Question

Who was Captain Swing? What did the name symbolize or represent?

Answer 1

Hint:It is not the name of a single or specific individual. It is associated with the peasant and labour riots of England. It is also a significant example of class struggles.

Complete answer:
Captain Swing" was the mythical leader of the laboring rural poor who rose up to destroy threshing machines in England in 1830. Captain Swing did not exist, but he came to represent the moral fury of the crowds of impoverished, determined laborers.
The social situation in England during the 1820-30 was very brittle and fraught. The disgruntled and angry peasants and labourers rioted against the laws, landholders, the authority of the church and increasing industrialization. These riots came to be known as the Swing Riots on account of the mythical 'Captain Swing' who was supposed to be a leader of the charge.
The name actually does not represent any single person. It was the pseudonym that the labourers used to sign off the letters and notes about their demands and the warnings to the landholders. It was originally a means to escape identification and trial, but gradually came to be a unifying force.
The name symbolised the oppression that the peasants and labourers faced and their demands for better conditions.
The rioters mostly vandalized property and destroyed the mills. Though the riots were widespread, there were very few human casualties. Their anger was mostly directed towards the machines that were increasingly replacing them leading to unemployment.

Note:The Swing riots began in August 1830 in the southeast of England.
The increasing unemployment and low wages of labourers was due to the return of soldiers and sailors after the Battle of Waterloo (1815). Around 250,000 men were demobilized.
Parliamentary acts of enclosure was the reason why the smaller peasants and farmers were getting poorer and desperate.
The English government and aristocratic society did not realize the problem in the beginning and blamed french agents for inciting trouble.