Sentenced to Hang

The early 1790s were a turbulent period in an increasinglydivided England, nowhere more so than inBirmingham, where a strengthening Republican threat inevitably prompted adesperate Anglican and Tory backlash. As a young Birmingham metal-worker who was there, Billy gives a vivid first-hand account of the part he and his friends played in the Birmingham Riots of 1791, and the resulting trials which attracted the attention of the whole country. Through Billy's eyes the reader comes to understand the social and political unrest of those turbulent times.

Billy Hands describes his life as a common butwell-respected metal-worker. Billy wasalso invited to be a servant member of a remarkably egalitarian gentlemen's BirminghamAthletic Society. When some of thegentlemen members were developing plans for some anti-Republican riots, Billyheard and understood the gentlemen's reasons.

Thus, Billy's story provides an important insight into public disorderin England that still applies to this day.