Whose Birthday Is It? March 12, 2019

Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (1832)

Boycott was the estate agent for the Earl of Erne, an absentee landowner in County Mayo, Ireland, at a time when the Irish Land League was pressing for agrarian reform. In 1880, Boycott’s refusal to reduce rents for tenant farmers, combined with his attempted eviction of 11 of them, led the League to launch a campaign of ostracism and isolation—now known as a “boycott”—against him and his family. Upon finding himself suddenly without servants, farmhands, or local services, Boycott did what? More…

 

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