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The riots in Birmingham, also known as the Priestley riots, took place from July 14 to 17, 1791 in Birmingham, England. Dissenters from the Church of England and, in particular, the theologian and political philosopher Joseph Priestley, are the main target of rioters. The local and national events, which raise the passion of the crowds, go to a disagreement over the purchase of books by public libraries until the controversy over attempts by dissidents to obtain equal rights with those of other citizens of the kingdom, through their support of the French Revolution.

The riots began with an attack on a hotel which stands a banquet to celebrate the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. Then, beginning with the church and the home of Priestley, the rioters attacked or burned four Dissenting chapels, twenty-seven houses and several shops. Many of them get drunk with the alcohol found in places looted or that offered them so they n’incendient not a particular building. Rioters burned not only houses and chapels of Dissenters, but also the homes of people known to be favorable to their cause, as members of the scientific community of the Lunar Society.

Even if the riots were not organized by the government of Prime Minister William Pitt, it is very slow to respond to the call using the Dissenters. Local officials in Birmingham have probably been involved in the preparation of the Aion kinah and will later be reluctant to prosecute the ringleaders. Industrialist James Watt wrote that the riots “divided [Birmingham] in both camps who disliked” . Those who have been victims of rioters gradually leave Birmingham, abandoning a city become more conservative than it was throughout the eighteenth century.