The Methodist Revival of the 18th century AD turned Wales from a nation that was largely indifferent to religion – the Anglican Church (the Church of England) being seen as the preserve of the English elite – into a land of Chapel-goers. Methodism, with its emphasis on individual experience and redemption, also brought new ideas about society and politics. Methodists, like other Protestants who had split from the Anglican Church, were called Nonconformists.

A parallel revival in Welsh literature produced many radical young literary figures. Only members of the Church of England could study at the universities, but Nonconformist academies were set up where Welsh students could read the works of Enlightenment philosophers and reformers. The American Declaration of Independence (1776) and the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) increased the enthusiasm of these young Radicals.

In 1795, a Carmarthenshire Unitarian minister Thomas Evans (Tomos Glyn Cothi) started a radical Welsh periodical, Y Drysorfa Gymmysgedig, which attacked tyranny and slavery and praised the French Revolution. Other writers like Thomas Edwards (Twm o’r Nant) satirised Welsh social conditions; absentee landlords and their unscrupulous agents were particular targets. The outbreak of war with France (1793) and the subsequent Reign of Terror in France led to Government repression and Radicalism ceased to be a powerful force.