Chartism
Chartism emerged in the United Kingdom between 1838 and 1857 as a working-class movement for political reform. The movement drew its name from the People's Charter of 1838. It was strongest during the years 1839, 1842, and 1848. Strongholds existed in Northern England, the East Midlands, the Staffordshire Potteries, the Black Country, and the South Wales Valleys. Working people in these areas depended on single industries and faced wild swings in economic activity. Places like Bristol had more diversified economies and showed less support for the cause.
The Reform Act of 1832 failed to extend voting rights beyond property owners. Political leaders of the working class claimed this was a great act of betrayal by the middle class. This sense of betrayal grew stronger due to actions taken by Whig governments in the 1830s. A hated new Poor Law Amendment passed in 1834 deprived working people of outdoor relief. The law drove the poor into workhouses where families were separated. A massive wave of opposition to this measure in the north of England made Chartism a mass movement in the late 1830s.
In 1836, the London Working Men's Association was founded by William Lovett and Henry Hetherington. This group provided a platform for Chartists in the southeast. The origins of Chartism in Wales can be traced to the foundation of the Carmarthen Working Men's Association in the autumn of 1836. Dorothy Thompson defines the movement as the time when thousands of working people considered that their problems could be solved by political organization.
Six Members of Parliament and six working men formed a committee in 1837. They published the People's Charter in 1838. This document set out the movement's six main aims. The achievement of these aims would give working men a say in lawmaking. They would be able to vote, their vote would be protected by a secret ballot, and they could stand for election to the House of Commons.
The first demand called for a vote for every man aged twenty-one years or above who was of sound mind and not undergoing punishment for a crime. The second reform required a secret ballot to protect the elector in the exercise of his vote. The third point removed property qualifications for Members of Parliament. This change allowed constituencies to return the man of their choice without financial barriers.
Payment of Members became the fourth requirement. This enabled tradesmen and working men of modest means to leave or interrupt their livelihood to attend to national interests. Equal constituencies formed the fifth goal. This secured the same amount of representation for the same number of electors instead of allowing less populous constituencies to have more weight than larger ones. Annual parliamentary elections served as the sixth check against bribery and intimidation since no purse could buy a constituency under universal manhood suffrage.
Chartism launched in 1838 through a series of large-scale meetings in Birmingham, Glasgow, and the north of England. A huge mass meeting held on Kersal Moor near Salford, Lancashire took place on the 24th of September 1838. Speakers from all over the country addressed the crowd. Joseph Rayner Stephens declared that Chartism was a knife and fork question and a bread and cheese question. These words indicated the importance of economic factors in the launch of the movement.
The movement organized a National Convention in London in early 1839 to facilitate the presentation of the first petition. Delegates used the term Member of Convention to identify themselves. The convention saw itself as an alternative parliament. In June 1839, a petition signed by 1.3 million working people was presented to the House of Commons. MPs voted by a large majority not to hear the petitioners.
Support for the movement reached its highest point when petitions signed by millions were presented to Parliament. The strategy employed used the scale of support demonstrated by these petitions and accompanying mass meetings to pressure politicians. This approach relied on constitutional methods to secure aims even though some became involved in insurrectionary activities notably in South Wales and Yorkshire.
Several outbreaks of violence ensued leading to arrests and trials. John Frost led several thousand marchers through South Wales to the Westgate Hotel in Newport, Monmouthshire on the night of 3, the 4th of November 1839. It seems that Frost and other local leaders expected to seize the town and trigger a national uprising. The hotel was occupied by armed soldiers. A brief violent and bloody battle ensued with shots fired by both sides.
Most contemporaries agree that the soldiers holding the building had vastly superior firepower. The Chartists were forced to retreat in disarray. More than twenty were killed and at least another fifty wounded. Testimonies exist from contemporaries such as the Yorkshire Chartist Ben Wilson stating that Newport was to have been the signal for a national uprising. Despite this significant setback the movement remained remarkably buoyant until late 1842.
Samuel Holberry led an abortive rising in Sheffield on the 12th of January while Robert Peddie attempted similar action in Bradford on the 26th of January. Both attempts were easily quashed because spies kept magistrates aware of the conspirators' plans. Frost and two other Newport leaders Jones and Williams were transported. Holberry died in prison and became a Chartist martyr.
A Chartist press thrived nationally and locally in the form of periodicals which were important for news editorials poetry and reports on international developments. The Poor Man's Guardian edited by Henry Hetherington dealt with questions of class solidarity manhood suffrage property and temperance. It condemned the Reform Act 1832 and explored the rhetoric of violence versus nonviolence. This paper was succeeded by the Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser published between 1837 and 1852.
In 1839 the Northern Star was the best-selling provincial newspaper in Britain with a circulation of 50,000 copies. Like other Chartist papers it was often read aloud in coffeehouses workplaces and open air settings. Other periodicals included the Northern Liberator from 1837 to 1840 and the English Chartist Circular from 1841 to 1843. These papers gave justifications for the demands of the People's Charter and accounts of local meetings.
Readers found denunciations of imperialism such as the First Opium War from 1839 to 1842. A hymnal printed as a 64-page pamphlet distributed for a nominal fee appeared between late 1844 and November 1845. In 2011 a previously unknown smaller pamphlet of 16 hymns was discovered in Todmorden Library in the North of England. Heavily influenced by dissenting Christians these hymns were about social justice striking down evildoers and blessing Chartist enterprises.
Chartism declined rapidly after 1848 though pockets of strong support remained in places like the Black Country throughout the 1850s. The final National Convention held in 1858 was attended by only a handful of delegates. Robert George Gammage blamed Chartism's decline on O'Connor's egotism and vanity but more recent historians see the process as too complex to attribute to one individual. Feargus O'Connor was the proprietor of the Northern Star and acknowledged leader of the movement.
O'Connor stood over six feet tall and possessed a voice that could carry open-air meetings of tens of thousands. He had a handsome appearance quick wit and rich vein of scurrility when abusing opponents. Many early historians attributed failure at least partly to his personality. Ernest Charles Jones became a leading figure during its decline together with George Julian Harney who helped give the movement a clearer socialist direction.
George Julian Harney served as editor of the Northern Star for five years from 1845 to 1850. He entered the movement straight from an active part in the fight against stamp duties on newspapers which is one of the highlights of 19th century radical action. Harney remained active throughout the years of mass influence and advocated the use of physical force.
Chartism did not directly generate any reforms but its demands appeared less threatening after 1848 and were gradually enacted by other reformers. Middle-class parliamentary Radicals continued to press for extension of the franchise in organizations like the National Parliamentary and Financial Reform Association. By the late 1850s John Bright agitated in the country for franchise reform while working-class radicals had not gone away.
In 1867 part of the urban working men was admitted to the franchise under the Reform Act 1867. Full manhood suffrage was achieved in 1918. Other points of the People's Charter were granted including secret voting introduced in 1872 and payment of MPs in 1911. Annual elections remain the only Chartist demand not implemented. Chartism has also been seen as a forerunner to the UK Labour Party.
Participation in the movement filled some working men with self-confidence. They learned to speak publicly send poems and writings off for publication and confidently articulate feelings of working people. Many former Chartists went on to become journalists poets ministers and councillors. In 1854 Chartist demands were put forward by miners at the Eureka Stockade on gold fields at Ballarat Victoria Australia.
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Common questions
What years did the Chartism movement exist in the United Kingdom?
Chartism existed as a working-class political reform movement between 1838 and 1857. The movement was strongest during the specific years of 1839, 1842, and 1848.
Who founded the London Working Men's Association that launched Chartism?
William Lovett and Henry Hetherington founded the London Working Men's Association in 1836 to provide a platform for Chartists in the southeast. This group helped establish the origins of the movement before the People's Charter was published in 1838.
When did the Newport Rising occur during the Chartism protests?
The Newport Rising took place on the night of the 3rd and the 4th of November 1839 when John Frost led several thousand marchers through South Wales to the Westgate Hotel. A violent battle ensued resulting in more than twenty deaths and at least fifty wounded before the Chartists were forced to retreat.
Which newspaper served as the best-selling provincial publication for Chartism in 1839?
The Northern Star was the best-selling provincial newspaper in Britain in 1839 with a circulation of 50,000 copies. George Julian Harney served as editor of this paper from 1845 to 1850 after it had been published between 1837 and 1852.
What six demands did the People's Charter outline for working men in 1838?
The People's Charter demanded universal manhood suffrage for men aged twenty-one years or above, a secret ballot, removal of property qualifications for Members of Parliament, payment of Members, equal constituencies, and annual parliamentary elections. These six points aimed to give working men a say in lawmaking without financial barriers.