Literary Renaissance, which was part of the wider Celtic Revival. This renaissance of Irish literature and culture thrived in the midst of political and social changes occurring across Ireland. Within Ireland, there was a cultural coexistence of the British, Irish, and Anglo-Irish as they shared a common language and had lived alongside each other for centuries; however, tensions began to boil as they differed widely on ideas and pressures related to politics, religion, and society. Irish nationalism became a focus for many of these writers and artists as they attempted to redefine the political landscape in Ireland. In the introduction to The Irish Revival (2023), Joseph Valente and Marjorie Howes describe how the various writers and artists in the Irish Literary Revival may have disagreed on issues of  modernization  and the preservation of agrarian ideals, but they could agree on one thing: resisting British control in Ireland. Valente and Howes explain, however, that sectarian differences still remained a significant obstacle: 

The Irish Revival

[...] the various branches of the Revival came together at points in their resistance to British domination, a crucial aspect of revivalist “emergence,” but the persistence of sectarian differences, a key element in the separation of those branches, gave rein to disagreements over the nature of the resistance to be mounted, the form of decolonization to be achieved, and the proper understanding of both the indigenous, precolonial past and the consummate postcolonial futurity. (2023)

You can learn more about sectarian differences in our study guide on the topic. 

Developments of the Irish Literary Revival

The Revival had roots in Dublin and London, as Irish writers in both locations contributed — including W. B. Yeats, who spearheaded the Revival. In London in 1892, he set up the Irish Literary Society along with Irish writers T. W. Rolleston and Charles Gavan Duffy. Yeats then organized the National Literary Society in Dublin with the support of Douglas Hyde, who became the society’s first president (John S. Kelly, A W.B. Yeats Chronology, 2015). These societies especially focused on honoring Irish culture and warned against the dangers of imperialism. 

In 1888, Yeats released Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, a collection of writings from eighteenth and nineteenth century authors that explores issues related to colonialism, socialism, evolution, gender, and sexuality, among other topics. A few years later, in 1893, Yeats’s revolutionary work The Celtic Twilight was published. It explores Irish culture through the mystical and supernatural tales of Irish folklore. In his preface, Yeats indicates that the collection of stories is inspired by the real and the imagined, showcasing how reality and myth are entrenched in Irish literature and life:

The Celtic Twilight

I have desired, like every artist, to create a little world out of the beautiful, pleasant, and significant things of this marred and clumsy world, and to show in a vision something of the face of Ireland to any of my own people who would look where I bid them. [...] The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into whatever garments of belief please them best. I too have woven my garment like another, but I shall try to keep warm in it, and shall be well content if it do not unbecome me. (1893, [2003]) 

In much of his work, Yeats focuses on the lives of the ordinary people of Ireland, illuminating their beliefs and myths and exploring how these myths intersect with the history of the land. In 1899, fellow revivalist Douglas Hyde’s work A Literary History of Ireland, from Earliest Times to the Present Day was published. It focuses on the history of Ireland through Irish heroes, myths, and legends from known and forgotten Irish literature. In his preface, Hyde argues: 

A Literary History of Ireland, from Earliest Times to the Present Day

In both cases, that of the ancient and that of the modern Irish, all that is of most value as literature, was the property and in some sense the product of the people at large, and it exercised upon them a most striking and potent influence. And this influence may be traced amongst the Irish-speaking population even at the present day, who have, I may almost say, one and all, a remarkable command of language and a large store of traditional literature learned by heart, which strongly differentiates them from the Anglicised products of the "National Schools" to the bulk of whom poetry is an unknown term, and amongst whom there exists little or no trace of traditional Irish feelings, or indeed seldom of any feelings save those prompted by (when they read it) a weekly newspaper. (1899, [2016]) 

With the influence of Hyde and Yeats, among other revivalist writers, a de-Anglicized view of Ireland came into focus and Irish voices, many in Gaelic, were finally heard. 

The concept of Irish identity was a focus for these revivalist writers as they explored what it meant to be Irish under colonial rule and reflected on their Gaelic heritage. According to G. J. Watson in Irish Identity and the Literary Revival (2023), Revival literature explored various themes in relation to Irish society and politics:

Irish Identity and the Literary Revival

The main focus is therefore on the relationship between the literature and its society; the unifying theme is each writer’s attempt to grapple with, or define, the nature or meaning of Irish identity, and the resultant effects on the content and form of their art. Subsidiary themes, closely connected, recur — attitudes to the peasantry and the problem of backward Ireland’s position in the modern world, to political nationalism seen as both dynamic and destructive, varying attitudes to the hero and the concept of heroism, to the meaning of Ireland’s history and the validity of her cultural traditions; and the recurring tension between the writer’s desire to identify with his community and his feelings of marginality.

As well as W. B. Yeats and Douglas Hyde, there were a number of other writers who were driving forces for the Revival, such as Standish O’Grady, James Joyce, and Lady Gregory. These writers supported the intertwining of folklore and history into their works, advocating for an interest in Irish culture and tradition in the face of British ideology on the island. Many of these authors focused on their marginalized place in society and encouraged fellow Irish creatives to use their writing as a form of protest against colonialism. 

Born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1846 and later educated at Trinity College Dublin, O’Grady was a renowned historian and journalist. He was inspired by fellow revivalist writers and argued for a renewal of interest in Gaelic tradition, mythology, literature, and history. In 1878, O’Grady’s History of Ireland, Vol. I: The Heroic Period was published, which explores the legends of ancient Ireland and focuses on the parallels between Gaelic and Greek heroes. He was inspired by historians such as Thomas Carlyle. You can learn more about Carlyle and theories related to heroism in our study guide on the great man theory. 

In Standish O'Grady's Cuculain (2016), editors Gregory Castle and Patrick Bixby argue that within O’Grady’s History of Ireland, Vol. 2: Cuculain and His Contemporaries (1880), O’Grady seeks to intertwine both myth and historic fact to foster an understanding of the Gaelic world. O’Grady argues that historians should embrace legends and myths, as we can actually gain a deeper understanding of history through them. He also asserts that historians must embrace the notion that past, present, and future coexist, and adopt this in their work. As Castle and Bixby explain, 

Standish O'Grady's Cuculain

Throughout the History, which relates a “wild and improbable” narrative and departs signiﬁcantly from mainstream British and Anglo-Irish historiography, particularly on the issue of what constitutes evidence, O’Grady insists on historical discipline — that is to say, he insists on the viability (if not always the veracity) of the bardic accounts and his ability to extract historical knowledge from them, no matter how unreliable they might be. [...] Rather than a teleological orientation along a progressive path, we have a form of romantic dialectics, a recursive and disjunctive historical ﬁeld in which the past and future are interwoven, neither of them surrendering its singular temporality. The past does not progress into the present but coexists with it as one of its cultural expressions—a coexistence that O’Grady’s imaginative historiography attempts to capture. (2016)

Within his works, O’Grady ultimately seeks to uphold revivalist ideologies which de-Anglicize Ireland by supporting Irish culture, language, and literature. 


A poet, writer, and critic, James Joyce was a prominent figure in the Irish Literary Revival. Born in Dublin in 1882 and educated at University College Dublin, Joyce is best known for Ulysses (1922), which follows the lives of three people in Dublin over the course of a day; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), an illustration of the intellectual and spiritual awakening of the fictional Stephen Dedalus; and Dubliners (1914), a collection of short stories examining the lives of middle-class families in Dublin in the early twentieth century. Within his writing, Joyce applies a variety of literary techniques prominent in modernist literature, including stream of consciousness. Joyce often reflects on Irish society and class, morality, colonialism, sexuality, and mythology, all present within his experimental poetry and prose. 

In James Joyce and Classical Modernism (2020), Leah Culligan Flack explains that Joyce reinvented the meaning of the classics. His ability to create parallels between Greek mythology and Irish society through modernist literary techniques was revolutionary in the early twentieth century, and paved the way for future authors to experiment in their own work: 

James Joyce and Classical Modernism

Rather than being an attack on the classics, Joyce’s work emerges from an increasingly visible sense of the classics as a tool of rebellion against convention. Rather than being a carrier of socially-affirmed meaning attesting to shared values in a community, Joyce’s classical writings tend toward ambiguity, antagonism, and the illicit. Therefore, one reason why we cannot call upon a static sense of the classical to describe Joyce’s fiction rests in the fact that early on, he himself abandoned this kind of notion and embraced a more unsettled model of what and how the classics might mean in the twentieth century. (Flack, 2020)

Joyce left an indelible mark on Irish literature as he illustrated an Ireland swarming with complexity, contradictions, and development in the early twentieth century. 

Lady Gregory was an influential figure in the Revival, as she wrote prolifically on Irish folklore and was an esteemed Irish dramatist. Born in County Galway in 1852, Lady Gregory was inspired by such contemporaries as W. B. Yeats. Her writing often retold stories from Irish mythology and, though she came from a wealthy Anglo-Irish background, she spoke out against British rule and disapproved of colonialism in Ireland. Her home in Coole Park, County Galway, served as a sanctuary for Irish Literary Revivalists who would meet there and discuss their ideas and writing (Judith Hill, Lady Gregory, 2011). 


Lady Gregory’s interest in folk writing is recognized in her work A Book of Saints and Wonders (1906), in which she collects religious and folk stories from people in her community and retells them. Lady Gregory’s Gods and Fighting Men (1903) was also an influential piece of Revival literature. It tells the story of the Tuatha dé Danaan and the Fianna of Ireland, all translated into English by Lady Gregory. As indicated in Hill’s Lady Gregory, though she was often overshadowed by her male contemporaries and had her reputation tarnished by them (as many made up false accusations of her), Lady Gregory’s work continues to be celebrated to this day:

Lady Gregory

Her [Lady Gregory’s] subject was society, and most particularly the social and cultural values of her Galway neighbours as she understood them through her empathetic folklore. If she is judged according to traditional literary values she fails, though not absolutely. She needs to be understood as a cutting-edge folklorist, who realised the need to present the voices of her interviewees in as unmediated a way as possible, and as a writer who was able to translate this into plays. Her achievement emerges as an ability to present the values of a dying society to the metropolitan stage. Thus she made a decisive impact on Irish cultural nationalism. Arguably, her plays are still a largely untapped source for understanding this society. (Hill, 2011)

Along with O’Grady, Joyce, and other Revival authors, Lady Gregory recognized the importance of Ireland on a global scale and wished to use her ambitious and sometimes conflicting views to honor Ireland through her writing and activism. 

Part of the aim of the Irish Literary Revivalists was to put Irish literature on the world stage; therefore, these writers recognized the need for a theater scene in Dublin. In an article for the Dome for April 1899, W. B. Yeats laid out the idea for the Irish Literary Theatre. In May 1899 in Dublin, he was joined by Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, a fellow Irish playwright and political activist, and other guarantors who all sponsored the early performances of Yeats’s The Countess Cathleen (1892) and Martyn’s The Heather Field (1899). The Irish Literary Theatre sought to represent Irish literature, instead of English literature, and it had a clear role in fostering nationalist ideology and promoting political independence from British rule. With the support of revivalists like Yeats, Irish theater encouraged mystical and occult elements in its productions (B.C. Bloomfield, Beltaine, 1970). 

The Irish National Theatre Society was later founded in 1902 and, in 1904, the Abbey Theatre was founded in Dublin. The opening performances included Yeats’s mythological production On Baile's Strand (1903) and Lady Gregory’s comedy Spreading the News (1904). The Abbey Theatre was revolutionary, as it gave a platform for Irish playwrights to display their work on a larger, grander scale. Plays by Yeats, Lady Gregory, and Martyn were all staged, and a host of other playwrights found fame through the theater — including George Bernard Shaw, Sean O’Casey, Padraic Colum, and Thomas MacDonagh, among many others (Sanford Sternlicht, Modern Irish Drama, 2010). Sternlicht further explains the mission behind the Abbey:

Modern Irish Drama

The Abbey’s main mission remains primarily but not exclusively to produce plays by Irish playwrights on Irish themes. It has always been to a very large extent a writers’ theater. With its inception, ordinary people, peasant farmers, city workers, ﬁsherfolk, back-country people, itinerants, small merchants, the poor, the sick, and the blind would ﬁnd a place and a voice on the Irish stage, whereas the foolish and embarrassing, shifty, hot-tempered, lazy, conniving, often drunken, comic “stage Irishman,” speaking in a ludicrously exaggerated accent, was banished except for in historical revivals of early works. (2010)

The Abbey Theatre has been a source of great pride for Irish people, as it became one of Europe’s most esteemed and important theaters. To this day, it remains a prominent fixture in Irish society. 

Lasting legacy: the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic Association 

As the Irish Literary Revival was part of the wider Gaelic and Celtic revivals, it also coexisted with the Irish language movement. In 1893, Eugene O’Growney and Eoin MacNeill founded the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge), with Douglas Hyde as its first president. Its main focus was to preserve and promote Irish language, culture, art, literature, and music. The group met weekly to discuss Irish current affairs, and it successfully campaigned to make the Irish language part of the school curriculum. The league also printed its own newspaper, An Claidheamh Soluis. In May 1897, the Gaelic League hosted their first festival in Ireland with the goal of encouraging the public to participate in the Irish language movement. The league continues to maintain branches across Ireland as well as internationally (Janet Egleson Dunleavy and Gareth W. Dunleavy, Douglas Hyde, 1991).

In 1884 (in Tipperary, Ireland), the Gaelic Athletic Association (Cumann Lúthchleas Gael) was formed, with Maurice Davin, an internationally renowned athlete, as its first president. The GAA is an international sports organization that promotes traditional Irish sports like hurling, Gaelic football, and Gaelic handball. The organization also supports the Irish language, music, and dance. When the GAA was founded, its mission was to spotlight indigenous Irish sport and offer Irish people the opportunity to manage their own games without interference from foreign bodies (Cormac Moore, The GAA v Douglas Hyde, 2012). 

In A History of the GAA in 100 Objects (2022), Siobhán Doyle states that though the GAA has some “deeply problematic” parts to it, and injustices exist within it, the association plays an influential role in Irish society and it has helped shape Irish history:

A History of the GAA in 100 Objects

The GAA plays an important role in identity and place, with much to take pride in and celebrate. It contributes to the formation of place identity through diverse social interactions, practices and memories. [...]

It is abundantly clear that the GAA has evolved considerably since its formal establishment in 1884, in ways that connect intimately with major historical developments in Ireland. Its role has been transformed in tandem with significant moments in modern Irish history, such as the War of Independence, mass emigration and the Troubles.

The GAA continues to play a crucial role in Ireland with its cross-community efforts and cultural initiatives, and its clubs can be found around the world. 

The Irish Literary Revival was a time in which Irish literature and culture blossomed, with Irish voices reaching audiences near and far. These revivalist writers and artists illustrated a changing Ireland; an Ireland molded by politics, tradition, and an evolving society seeking to separate itself from British influences. They experimented with Irish legends and folklore, history and fact, intertwining these topics through poetry and prose. With such revolutionary figures as W. B. Yeats, Standish O’Grady, James Joyce, and Lady Gregory, Irish talent was displayed to Ireland and the wider world, with these figures and others making significant strides in literature, politics, and social reforms. Lesser-known writers, like Alice Milligan, Ella Young, and Katharine Tynan, were given a platform to exhibit their writing. These Revival writers and artists from the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century inspired future writers on the island of Ireland. The likes of Seamus Heaney, Samuel Beckett, Edna O’Brien, and C. S. Lewis depicted elements of the Irish Literary Revival through their reflections on folklore, legend, morality, and the political and social changes witnessed on their beloved island. 


Lady Gregory's Toothbrush (2011) by Colm Toibin 

The Revival of Irish Literature (2010) by George Sigerson, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, and Douglas Hyde

Modernists and the Theatre (2021) by James Moran

The Poems of W.B. Yeats (2023) edited by Peter McDonald 

Early Bardic Literature, Ireland. (2005) by Standish O’Grady

James Joyce and Modern Literature (2015) edited by W. J. McCormack and Alistair Stead 

Irish Women Dramatists (2014) edited by Eileen Kearney and Charlotte Headrick 

Bloomfield, B. (2012) “Editor’s Note,” in Yeats, W.B. (ed.) Beltaine: The Organ of the Irish Literary Theatre. Taylor and Francis. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1685744/beltaine-routledge-revivals-the-organ-of-the-irish-literary-theatre-pdf 

Castle, G. and Bixby, P. (eds.) (2016) Standish O’Grady’s Cuculain. Syracuse University Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/537718/standish-ogradys-cuculain-a-critical-edition-pdf 

Doyle, S. (2022) A History of the GAA in 100 Objects. Irish Academic Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/3760456/a-history-of-the-gaa-in-100-objects-pdf

Dunleavy, J. E. and Dunleavy, G. (1991) Douglas Hyde. University of California Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/552115/douglas-hyde-pdf 

Flack, L. C. (2020) James Joyce and Classical Modernism. Bloomsbury Publishing. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1310677/james-joyce-and-classical-modernism-pdf

Gregory (2011) A Book of Saints and Wonders. Barnes & Noble Digital Library. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/3715884/a-book-of-saints-and-wonders-barnes-noble-digital-library-pdf 

Gregory (2004) Gods and Fighting Men. Perlego. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1845103/gods-and-fighting-men-the-story-of-the-tuatha-de-danaan-and-of-the-fianna-of-ireland-arranged-and-put-into-english-by-lady-gregory-pdf 

Gregory (2012) Seven Short Plays. Perlego. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1716362/seven-short-plays-pdf 

Hill, J. (2011) Lady Gregory, an Irish Life. Gill Books. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/2815139/lady-gregory-an-irish-life-pdf 

Hyde, D. (2016) A Literary History of Ireland, from Earliest Times to the Present Day. Perlego. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1717386/a-literary-history-of-ireland-from-earliest-times-to-the-present-day-pdf 

Joyce, J. (2020) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Vintage Books. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/2917868/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man-pdf 

Joyce, J. (2017) Dubliners. Dreamscape Media. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/650224/dubliners-pdf 

Joyce, J. (2017) Ulysses. Dreamscape Media. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/650222/ulysses-pdf 

Kelly, J. S. (2015) A W.B. Yeats Chronology. Palgrave Macmillan UK. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/3501641/a-wb-yeats-chronology-pdf 

Martyn, E. (1899) The Heather Field. Duckworth & Co. 

Moore, C. (2012) The GAA v Douglas Hyde. Gill Books. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/2814871/the-gaa-v-douglas-hyde-pdf 

O’Grady, S. (1878) History of Ireland, Vol. 1: The Heroic Period. Sampson Low, Searle, Marston, & Rivington. 

O’Grady, S. (1880) History of Ireland, Vol. 2: Cuculain and His Contemporaries. Sampson Low, Searle, Marston, & Rivington. 

Sternlicht, S. (2010) Modern Irish Drama: W. B. Yeats to Marina Carr. 2nd edn. Syracuse University Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/537828/modern-irish-drama-w-b-yeats-to-marina-carr-second-edition-pdf 

Valente, J. and Howes, M. (eds.) (2023) The Irish Revival: A Complex Vision. Syracuse University Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/4218299/the-irish-revival-a-complex-vision-pdf

Watson, G. J. (2023) Irish Identity and the Literary Revival: Synge, Yeats, Joyce and O'Casey. Taylor and Francis. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/3837583/irish-identity-and-the-literary-revival-synge-yeats-joyce-and-ocasey-pdf

Yeats, W. B. (ed.) (2010) Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry. Perlego. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1715784/fairy-and-folk-tales-of-the-irish-peasantry-pdf 

Yeats, W. B. (2003) The Celtic Twilight. Perlego. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1713335/the-celtic-twilight-pdf 

Yeats, W. B. (2021) The Countess Cathleen. Mint Editions. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/2174372/the-countess-cathleen-pdf 

Yeats, W. B. (2012) The King’s Threshold; and On Baile’s Strand. Perlego. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1716356/the-kings-threshold-and-on-bailes-strand-pdf 

What is the Irish Literary Revival?

What is Diaspora Theory?

What is Structural Inequality?

What is Transnationalism?

What is Capitalism?

What is Malthusian Theory?

What is Postcolonialism?

What is Neocolonialism?

What is Globalization?

What were the Highland Clearances? | Definition, History, Examples & Analysis

Between the mid-eighteenth century and the mid-nineteenth century, there was a forced removal of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. This later came to be known as the Scottish Highland Clearances. The clearances mostly occurred above Glasgow and north of Dundee, as well as on western and southern islands, including the Inner and Outer Hebrides and the Isle of Arran, though clearances did exist in the Lowlands as well. These clearances left a lasting impression on Scotland, as thousands of Scottish people were forced from their lands and sent away to the coast or cities like Glasgow or Edinburgh, or sometimes as far away as Australia or America. These families had lived in their communities in the Highlands and Islands for centuries, only to have their homes and livelihoods taken away from them as wealthy landowners sought to make a substantial profit on the land the Highlanders and Islanders had cultivated for hundreds of years. Eric Richards, in The Highland Clearances (2013), provides a brief summary of the clearances: 

The Highland Clearances

Clearing the Highlands required the ejection of the common Highlanders from the straths and glens and their replacement by cattle, sheep and deer. It was a policy executed over a period of about 100 years by the old and new owners of the great Highland estates. In the process the Highlands were transformed and most of the people reduced to the periphery of the region, and its history then became the byword for landlord oppression and desolation. 

The clearances occurred in two phases. The first phase occurred between the 1750s until 1815 and the second occurred between c. 1815 and the 1850s respectively. In the first phase, the landowners focused on creating a dual economy in which they could make rental income while the tenants would be able to engage in profitable industries. The landowners focused on making the interior lands an area for sheep and cattle to graze and be looked after, while the tenants were relocated to the coast. The properties these tenants had formerly lived in were converted into sheep holdings. Within these coastland crofts, the tenants could manufacture kelp and fish, though many of these tenants did not have much experience in these industries. In A History of the Highland Clearances (2020), Eric Richards explains the appeal of the Scottish Highlands to wealthy landowners and indicates that, prior to 1815, Highlanders actually benefited from industries along the coast: 

A History of the Highland Clearances

The Scottish Highlands was the region which offered the most scope for development, and the introduction of new sheep breeds facilitated a great growth of output. Until 1815 it is likely that the net social cost to the people of the Highlands was less severe than it eventually became, for two reasons. The growth of population, while substantial, had not yet accumulated to a crippling level. Secondly it is evident that much of the rest of the Highland economy was in a buoyant condition, notably in the labour-intensive activities of kelp production, hand-loom weaving, spinning, fishing, road construction and regimental service.

The first phase ultimately sought to shift Highland tenants to different areas of the Highlands, but not necessarily expel them from the region entirely.

The second phase, however, proved to be detrimental to the Highlanders and Islanders. In the 1820s, landowners shifted to expelling the Highlanders. They saw the Highlanders as standing in the way of modernization, with some landowners even indicating that they found the crofting communities insular and outdated. The crofting communities were struggling in the wake of the Highland Potato Famine (1846–1855) that had devastated much of the Highlands as well as the decline in the kelp manufacturing business. Also, wool prices had decreased substantially — alongside the price of black cattle. Therefore, the landowners decided it was necessary to expel these communities in order to protect the future of their estates. These forced evictions could be violent, leaving families, the elderly, and the disabled destitute and homeless. Their homes were sometimes set on fire to ensure that the families did not return. As indicated by Raymond A. Rogers in Rough and Plenty (2020), the forced evictions also had a political and economic undertone as the “assisted emigration” of Highlanders to overseas colonies could strengthen the British Empire:

Rough and Plenty

Within the larger frame of the links between colonialism and the industrial revolution, there was the simultaneous enclosing of Highland and Island land in Scotland so as to better serve industrial production in Britain, along with the concurrent opening up of large tracts of “empty land” in the colonies of the British Empire. This simultaneity afforded a “solution” for those in charge of the redundant crofters, as they furthered, at the same time, the political aims of land annexation in the colonies. The forces of capitalism and colonialism combined in sending the crofters off to North America, New Zealand, and Australia, transforming them in the process from being desolated wayfarers leaving their native shores—and if they survived the clapped-out and disease-ridden ghost ships—arriving in the colonies as agents of empire. (2020)

These evictions proved devastating, as they tore families apart. Some families were forced to move to the Lowlands or even emigrate overseas, thus changing Highland culture and society forever. 

As the landscape of the Highlands was changing, there were a number of factors that contributed to the clearances. The introduction of industrialization in Scotland affected life in the Highlands and supported agrarian changes in the region. Landlord debt, high rent, and the eventual failure of the kelp industry on the coast assisted in causing the Highland Clearances. Most notably, however, changes related to agriculture, famine, and overpopulation contributed to the clearances and changed the course of Scottish history. 

Firstly, there were significant agricultural changes in the Highlands in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. New farming methods emerged as there was a shift from the peasant-style of farming that had been prevalent in the Highlands for centuries to a more modern approach. Small numbers of sheep farmers tended to the land and landowners were able to charge these farmers higher rents. Sheep breeds like the Cheviot sped the clearances along, as they grazed on the arable land of the evicted Highlanders. Some of the clearances introduced large-scale cattle production, and others replaced agriculture altogether with sporting estates filled with deer. Crofting settlements, upheld by the wealthy landowners, became a product of modern approaches to “improve” Highland society. According to Tom M. Devine in Clearance and Improvement (2010), at the center of these settlements was the land, divided into separate smallholdings, and these were surrounded by pastures. However, though this was a modern approach to farming, the crofting communities did not necessarily provide the Highlanders with a better life:

Clearance and Improvement

The most striking feature, however, was that the croft was not designed to provide a full living for the family. Sir John Sinclair reckoned that the typical crofter had to be able to obtain at least 200 days of additional work outside his holding in order to avoid chronic destitution. Crofts were in fact reduced in size in order to force the crofter and his family into other employments. The holding itself should provide only partial subsistence and, to make ends meet and afford the rental, the crofter and his family had to have recourse to supplementary jobs. (Devine, 2010)

As noted by Devine, modern techniques like crofting did not necessarily improve the lives of Highland tenants: they still had to find additional work to support their families and pay the high rents their landlords were charging. 

The Highlands had experienced famine before the eighteenth century, but the various potato blights in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries proved especially severe and detrimental to the population in the Highlands. Potatoes had become an essential crop in the crofting communities and therefore a significant part of the Highlanders’ diets. When the Highland Potato Famine began in 1846, many communities in the Highlands (stretching as far as the Hebrides) experienced significant food shortages. The famine lasted for a decade and encouraged clearances on estates and emigration as landlords became bankrupt and Highlanders were left destitute. According to Tom M. Devine in The Great Highland Famine (2021), the famine clearances were significant as they brought the plight of the tenants into focus: 

The Great Highland Famine

They were the last in the cycle of great evictions which transformed Highland society from the last quarter of the eighteenth century. They intensified suffering within the Highlands and attracted bitter criticism outside the region. The more notorious episodes of clearances [...] were chronicled in great detail in the national press and stimulated a large and impassioned pamphlet literature. These removals, therefore, had a vital influence on the future political and social development of the Highlands [...]. They elicited a renewed wave of sympathy for the plight of the Highland people. 

The severity of the potato blight in the mid-nineteenth century proved significant, as it ushered in economic changes and influenced the development of Highland society. 

In the late eighteenth century, the population in the Highlands was rising. However, though the population was rising rapidly, there was less access to resources and land. People were forced to live on smaller plots of land which led to congested living spaces and unhealthy living conditions. According to June Skinner Sawyers in Bearing the People Away (2013), the issue of overpopulation contributed to the clearances and led to widespread emigration: 

Bearing the People Away

[Most landlords] adopted some aspect of the so-called improvements by employing a policy of population reduction, which quite often led to their support of emigration as the only solution for the seemingly intractable Highland problems of poverty and overpopulation. They often moved tenants in order to develop villages, especially along the coasts, but also for sporting purposes as well as to reduce congestion. Unlike other agrarian changes in other parts of rural Britain, such as the enclosure movement in England or the Lowland Clearances, the Highland Clearances had devastating effects on the culture and societal structure of the Highlands. (2013)

Sawyers explains that the landlords held immense power, as they were legally protected and could treat their tenants poorly with no repercussions: 

What the landlords did—remove people from their land—was perfectly legal; their behaviour required no parliamentary approval or the cooperation of the inhabitants of the land. Their power was near absolute; their tenants paid the price in a miserable existence at home, eviction or emigration. (Sawyers, 2013)

As the issue of overpopulation loomed amidst the potato blight, landlords saw eviction and emigration as a necessity in order to protect their estates. They were able to use their power to manipulate the Highlanders and force them off their lands. Though it can be argued that the people in the Highlands may have left the region to seek a more profitable, stable life elsewhere despite the clearances, the clearances surely exacerbated the imbalance between the population, land, and resources, and led to economic and even cultural changes across the Highlands. 

One of the most well documented and controversial examples can be found with the Sutherland Clearances in the far north of Scotland. Removal of tenants on the Sutherland estate began towards the latter part of the eighteenth century, when Lady Sutherland was just a child and others managed her estate for her. During this time period, some families emigrated and others intended to move to planned coastal villages to seek other employment opportunities with the assistance of the Sutherland estate. However, this assistance did not prove fruitful as the Sutherland estate did not have enough money to build these fishing villages (Eric Richards, Patrick Sellar and the Highland Clearances, 1999). When Lady Sutherland married George Granville Leveson-Gower, the 1st Duke of Sutherland, in 1785, the estate came into money and debts began to be paid off. Improvements were made on the estate, though restructuring (involving the removal of tenants) had already begun. Lady Sutherland and her advisors, concerned about the potato famine and overpopulation, were encouraged by agricultural changes involving sheep — thus catapulting the estate into clearances for years to come (Eric Richards, The Leviathan of Wealth, 2013).

The Sutherland Clearances gradually became more and more dysfunctional, especially in the hands of Patrick Sellar, a key advisor to Lady Sutherland. Evicted tenants grew resentful and people began to riot and protest. As described by James Hunter in Set Adrift Upon the World (2015), when the evictions occurred, homes were sometimes burned to the ground so occupants could not come back to reclaim what was theirs. These houses were made out of materials that caught fire quickly and sometimes the flames would leap from house to house, causing massive destruction: 

Set Adrift Upon the World

At Grummore, the better part of 30 homes, together with all sorts of outbuildings, are likely to have had flames leaping more or less simultaneously from their roofs. The resulting spectacle – redolent of the sort of brute force normally given free rein only in times of war – must have been both terrifying and dispiriting. (Hunter, 2015)

There were even instances of violence directed towards tenants, including a potential homicide in which an elderly woman did not leave her burning house in time before being exposed to the fire, succumbing to her injuries days later. Patrick Sellar was charged with arson and culpable homicide due to his part in this destructive and deadly eviction process. Hunter illustrates the experiences of families who were evicted — in particular the Ross family, who were suddenly evicted from their home in 1821. The destructive eviction process was traumatizing for the Ross family, as the children were struck by wood and could be seen crying and trembling inside their home (Hunter, 2015).