The most profound challenge to the new regime of enclosure and commerce came from the Diggers, whose spokesman Winstanley addressed the question of property with remarkable theological bravado. In April 1649, Winstanley and several others occupied a piece of common land on St. George’s Hill, in Surrey, just outside London. After tearing down fences and other enclosures, they planted vegetables and invited “all to come in and help them.” Reviving the ethos of the medieval countryside, they declared that England would never be free until all enjoyed a “free allowance to dig and labor the
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