The First Petition 1838-1840 Flashcards
Who were the two main leaders of Chartism?
Feargus O’Connor & William Lovett
The Peoples Charter consisted of 6 main aims, which are?
- Universal suffrage for all men aged 21 and over
- Equal sized electoral districts
- Voting by secret ballot
- An end to the need for a property qualification for Parliament
- Pay for Members of Parliament
- Annual elections of Parliament
Where were signatures for the petition collected?
At mass meetings held throughout the country
How many people attended the petition meetings?
Over 200,000 attended each of the meetings held in Birmingham, Leeds & Manchester
When was the first petition presented to Parliament and by who?
The National Convention in February 1839
How many signatures did the first petition receive?
Extra : How long was it?
The first petition recieved 1.25m signatures
Extra : It was 3 miles long
The first petition was rejected, when was this?
In July 1839 the petition was rejected by 235 votes to 46
Extra : Half of the MP’s didn’t bother to attend
What was the name of the Chartist newspaper?
The Northern Star
Extra : Owned by O’Connor
How many copies of the Chartist newspaper were sold each week?
50,000
Extra : The Northern Star was read aloud to groups of people (pubs etc)
The Chartist newspaper made huge profits, what did O’Connor spend these profits on?
- Financing the Chartist movement
- Building up defence funds for trials
- Supporting families of imprisoned Chartists
What was the National Convention?
A discusion forum for strategy, e.g. how to react to the rejection of petitions
What idea was brought up from the National Convention after the first rejected petition?
The National Convention hastily formed the idea of a general strike which they described as a ‘sacred month’
Yet due to limited support and no local plans O’Connor backs down
When was the Newport Uprising?
November 1839
What happened in the Newport Uprising?
10,000 Chartists marched from towns and villages in south Wales to Newport, armed and marching in military formation
In the Newport Uprising who made up the most part of the 10,000 men?
Miners and Ironworkers
