Charles Cunningham Boycott (1832 – 1897) era un amministratore terriero inglese che divenne tristemente famoso dopo essere stato osteggiato dalla comunità locale nella contea di Mayo in Irlanda, dando origine al verbo “to boycott”, adottato anche in italiano come “boicottare”. Boycott è arrivato in Irlanda come ufficiale dell’esercito britannico e dopo il congedo dall’esercito, prese il posto come amministratore terriero per Lord Erne, un latifondista assente che viveva grazie agli affitti esorbitanti che imponeva ai suoi inquilini. Gli sfratti ordinati da Boycott furono numerosi e sanguinosi.
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Charles Boycott was born on 12th March 1832 and joined the army in 1850, when his family bought a commission for him. Soon after joining the army, Boycott’s regiment was transferred to Ireland, first to Belfast and later to Dublin.
In 1853, Boycott left the army, sold his commission, and took up employment as an uncompromising land agent for Lord Erne, the absentee landowner of a sprawling estate in County Mayo in the north-west of Ireland.
In the year 1880 there was a disastrous harvest in Ireland which left many farmers starving and unable to pay their full rent. However, rather than asking for a handout, the farmers on Lord Erne’s estate tried to persuade Boycott to temporarily reduce their rent by 25 percent in order to survive the winter.
But the intransigent land agent, totally indifferent to the gravity of the crisis and utterly convinced that the farmers would bow to his absolute authority, set the wheels in motion to evict families from their homes.
What he had not taken into account, however, was the Irish National Land League and its leader, Charles Parnell. On hearing of Boycott’s eviction plans, Parnell proposed an innovative strategy of total social isolation, instructing the local people to treat Boycott like a leper.
When Boycott tried to hire local workers to harvest his crops, nobody showed up. When he walked into the local shops to buy supplies, the shopkeepers refused to serve him. Postmen refused to deliver his mail, and his servants deserted him, leaving him to cook his own meals and clean for himself. Some business owners were even threatened with violence to ensure their compliance. Boycott found himself a marked man, not fearing violence but even worse the scorn, silence, and disdain of everyone he encountered.
Eventually, a desperate Boycott wrote a letter to ‘The Times’ depicting himself as a victim of the Land League. The campaign against Boycott became a huge issue in the British press and in the end the British government sent 50 Ulster loyalist farmers with 1,000 soldiers to protect them while they harvested the crops. The operation cost the government at least £10,000 to harvest a crop worth only about £500.
It was a hollow victory and Charles Boycott was a broken man. In December that same year he fled from Ireland in a carriage protected by a military escort and returned to England where he continued to work as a land agent until his death in 1897 at the age of 65.
His name, however, was no longer just a name. It had entered the English language as a verb and a noun to describe the most powerful, non-violent weapon in history.
