A popular protest movement by Welsh peasants and agricultural labourers in W Wales in the late 1830s and early 1840s. An important target of the hostility was the heavy tolls imposed at toll-gates, but the riots were an expression of more general discontent with low wages and poor conditions. The rioters took their text from Genesis 24:60: And they blessed Rebecca and said unto her, let thy seed possess the gates of those which hate thee. Each band of rioters had a Rebecca for a leader - often a man disguised as a woman. In 1844 an Act to consolidate and amend the Laws relating to Turnpike Trusts in Wales ended the protest.
The Rebecca Riots took place between 1839 and 1844 in South and Mid Wales. They were a protest against the high tolls which had to be paid on the local Turnpike roads.
The many toll-gates on the roads were operated by trusts which were supposed to maintain and even improve the roads.
These gangs became known as Rebecca's Daughters (Welsh: Merched Beca) or merely the Rebeccas. The origin of their name is said to be a verse in the Bible, Genesis 24:60 - 'And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them'.
Others have suggested that the leader of the protests, Thomas Rees (Twm Carnabwth), wore women's clothes as a disguise when leading attacks (one could be hanged for rioting in those days).
Rees was the first Rebecca and he destroyed the toll-gates at Yr Efail Wen in Carmarthenshire in 1839. However, other communities also adopted the name and disguise, and other grievances besides the toll gates were aired in the riots.
The riots ceased after several of the ring leaders were caught and transported to Australia.
The protests prompted several reforms, including a Royal Commission into the question of toll roads.
The Rebecca Riots in fiction
The Rebecca Riots were the setting for the novel, "Hosts of Rebecca", by Alexander Cordell, Blorenge Books, ISBN 1-872730-19-1
In 1948 Dylan Thomas wrote the screenplay for a film, Rebecca's Daughters, and eighteen years later (in 1966) a novel of the same name.
See also:
The IMDB entry for the film Rebecca's Daughters at http://imdb.com/title/tt0105222/;
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