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AS History (Britain, 1830-1885: Representation and Reform) > Challenges and consequences: Chartism 1841-58 > Flashcards

Challenges and consequences: Chartism 1841-58 Flashcards

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1
Q

Why wasn’t the Chartist movement in disarray after the wave of arrests and trials in 1839-40?

A
  • The desire to persuade parliament to accept the 6 points was still there
  • In August 1839, Henry Hetherington headed up a chartist revival in Scotland with delegates meeting in Glasgow to promote Charisma
  • In April 1840, Henry Hetherington set up a Metropolitan Charter Union in England
  • Although in Prison, Feargus O’Connor continued to write letters to the Northern Star, championing the chartist cause and pointing to the way forward
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2
Q

When was the National Charter Association created?

A

July 1840

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3
Q

How many members did the NCA claim to have in April 1841?

A

13,000

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4
Q

How many members did the NCA claim to have in April 1842?

A

50,000

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5
Q

What were the reasons behind the huge growth in the NCA ?

A
  • Partly due to an economic downturn
  • Mostly to do with Feargus O’Connor’s influence. He influenced NCA policy while in prison through letters and directives to leading Chartists through his column in the Northern Star.
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6
Q

How did the NCA fund propaganda activities and the payment of officials?

A

Through a mass membership paying subscriptions

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7
Q

When was the second Chartist petition?

A

1842

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8
Q

How well organised was the second chartist petition compared to the first?

A

It was far more competently organised

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9
Q

How many signatures did the second chartist petition get?

A

3,317,752

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10
Q

How did the House of Commons vote towards the second chartist petition?

A

They voted 287 to 49 not to consider the petition

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11
Q

What did William Lovett do in 1839 while in the Warwick prison?

A

He wrote “Chartism: A New Organization for the People.” With John Collins (another chartist)

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12
Q

What did Lovett’s and Collin’s book “Chartism: A New Organization for the People.” Say?

A

It proposed a national system of education, funded by a penny tax on all those who signed the Chartist petition.

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13
Q

Why was Lovett convince3d that it was essential to educate the Working Class?

A

He thought it was essential to educate the working classes .

  • It would make them worthy of the vote.
  • It would make the middle class also believe they were worthy of the vote
  • it would make them able to use the vote intelligently.
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14
Q

When was Lovett released from prison?

A

July 1840

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15
Q

What did Lovett begin to do, once he was released from prison in the summer of 1840?

A

He began to implement his scheme for a “national association for the moral, social and political improvement of the people”.

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16
Q

What was Feargus O’Connor’s reaction to Lovett’s new scheme of the National Association?

A
  • He was furious,
  • denounced Lovett’s scheme in the Northern Star, criticising it as destroying Chariot unity.
  • He used his position within the National Charter Association to stir up opposition to Lovett and the National Association
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17
Q

What was the response from the people from O’Connor’s criticism of Lovett’s National Association scheme?

A
  • O’Connor’s criticism of Lovett’s scheme worked
  • In the northern industrial towns, Lovett and Collin’s work was roundly condemned as deflecting Charisma from its main objective.
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18
Q

What happened economically and socially in the summer of 1842?

A

The country was plunged into a severe industrial depression and waves of riots and strikes swept through the industrial areas of the Midlands and North.

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19
Q

When were the plug riots?

A

Summer of 1842

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20
Q

What were the events which led to the plug riots?

A
  • It began with wage cutting by mine owners in Staffordshire.
  • Trouble quickly spread to the textile industry, when the mill owners of Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge decided to reduce wages in the face of a trade downturn
  • Mass meetings and marches followed
  • By 11 August most of the cotton mills, dye works nada machine shops in Manchester and the surrounding area had stopped work, leaving approx. 50,000 workmen idle.
  • Unrest quickly spread across the Pennies to Yorkshire, where one of the techniques used by strikers was to draw the plugs from boilers, thus putting out the furnaces. This prevented employers bringing in strike-breaking workers.
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21
Q

When were the plug riots and strikes largely supressed by?

A

They were largely suppressed by October 1842

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22
Q

How many arrests were made during the plug riots?

A

1500

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23
Q

What was the link with the Chartists and the Plug Riots?

A
  • It would seem that the chartists didn’t initiate the sakes and violence.
  • They were quick to take advantage of the riots, particularly as many strikers were chartists.
  • Not all chartists agreed with the NCA giving official support to the strike, although the majority agreed with O’Connor that they had been presented with a marvellous opportunity to show Chartist solidarity with the trades delegates.
24
Q

What was the harvest of 1842-43 like and what was the impact of this?

A
  • The harvest of 1942-43 was a good one.
  • The economic depression had lifted
  • There was work to be had and strikers returned to their workplaces.
  • There were no further serious outbreaks of unrest until 1848
25
Q

What happened to the economy in 1847?

A

There was a sharp economic downturn in 1847, caused by a commercial crisis and a bad harvest

26
Q

What happened to chartism in 1848?

A
  • In the early months of 1848, there was a revival of Chartist activity, and signatures were collected for a third national petition
  • A chartist convention met in London and organised a mass meeting for 10th April.
27
Q

What was the Chartist plan in 1848?

A

The plan was to assemble on Kennington common on the 10th April and march from there to present the third petition to parliament

28
Q

What was the media attention to the chartism convention in 1848?

A

-The proceedings of the convention were reported in detail in the newspapers

29
Q

Why had tension heightened in 1848 to do with Europe?

A

Tension was heightened by recent events in Europe: a series of revolutions, triggered by popular protests in capital cities had toppled old regimes across several countries

30
Q

What was the government reaction to the threat of revolution in 1848?

A
  • The queen was moved to the safety of Osborne on the Isle of Wight.
  • The duke of Wellington was put in charge of the defence of London
  • 8000 soldiers were called up along with 1500 Chelsea pensioners and some 150,000 constables enrolled
31
Q

What did the Police ask Feargus O’Connor to do in 1848?

A

They hacked him to deliver the third petition to parliament himself and not at the head of a large procession of chariots. O’Connor agreed

32
Q

What happened on the 10th April 1848 (the day of the third petition)?

A
  • Crowds ooh chariots assembled on Kennington common and listened to O’Connor address the virtues of the Charter
  • Numbers in the crowd vary from O’Connor (500,000), Gammage (170,000-150,000) and Russell (12,000-15,000). The real value is probably around 20,000
  • There was no violence and the crowd dispersed peacefully after having listens to O’Connor
  • The petition was then taken to parliament
33
Q

What happened to the third petition in 1842?

A
  • This time the government read the petition
  • The signatures were counted and inspected and found that there weren’t 6 million but more like 2 million signatures. Also a lot of them were clearly fake names and some were written in the same handwriting
  • The government easily turned it into a laughing stock
34
Q

What sub-categories can the question “why did the chartists fail to achieve the six points of the People’s charter” be divided into?

A
  • Leadership
  • Feargus O’Connor’s leadership
  • Tactics
  • power of the state
35
Q

What were the problems with Chartism leadership?

A

-William Lovett was a moral force Chartist and O’Connor was a physical force chartist and they couldn’t work together.

36
Q

What did critics say about O’Connor’s leadership style?

A
  • He was criticised as being indecisive and a coward
  • Contemporary critics such as William Lovett and Robert Gammage disliked O’Connor’s leadership style and didn’t like his blustering language. They believed he had fatal character flaws like a desire for domination and an inflated sense of his own importance.
37
Q

What are some examples of O’Connor’s indecisive leadership?

A
  • In 1839 O’Connor initially approved of the idea of a general strike, but later persuaded the Chartism convention to abandon it.
  • During ghee Plug riots in 1842, O’Connor was overtaken by events, only belatedly and half-heartedly giving support. He originally thought that the riots were part of a middle class plot
  • In 1848, O’Connor was ridiculed for his decision to hold a mass meeting on Kennington Common, while at the same time timely accepting the government ban on the planned procession to parliament
38
Q

What are some examples of O’Connor’s decisive leadership?

A
  • In 1839, consulting with local associations and recognising that the “sacred month” was impractical
  • In 1842 with the plug riots, you could say he was right to have doubts about Chartists assuming national leadership over a series of diverse economic protests than had not been coherently planned.
39
Q

Was O’Connor to blame for the 1848 failure?

A
  • O’Connor’s actions were a gift to the authorities.
  • He has located the meeting on the wrong side of the River Thames, indicating that a revolutionary clash was not intended
  • O’Connor was convinced o the moral principles behind chartism and that the injustice of government would be revealed by chartism protests.
  • The threat of physical confrontation was a necessary strategy, but O’Connor was not prepared to “sacrifice” his supporters simply to create propaganda.
40
Q

What is one of the problems with a traditional interpretation that splits Chartism into neat categories of Moral and Physical force?

A
  • It tends to take too literal a view of the language used by chartists.
  • It is important to realise that the use of inflammatory language should not be confused with actual violence
41
Q

-How had experience in previous riots built up the power of the government?

A
  • By the late 1830’s and 1840’s, the government had built up a wealth of experience in dealing with riots and violent demonstrations.
  • They knew not to create martyrs and achieved this by their technique of imprisoning Chartists for short periods of time.
  • Chartist leaders were under a constant threat of imprisonment
42
Q

How did legislation build up the power of the government?

A
  • Legislation was in place for the creation of new, professional police forces.
  • New police forces were increasingly used by the authorities to contain and control demonstrations
43
Q

How did the Railway help build up the power of the government?

A
  • By 1840, 1,500 miles of track linked most of Britain’s major towns and cities
  • By 1848, 6000 miles of track was built.
  • The government made full use of the railway to move troops quickly to any trouble spots.
44
Q

How did numbers help build up the power of the government?

A

-The government could command huge numbers of men to control any chartist outbreak, far more than any chartist demonstration or rally could raise

45
Q

How did the 1832 reform act help build up the power of the government?

A
  • The 1832 reform act had been to separate the middle classes from what had seemed like a dangerous alliance with the working classes.
  • The post-1832 government could feel far more confident in repressing working class movements, secure in the knowledge that the newly enfranchised middle classes would support them
46
Q

What sub-categories can the question “what did the Chartists achieve” be divided into?

A
  • Working class consciousness
  • Working class solidarity and focus
  • Working class organisation of protest
  • Chartists and education
  • Chartists and Christianity
  • Chartists and landownership
47
Q

What did the Chartists achieve to do with working class consciousness?

A
  • Chartism was the first genuine working class movement in Britain.
  • The meetings gave working people arena enormous sense of purpose.
  • There was tremendous satisfaction in feeling that others cared about their situation.
  • There was a feeling that united working people could make a difference
48
Q

What did the Chartists achieve to do with working class solidarity and focus?

A

-Emerging from this new sense of purpose was a shared focus of hostility towards a state that appeared to be operating in the interests of the propertied classes.

49
Q

What did the Chartists achieve to do with Working-class organisation of protest?

A
  • Chartism had provided many working people with their first experience of the language and vehicles of protest.
  • The Northern Star was their publication and gave them a public voice.
  • The writing and printing of posters, handbills and banners was an invaluable preparation for later involvement in the trade union movement
  • The organisation of Chartist meetings like tea parties gave to many experiences of being part of, and having to provide for a larger number of people than found on their own street.
50
Q

What did the Chartists achieve with education?

A
  • Lovett placed an importance on education
  • They ran and set up day schools and evening schools.
  • Although they only lasted for a short time, they were invaluable to the people who received the education
51
Q

What did the Chartists achieve with Christianity?

A
  • Many chartists began to flood churches, which would have alarmed the middle class congregations.
  • A number of chartist churches were founded
52
Q

What did the Chartists achieve with landownership?

A
  • Feargus O’Connor gave Chartists, their own experience of landownership.
  • He encouraged some working people to return to the land as smallholders
53
Q

What did O’Connor believe that the Land Plan would do?

A
  • He believed that it would reduce the over-supply of labour, thereby forcing up the wages of industrial workers.
  • He also believed that it would provide another focus for collective activity, during a period when it looked unlikely that the Charter would be granted
54
Q

How popular was the Chartist Land Company?

A
  • It was enormously popular

- More than £100,000 was collected from some 70,000 subscribers.

55
Q

How did the Land plan work?

A
  • The lucky subscribers were given land through a lottery system.
  • They then paid £5 a year in rent to provide funds for further purchases of land
56
Q

How successful was the Chartists land plan?

A
  • It created about 250 settlements before it wound up in 1851
  • Many settlers found it difficult to make a living.
  • They often avoided paying rent and sometimes resented the fact that they could not become outright owners
57
Q

Why did the Land plan fail?

A
  • O’Connor encountered numerous legal complications
  • Parliamentary investigation resulted in a decision that the Land Company was neither a friendly society nor a joint-stock company but simply a lottery.
  • Continuation of the land plan was illegal

AS History (Britain, 1830-1885: Representation and Reform) (10 decks)

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