The Chartist Movement in Yorkshire
Political and Social Reform, Popular Protest and Suppression
Chartism was the term given to the radical movement for political and social reform that arose in Britain during the mid-19th century. Notable for being the first mass working class movement for reform in the world, the demands of the Chartists included annual Parliaments, votes for all men over 21 regardless of class, vote by ballot and the payment of MPS. Chartist activity occurred all over the United Kingdom, but Yorkshire was home to some of the most significant Chartist leaders and threatening social unrest.
The 1832 Reform Bill
The catalyst for mass Chartism was the 1832 Reform Bill, a long hoped-for Act of Parliament that did nothing to alleviate the suffering of the poor. Many working-class radicals felt they had been betrayed and began to draw up reform programmes of their own. In 1836 the London Working Men’s Association produced The People’s Charter, which called for major changes in the Parliamentary system.
Word of the new Charter spread across England and mass rallies of workers occurred in Lancashire and Yorkshire. The crowds that flocked to these events carried banners displaying angry slogans such as “More pigs less parsons” and “For children and wife, we war to the knife”.
Physical Force and Moral Force
The Chartists were split between those who advocated violence to achieve their aims, and those who preferred more peaceful methods. The disagreement between the ‘Physical Force’ and the ‘Moral Force camps’ hampered the Chartist movement from the beginning. Physical Force appealed to workers in the North, where anger at poor working conditions and general social oppression was very high. The situation was enflamed by an Irish radical named Feargus O’Connor, who toured Lancashire and Yorkshire making fiery speeches and encouraging the people to take direct action against their oppressors.
The Northern Star
Following a failed uprising in South Wales, during which soldiers fired into a crowd and Chartist leaders were sentenced to transportation, the focus of Chartist activity switched to Yorkshire. Militants in Leeds were buoyed by the appearance of the Northern Star, a phenomenally successful Chartist newspaper that by 1837 was selling 10, 000 copies a week.
The paper was an important tool of communication for Yorkshire Chartists, as it provided details of radical meetings anywhere in the county and directed popular attention towards important social issues. It also acted as a mouthpiece for Feargus O’ Connor and enabled him to become the dominant Chartist leader in the North.
Hartshead Moor
Gradually the nature of Chartism in Leeds began to move towards the more direct physical kind favoured in other parts of Yorkshire, spurred on by the influence of aggressive Chartists like Feargus O’Connor, Peter Bussey (‘Fat Peter’) and George White. The turning point was a huge meeting held on 15 October 1838 on Hartshead Moor. Thousands attended from every Chartist town in the West Riding, and responded with wild enthusiasm to speeches in favour of violent action. Further vast meetings were held in the following months, and for a brief moment it seemed that the entire West Riding might rise in bloody revolution against the government.
In the event, there was no mass uprising in Yorkshire. The government kept a close watch on Chartist meetings, deploying spies among them and mustering yeoman cavalry to deal with any potential violence. Gradually the moderate voices of Chartism prevailed in Leeds, preventing any violence there, while firebrands such as George White, Feargus O’Connor and Peter Bussey were either arrested or fled abroad. However there were uncoordinated risings in Sheffield and Barnsley.
The Sheffield Plot
The next outbreak of violence occurred in Sheffield in 1839, when the arrest of seventy Chartists led to the town hall being attacked and running battles with troops and police. Similar trouble was only averted in Barnsley by the arrival of more troops and the Riot Act being read. These disturbances were followed by the failed ‘Sheffield Plot’, in which a group of Sheffield Chartists planned to seize local magistrates and town hall, while at the same time riots were to take place in Dewsbury and Nottingham. The conspirators were betrayed and most were arrested, and peace was restored in Sheffield by the swearing in of over five hundred special constables.
The last protest
The last hurrah of Chartism came in 1847, when a slump in trade led to a sudden resurgence in mass working-class protest. For a while England seethed with unrest and in Yorkshire there were clashes with police in Bradford as thousands of workers drilled on the Yorkshire Moors. Once again the movement was crippled by its leaders, and thanks to their dithering and in-fighting Chartism again collapsed. The day of revolution never came in South Yorkshire or anywhere else, and by the mid-1850s the movement was dying out in the North. However, though the Chartists failed to overturn the established order, most of their desired reforms eventually became part of the British system of government.
Sources:
Chartism: A New History by Malcolm Chase (Manchester University Press)
The Age of the Chartists, 1832-1854: A Study of Discontent by Barbara Hammond, L.J. Hammond
The Chartists by Dorothy Thompson (1884)
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