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The Great Chartist Meeting on Kennington Common
The Great Chartist Meeting on Kennington Common
For chartism in financial markets see technical analysis, and for the British socialist journal, see Chartist (magazine)

Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century between 1838 and 1848. Technical analysis is a Financial markets technique that claims the ability to forecast the future direction of security prices through the study of past market Chartist is a bi-monthly Democratic socialist magazine published in Britain since the 1970s Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions Reform Movement redirects here For specific organizations by that name see Reform Movement (disambiguation A reform movement is a kind The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838, which stipulated the six main aims of the movement as:

Chartism was possibly the first mass working class movement in the world. Universal suffrage (also universal adult suffrage, general suffrage or common suffrage) consists of the extension of the right to vote to An election is a Decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office The secret ballot is a voting method in which a Voter 's choices are confidential Its leaders have often been described as either "physical-" or "moral-force" leaders, depending upon their attitudes to violent protest.

Contents

Origin

Chartism followed earlier Radical movements, such as the Birmingham Political Union which demanded a widening of the franchise, and came after the passing of the Reform Act 1832, which gave the vote to a section of the male middle classes, but not to the "working class" which was then, because of social and industrial conditions, emerging from artisan and labouring classes. For opposition to all forms of government social hierarchy or authority see Anarchism. The Birmingham Political Union was a political organisation in Great Britain during the early nineteenth century Suffrage (from the Latin suffragium, meaning "voting tablet" and figuratively "right to vote" probably from suffrago "hough" and originally The Representation of the People Act 1832, commonly known as the Reform Act 1832, was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system The middle class, in colloquial usage consists of those who have some economic independence but not a great deal of social Influence or power. Working class is a term used in academic Sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe depending on context and speaker those employed in specific fields or types An artisan, also called a Craftsman, is a skilled manual worker who crafts items that may be functional or strictly decorative including furniture clothing Many Radicals made speeches on the "betrayal" of the working class and the "sacrificing" of their "interests" by the "misconduct" of the government, in conjunction with this model. Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured deliberate manner intended to inform influence or entertain the listeners D. C. Moore, however, cites that the enfranchisement is better understood with a five tier model consisting of Upper, Upper and Lower Middle and Upper and Lower Working classes. Using this model, The Upper and Upper Middle classes had gained the vote after the Reform Act 1832, and it was the lower middle and upper working classes that joined the Chartist movement. The Representation of the People Act 1832, commonly known as the Reform Act 1832, was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system The Lower working class, Moore states, were not educated sufficiently to see any interest in, and thus involve themselves with, the movement.

Chartism included a wide range of organizations. Hence it can be seen as not so much a movement as an era in popular politics in Britain. Dorothy Thompson described the theme of her book The Chartists as the time when "thousands of working people considered that their problems could be solved by the political organization of the country. Dorothy Thompson (née Towers) (born 1923 is a social historian a leading expert on the Chartist movement "

In 1837, six Members of Parliament and six working men, including William Lovett, (from the London Working Men's Association, set up in 1836) formed a committee, which then published the People's Charter, containing the six objectives listed above. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. William Lovett (Born Newlyn, Cornwall 1800 died 1877 was a British Activist and an important leader of the political movement Chartism The London Working Men's Association was an organization established in London in 1838.

The first wave

Chartist Riot
Chartist Riot

When these demands were first published in May 1838, they received a lukewarm response from Northern Star's Feargus O'Connor and other Radicals, being seen as too moderate (Thompson, 1984, p. The Northern Star was a Chartist newspaper published in the United Kingdom between 1837 and 1852. Feargus Edward O'Connor (1794 &ndash August 30, 1855) was an Irish Chartist leader and advocate of the Land Plan For opposition to all forms of government social hierarchy or authority see Anarchism. 58). But it soon became clear that the charter had struck a chord among common people. A large meeting was held on Kersal Moor, Salford near Manchester on 1838-09-28 which attracted a large crowd to listen to speakers from all over the country. Kersal Moor is an area of Moorland in Kersal, within the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England, consisting of eight Salford lies at the heart of the City of Salford, a Metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. Year 1838 ( MDCCCXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 48 BC - Pompey the Great is assassinated on orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt. Speaking in favour of universal suffrage Joseph Rayner Stephens was quoted as saying that Chartism was a "knife and fork, a bread and cheese question" [1]

Dorothy Thompson quotes John Bates as saying:

There were [radical] associations all over the county, but there was a great lack of cohesion. One wanted the ballot, another manhood suffrage and so on. . . The radicals were without unity of aim and method, and there was but little hope of accomplishing anything. When, however, the Peoples Charter was drawn up. . . clearly defining the urgent demands of the working class, we felt we had a real bond of union; and so transformed our Radical Association into local Chartist centres. . . .

The movement organized a convention of 50 to facilitate the presentation of the petition. This met in London from February 1839 until May, when it moved to Birmingham. Though they took pains to keep within the law, the more radical activists were able to see it as the embryo of an alternative parliament (John Charlton, The Chartists p. 19). The convention called for a number of "ulterior measures" which ranged from calling on their supporters to withdraw their money from saving banks to a call for a sacred month, in effect a general strike. A general strike is a Strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city region or country Meetings were held around the country and in June 1839 a large petition was presented to the House of Commons. A petition is a request to change some thing most commonly made to a government official or public entity The House of Commons' is the Lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords Parliament, by a large majority, voted not to even hear the petitioners. When the petition was refused, many advocated the widespread use of force as the only means of attaining their aims.

Several outbreaks of violence ensued, leading to several arrests and trials. One of the leaders of the movement, John Frost, on trial for treason, claimed in his defence that he had toured his territory of industrial Wales urging people not to break the law, although he was himself guilty of using language that some might interpret as being a call to arms. John Frost ( 25 May 1784, Newport Monmouthshire — 27 July 1877, Stapleton Bristol) was a prominent leader of the In Law, treason is the Crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or Nation. Frost's attitudes and stance, often seen as ambivalent, after setbacks and violence including loss of life, led another Chartist to describe Frost as putting 'a sword in my hand and a rope around my neck'. Nevertheless, Frost had placed himself in the vanguard of the Chartist movement by 1839. When another prominent member, Henry Vincent, was arrested in the summer of 1839 for making inflammatory speeches, the die was cast. Henry Vincent (born 10 May 1813) was active in the formation in Britain of early Working Men's Associations a popular Chartist leader brilliant and gifted

Instead of the carefully plotted military rising that some had suspected, Frost led a column of marchers through South Wales to the Westgate Hotel, Newport, Monmouthshire where he initiated a confrontation. The Westgate Hotel is a historic building in the Newport city centre and is famous as the scene of the 1839 Chartist riot Newport (Casnewydd is a city and principal area in Wales, in the United Kingdom. Ancient county See also Monmouthshire (historic The ancient county of Monmouthshire was formed from the Welsh Marches by the Laws in Wales Some have suggested that the roots of this confrontation lay in Frost's frequent personal conflicts with various influential members of the local establishment; others, that Chartist leaders were expecting the Chartists to seize the town, preventing the mail reaching London and triggering a national uprising: it is generally acknowledged that Frost and other Chartist leaders did not agree on the course of action adopted. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Rebellion is a refusal of obedienceIt may therefore be seen as encompassing a range of Behaviours from Civil disobedience and mass Nonviolent resistance

The result was a disaster in political and military terms. The hotel was occupied not only by the representatives of the town's merchant classes and the local squirearchy, but by sixty or more armed soldiers. Landed gentry is a term traditionally applied in Britain to those people of a certain type and education who possess land in the form of country estates often (but A brief, violent, and bloody battle ensued. Shots were fired by both sides, although most contemporaries agree that the soldiers holding the building had vastly superior firepower. The Chartists did manage to enter the building temporarily, but were forced to retreat in disarray: twenty were killed, another fifty wounded.

Testimonies exist from contemporaries, such as the Yorkshire Chartist Ben Wilson, that Newport was to have been the signal for a national uprising if successful. "Testify" redirects here For other uses see Testify (disambiguation and Testimony (disambiguation. Instead Chartism slipped into a period of internal division and acrimonious debate as to the way forward with many of its leaders arrested, imprisoned and facing serious charges.

In early May 1842, a further petition, of over three million signatures, was submitted, which was yet again rejected by parliament. The Northern Star commented on the rejection:

Three and half millions have quietly, orderly, soberly, peaceably but firmly asked of their rulers to do justice; and their rulers have turned a deaf ear to that protest. The Northern Star was a Chartist newspaper published in the United Kingdom between 1837 and 1852. Three and a half millions of people have asked permission to detail their wrongs, and enforce their claims for RIGHT, and the 'House' has resolved they should not be heard! Three and a half millions of the slave-class have holden out the olive branch of peace to the enfranchised and privileged classes and sought for a firm and compact union, on the principle of EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW; and the enfranchised and privileged have refused to enter into a treaty! The same class is to be a slave class still. The mark and brand of inferiority is not to be removed. The assumption of inferiority is still to be maintained. The people are not to be free.

The depression of 1841–1842 led to a wave of strikes in which Chartist activists were in the forefront, and demands for the charter were included alongside economic demands. In 1842, workers went on strike in the Midlands, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and parts of Scotland in favour of Chartist principles. Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal by Employees to perform work. This article is mainly about the English Midlands For other uses see Midlands (disambiguation. Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea Yorkshire is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. These industrial disputes were collectively known as the Plug Plot; as in many cases, protesters removed the plugs from steam boilers powering industry to prevent their use. Although the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, advocated a non-interventionalist policy, the Duke of Wellington insisted on the deployment of mounted cavalry and armed troops to deal with the strikers. Sir Robert Peel 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 &ndash 2 July 1850 was the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, KP, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS ( c Several Chartist leaders, including Feargus O'Connor, George Julian Harney, and Thomas Cooper were arrested, along with nearly 1,500 others. Feargus Edward O'Connor (1794 &ndash August 30, 1855) was an Irish Chartist leader and advocate of the Land Plan George Julian Harney ( 17 February 1817 - 9 December 1897) was a 19th century English political activist journalist and Chartist Thomas Cooper ( March 20, 1805 – July 15, 1892) was a Chartist Poet. 79 people were sentenced, with sentences ranging from 7 to 21 years, transportation to Australia and even death. In Law, a sentence forms the final act of a Judge -ruled process and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function

Despite this second set of arrests, Chartist activity continued. Beginning in 1843, O'Connor suggested that the land contained the solution to workers' problems. This idea evolved into the Chartist Co-Operative Land Company, later called the National Land Company. British Land Company PLC ( is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. Workers would buy shares in the company, and the company would use those funds to purchase estates that would be subdivided into 2, 3, and 4 acre (8,000, 12,400 and 16,000 m²) lots. Between 1844 and 1848, five estates were purchased, subdivided, and built on, and then settled by lucky shareholders, who were chosen by lot. Unfortunately for O'Connor, in 1848 a Select Committee was appointed to investigate the financial viability of the scheme, and it was ordered to shut down. Cottages built by the Chartist Land Company are still standing and inhabited today in Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire[2] and on the outskirts of London. Rosedene, a Chartist cottage in Dodford, Worcestershire, is owned and maintained by the National Trust, and is open to visitors by appointment. Dodford is a small village approximately 3 miles west of Bromsgrove that was founded in 1849 by members of the Chartist movement The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organization in England, Wales

The Chartists also stood in general elections, from the election of 1841 to the election of 1859, and O'Connor was elected in the general election of 1847. Results |} Total votes 593445 Voting summary Seats summary Results |} Total votes cast 565500 Results |} Total votes cast 482429 "Others" includes Irish Confederate Party. Harney stood for Election against Lord Palmerston in Tiverton, Devon in 1847. Tiverton is an English town in the County of Devon. The administrative centre for the Mid Devon district its population is about 18500 Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name

The 1848 petition

Poster advertising the Great Chartist Meeting.
Poster advertising the Great Chartist Meeting.

At the start of 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto in London, advocating a European revolution. Year 1848 ( MDCCCXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895 was a German social scientist and philosopher, who Manifesto of the Communist Party ( often referred to as The Communist Manifesto, was first published on February 21, 1848, and is London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. It was to be led by the workers of the countries most advanced towards capitalism. Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where In the following months Paris, Berlin, Vienna and finally Italy erupted into revolution although it is debated how much effect the Communist Manifesto had on these events. Manifesto of the Communist Party ( often referred to as The Communist Manifesto, was first published on February 21, 1848, and is

On 10 April 1848, Feargus O'Connor organized a mass meeting on Kennington Common, which would form a procession to present another petition to Parliament. Events 879 - Louis III becomes King of the Western Franks. 1407 - the lama Year 1848 ( MDCCCXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Feargus Edward O'Connor (1794 &ndash August 30, 1855) was an Irish Chartist leader and advocate of the Land Plan Kennington Park is in Kennington London England, in London SE11, and lies between Kennington Park Road and St Agnes Place. The estimate of the number of attendees varies depending on the source (O'Connor estimated 300,000; the government, 15,000; The Sunday Observer suggested 50,000, which was more accurate). The Observer is a British Newspaper published on Sundays In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The According to John Charlton the government was well aware that the Chartists had no intention of staging an uprising as they had established an extensive network of spies. However, they were very afraid that they could have been mis-informed or that a revolution would start spontaneously. To counter this threat they organized a very large show of force. 8,000 soldiers were in London that day, along with 150,000 special constables. In any case, the meeting was peaceful. However the military had threatened to intervene if the Chartists made any attempt to cross the Thames.

In a separate incident, rioters in Manchester attempted to storm the hated workhouse. A pitched battle resulted with Chartists fighting the police, eventually the mob was broken up, but rioters roamed the streets of Manchester for three days.

The original plan of the Chartists, if the petition was ignored, was to create a separate national assembly and press the Queen to dissolve parliament until the charter was introduced into law. However the Chartists were plagued with indecision, and the national assembly eventually dissolved itself, claiming lack of support.

The petition O'Connor presented to Parliament was claimed to have only 1,957,496 signatures – far short of the 5,706,000 he had stated and many of which were discovered to be forgeries (some of the false signatories included Queen Victoria, Mr Punch and 'Pugnose'). Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901 was from 20 June 1837 the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Punch and Judy is a traditional popular English Puppet show featuring the characters of Punch and his wife Judy However, O'Connor argued that many people were illiterate, and did not know how to write their own signatures, and so had to copy someone else's. O'Connor has been accused of destroying the credibility of Chartism, but the movement continued for some years, with the final National Convention being held in 1858

Legacy

Although the Chartist movement itself eventually petered out, its aims were taken up by others. Middle class parliamentary Radicals continued to press for universal franchise, and were joined by some supporters of the Anti-Corn Law League, with John Bright and the Reform League agitating in the country. The Radicals were a parliamentary political grouping in the United Kingdom in the early to mid 19th century who drew on earlier ideas of radicalism and helped to The Anti-Corn Law League was in effect the resumption of the Anti-Corn Law Association which had been created in London in 1836 but did not obtain widespread popularity John Bright ( 16 November 1811 &ndash 27 March 1889) Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal The Reform League was established in 1865 to press for manhood Suffrage and the ballot in Great Britain. The parliamentary Radicals joined with the a section of the Whig Party and the anti-protectionist Tory Peelites to form the Liberal Party by 1859. The Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to In the political tradition of some English-speaking countries, the term Tory has referred to a variety of political parties and Creeds since it was The Peelites were a breakaway faction of the British Conservative Party, and existed from 1846 to 1859. The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s and a third party The Liberal William Ewart Gladstone, a former Tory, introduced the Reform Bill of 1866, which did not pass the Commons and forced the resignation of the government.

However, Benjamin Disraeli's ensuing (minority) Conservative government carried through the Reform Act of 1867, doubling the electorate in the process. The Reform Act 1867 (also known as the Second Reform Act, and formally titled the Representation of the People Act 1867) 30 & 31 Vict Furthermore, the Ballot Act of 1872 introduced the secret ballot. In 1872 Gladstone introduced the Ballot Act, which required that British general elections to Parliament and local government election use the Only the last of the Chartist aims – annual Parliaments – never came to pass.

Chartism was also an important influence in the British colonies. In 1854 Chartist demands were put forward by the miners at the Eureka Stockade on the gold fields at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Mining is the extraction of valuable Minerals or other geological materials from the earth usually (but not always from an Ore body The Eureka Stockade was the setting of a gold miners' Revolt in 1854 near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia against the officials supervising the Gold (ˈɡoʊld is a Chemical element with the symbol Au (from its Latin name aurum) and Atomic number 79 Ballarat (formerly spelt "Ballaarat" is a city in Victoria, Australia, and one of the country's largest inland cities For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Within one year of the military suppression of the Eureka revolt, all the demands, except annual parliaments, had been met. Rebellion is a refusal of obedienceIt may therefore be seen as encompassing a range of Behaviours from Civil disobedience and mass Nonviolent resistance

See also

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.victorianweb.org/history/chartism.html Retrieved on 2008-02-07
  2. ^ http://www.chartists.net/Chartist-Land-Plan-1845-50.htm - Lowbands now in Gloucestershire

References

External links

Resources

Articles

Dictionary

chartism

-noun

  1. (finance) The practices and methodologies of chartists.
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