Chartism Flashcards
What was the People’s Charter?
- 1938
Demands for: - Universal Male Suffrage
- Secret Ballot
- Equal sized Constituencies
- Annual Parliaments & Elections
- Abolishment of Property
What were the Political Reasons for the Chartists Emergence?
- Limitation of 1832 Reform Act (no working class)
- Ongoing reform attempts
- the 6 points
- Factory Act 1833 (people joined chartists hoping widening of franchise would improve factory conditions)
What were the Economic Reasons for the Chartists Emergence?
- Bread Prices
- 1836-8 63 Banks collapse
- Whig Government bring Debt
- Poor Law Amendment Acts (poor only supported if they entered a workhouse)
What was the LWMA?
- London Working Men’s Association
- 1836
- led by William Lovett
- promotion of political and social rights (especially development and educational opportunities)
- peaceful protest and moral force
- drafted the 6 Points
what was the BPU?
- Birmingham Politics Union
- led by Thomas Attwood
- Wanted Universal Suffrage
- Petitioning
- Won support of thousands with programme similar to LWMA
what was the GNV?
- Great Northern Union
- led by Fergus O’Connor
- established several local associations pledged to support parliamentary reform
- O’Connor created the newspaper ‘The Northern Star’ circulation of 50,000 by 1839
- Support from working class and Irish immigrants
how did the 3 groups form into the Chartists?
- May 1838 meeting of the LWMA and BPU in Glasgow
- 200,000 people
- O’Connor didn’t attend
- When Chartism began to grow he attended a meeting in Birmingham in August 1838 where the People’s Charter and National Petition were born
How did the Chartists use violence?
- Newport Rising (gunfight resulting in 22 deaths)
- only used when peaceful methods unsuccessful
- O’Connor arguing for potential use of violence as a deterrent
- Birmingham National Convention - Lovett resigns
what was O’Connor’s influence over the Chartists?
- In charge of the Northern Star
- led Chartist Land Plan
- Denounced Lovett pursuing Education reform (led Lovett to be poorly funded)
- continued petitions
- ‘Peacefully if we may, Forcefully if we must’
what was Lovett’s influence over the Chartists?
- advocated for Education reform
- was imprisoned in 1939-1840
- founded Chartism (People’s Charter and National Convention)
- Used peaceful methods
how did support for the Chartists change?
- Women
- National Support
- Middle Class
- Trade Societies
How did National Support for the Chartists change?
- strong support from Industrial areas in Midlands and North
- Strong support in Textile Trades
Unable to gain support in Ireland
- due to Nationalist groups and Catholics Church’s opposition
Unable to gain support in some of England (e.g. Suffolk and Essex)
- due to opposition from Landowners, Middle Class and Important Church Members
Difficulty gaining support in London
- due to size / geography / population
- increase in Chartism in 1840’s due to economic fluctuations
How did Women’s Support for the Chartists change?
- Women had 1/3 signatures in the 1839 Petition
- around 100 Female Chartist Associations (but women never considered for roles in national movement due to attitude that women should just support their husbands)
- Female activity declined in 1840’s
How did Middle Class Support for the Chartists change?
- Initially had some middle class support
- Loss of support by end of 1838 due threats of violence
- Philosophical gulf between economic ideas of middle class and working class to large
Attempts to extend Chartist support in 1840’s
- alliance suggestions with Anti-Corn Law League (ACLL) & Complete Suffrage Union (CSU)
- CSU attempts to win Chartist support but faced opposition from O’Connor and Northern Star
How did Trade Union Support for the Chartists change?
- Chartism formed outlet for workers who saw and organisation could affect political change where Trade Societies couldn’t
- Trade Societies aimed at improving economic position of Working Class
- clear support due to hundreds of signatures on petitions
- Chartists were key in development of Trade Unions in 1840’s
- General United Tailor’s Trade Protection & Mechanics Protective Society of Great Britain were formed by Chartists
what was the National Convention 1839?
organised meeting of elected chartist delegates from around the country in London 1839
- moved to Birmingham in July but was shut down by Police and led to Lovett’s imprisonment
What was the Newport Rising?
- 1839
- 10,000 marches on Westgate Hotel where chartists were being held by troops
- shots were fired leading to death of 22 men
- led to leaders being sentenced to high treason
what was the
Chartist petition 1839?
a national petition was prepared and sent to parliament by Thomas Attwood
- the document was 3 miles long and contained over 1,000,000 signatures
- Bill was rejected in Commons
what was the National Charter Association?
1840
- after the Convention collapsed O’Connor was put to assume leadership
- NCA was formed as national body supported by membership
- by 1842 had 70,000 members
what was the Chartist petition 1842?
- caused by Whigs defeat and economic depression causing widespread unemployment
- petition contained 3.3 million signatures (1/3 of adult population)
- was denied in Commons
what was the Chartist Land Plan?
- 1845
- O’Connor’s plan was to remove workers from towns and resettle them on small farms in the country to improve conditions for workers
- only 250 families were settled under the scheme
what was the Chartist Petition 1848?
- downturn in trade led to general depression
- O’Connor elected as MP of Nottingham
- mass meeting planned in London (only 25,000 showed) Home office stationed 8,000 soldiers and 150,000 special constables
- O’Connor took petition to parliament with under 2 million signatures
- Petition was again rejected and Chartism was ridiculed
- by Early 1849 Chartism faded into insignificance as O’Connor was unable to regain popularity
what were the Governments responses to Chartism?
- Police and power of the state
- Rail Networks
- General Napier
- Telegraphs
what was the effect of Rail Networks on Chartism?
- Allowed Police to reach Disturbances Faster (e.g. Bull Ring Riots 1939)
- Also allowed Chartists to move around Faster
- Rail network not available everywhere
- Increased distribution of Northern Star
what was the effect of Police and Power of the State on Chartism?
Rural police Act
- new forces to better deal with local disorder
- slow acting
- untrained
Arrests of Chartists
- 1839-40 Lovett and many others arrested
- 1842 hundreds of Chartists arrested
- deterrent
Metropolitan Police Act 1829
- London based police force
- passed by Peel
what was the effect of Electric Telegraph on Chartism?
- allows for faster info sharing from spies
- increases police’s efficiency
what was the effect of General Napier on Chartism?
- didn’t worsen situation (e.g. Newport Rising & 1839 Strikes)
- Empathetic to the poor
- head of 4,000 troops
- no action to arms / drilling
- refused to confront ‘Sacred Month’
why did Chartism fail?
- Divided Working class
- Trade Unions
- Changing Economy
how did the Divided Working Class lead to Chartism’s failure?
it never became a cohesive organisation of the working class
- failed to attract engineers / skilled workers
- failed to attract agricultural labourers in country
- outlying villages made coordination almost impossible
how did the Trade Unions lead to Chartism’s failure?
Chartism unable to gain widespread and lasting support from Trade Unions
- Trade Unions refused to support the ‘Sacred Month’ due to Government reprisals
- Unions more focused on economic goals than political
- O’Connor had no real interest in Trade Unions other than recruiting their numbers to Chartism
Was Chartism a failure?
It failed to achieve its aims (acceptance of People’s Charter) on 3 occasions
- but got working class involved in politics (meetings, rallies, petitions)
- 6 points slowly were adopted over time (Secret Ballot 1872, Payment of MP’s 1912, Universal Suffrage 1928, e.c.t)
