Chapter 15: Chartist Movement Origins

Question 1

What was the Chartist Movement?

Answer 1

An organisation formed in 1838 to support working class political activity and agitate for political reform that would give the franchise to all wc men, involve them in government and give them a platform which their grievances could be heard.

Question 2

What was the working class disappointment from the Reform Act 1832?

Answer 2

Excluded them from the franchise, their keenest disappointment.

Question 3

What was the working class attitude to the Poor Law 1834?

Answer 3

It humiliated them and increased their hardships. When the Poor Law Amendment Act began to operate in Northern Industrial areas around 1839, it became apparent to the working classes how politically powerless they were to improve their conditions.

Question 4

What was Robert Owen’s Grand National Consolidated Trades Union?

Answer 4

1835. It failed and ended hopes of labouring men organising themselves legally to negotiate better working conditions.

Question 5

What was the Chartist attitude to the Factory Act?

Answer 5

It had released their children from intolerable working hours but had led to an increase in adult working hours.

Question 6

What fuelled the Chartist discontent?

Answer 6

Poor harvests in 1836-37, economic downturns

Question 7

Who supported the Chartists?

Answer 7

Middle class supporters such as John Fielden, Richard Oastler and other Radicals disenchanted with the limited nature of government reform, wanting to organise themselves to fight for political rights.

Question 8

What was The London Working Men’s Association?

Answer 8

Established June 1836 with a reformist political programme. Key figures were William Lovett and Francis Place. Listed demands under 6 headings.

Question 9

What were the 6 demands of The London Working Men’s Association?

Answer 9

Universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, annual parliaments, payment of MPs, secret ballots in elections and no property qualification for candidates.

Question 10

What did William Lovett call the six points?

Answer 10

In 1838 he called the six points the ‘People’s Charter’ and at a meeting in Birmingham endorsed by Thomas Attwood’s Birmingham Political Union, the Chartist Movement was established.

Question 11

Why was it suggested that a single strong leadership of the Chartist movement would be impossible?

Answer 11

The composition of the Chartist movement was varied from the very beginning and it drew support from several protest groups. For a movement encompassing a variety of group and aims, to have a single strong leadership was virtually impossible. Considerable differences of opinion of how the Charter was to be achieved.

Question 12

What did Lovett represent in the Chartist movement?

Answer 12

A moderate view and advocated persuasion rather than force. He believed that education was vital in order to deal effectively with social and political problems.

Question 13

What did Thomas Attwood represent in the Chartist movement?

Answer 13

Also followed the moderate line (with Lovett) and advocated a strategy of petitioning Parliament as the likely method of success.

Question 14

Who were the more extreme Chartists?

Answer 14

Operated mainly in the smaller northern industrial towns that suffered from miserable conditions sine the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Feargus O’Connor was the Editor of Northern Star, an influential Chartist newssheet published in Leeds threatened to use physical force to achieve the demands.

Question 15

What was the 1839 petition?

Answer 15

The first unifying event of the Chartist movement. A Chartist Convention of 39 delegates met in London and drew up this People’s Charter, articulating the six main demands. The petition with 1,280,000 signatures was presented to Parliament in July but was overwhelmingly rejected by both the Whigs and Tories.

Question 16

What was the result of the failure of the 1839 petition among the Chartists?

Answer 16

Brought about the first real clash ebtween the moderates and the so-called ‘physical force’ Chartists. O’Connor wanted to respond with threats of intimidation and violence, which disturbed the moderates.

Question 17

What was the effect of the Newport Rising November 1839 among the mc?

Answer 17

Confirmed middle class fears about the movement. It was the moderate William Lovett who was singled out by authorities and imprisoned for sedition and disorder, and this gave O’Connor an opportunity to promote his own aims and methods.

Question 18

What sapped the movement’s vitality at the beginning of 1840?

Answer 18

There was an economic revival. Working men who had been so vociferous in their support faded into the background once economic conditions improved and they had work, wages and food.

Question 19

Who was the leader of the movement by 1842?

Answer 19

William Lovett had lost ground as leader of the movement and O’Connor had established himself as the popular leader. There was a slump in trade, wages fell and there was widespread unemployment and distress which reignited working class agitation.

Question 20

What was the Newport Rising Nobember 1839?

Answer 20

Rising stemmed from discontent of the appaulling working conditions in the coal mines and iron foundries. Outcome was a disaster for Chartists in the face of Whig government’s show of force. Resulted in movement losing impetus.

Question 21

What was the reaction to the second Chartist petition?

Answer 21

Supposedly signed by three million people, it was ridiculed in Parliament and dismissed.

Question 22

What was the ‘Plug Plot’?

Answer 22

Boiler plugs of steam engines were knocked out to prevent factories and other works from operating in protest to the second petition being ridiculed. The plug plot was a rallying call for the Chartist supporters.

Question 23

How did Peel’s Government deal with the ‘Plug Plot’?

Answer 23

Using the newly operational local police forces, dealt firmly and quickly with the unrest.

Question 24

What was O’Connor’s reaction to the ‘Plug Plot?

Answer 24

He was said to have lost hi nerve and denounced the strike in his ‘Northern Star’. There were many arrests and harsh sentences handed out, with the result that the Chartist activity faded.

Question 25

Why did Chartist support fade further 1842-46?

Answer 25

There was a period of economic recovery, a reduction in unemployment and a subsequent lessening of support for the Chartist movement. The circulation of the Northern Star fell as O’Connor’s influence waned.

Question 26

What was the effect of the Chartist’s decreasing support 1842-46 on other organisations?

Answer 26

Gained ground, particularly the Anti-Corn Law League and the trade unions.

Question 27

What was the status of the Chartists in the 1840s?

Answer 27

Working classes didn’t see connection between political reform and their conditions improving, Chartism was never as strong as it had been 1830s, they lost a sense of direcion and became involved in economic rather than political issues e.g O’Connor’s National Land Cooperative Society, which ended in failure.

Question 28

What happened in the 1840s?

Answer 28

The real problem for the Chartist movement was that the depression of the early 1840s was gradually giving way to a long period of prosperity.