Ever wondered where the term "to boycott" came from? On this Day: 1897 Charles “boycott” dies in England. Captain Charles Boycott was a British landlord's agent, a man whose job was to collect rents from tenant farmers on an estate in Mayo and northwest Ireland. At the time, landlords, many of whom were British, were exploiting Irish tenant farmers, and as part of a protest, the farmers on the estate where Boycott worked demanded a reduction in their rents. Boycott refused their demands, and evicted some tenants. The Irish Land League advocated that people in the area not attack Boycott, but rather use a new tactic: refuse to do business with him at all. The “boycott” was substantially instigated by Charles Stuart Parnell who on September 19th 1880 a few days prior to the (non) action against Boycott had suggested in a speech that unfit landlords should be shunned: “Shun him in the streets of the town, you must shun him in the shop, you must shun him in the fairgreen and in the marketplace, and even in the place of worship, by leaving him alone, by putting him in a moral Coventry, by isolating him from the rest of his country as if he were the leper of old, you must show your detestation of the crime he has committed”. This new form of protest was effective, there was a withdrawal of local labour required to harvest the crops on Lord Erne's estate that began a campaign of isolation against Boycott in the local community. This campaign included the refusal of shops in nearby Ballinrobe to serve him, and the withdrawal of laundry services. According to Boycott, the boy who carried his mail was threatened with violence if he continued. The boycott garnered national attention when the Captain wrote a letter to the London Times as to his situation. Boycott left Ireland on 1st December 1880. By the end of 1880 newspapers in Britain began using the word the way we know it today, not as a person's proper name, but as a tactic of protest. Attached: Photo of Charles Boycott.