What was Chartism?
PhD, English Literature (Lancaster University)
Date Published: 16.08.2024,
Last Updated: 16.08.2024
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Definition and origins
Chartism was a working-class social and political movement beginning in London in 1836 aimed at extending the franchise to the working classes; the movement was driven by a demand for political reform and working-class rights. Chartism was sparked by the social and economic hardship the working classes faced during the Industrial Revolution and the continued disenfranchisement of working-class men.
The Chartists aimed to gain political rights for the working classes as delineated in the People’s Charter. In “Chartists After Chartism,” Michael H. Shirley clarifies,
Chartism is less the name of a coherent political movement than it is a term of convenience applied to the various protest movements of the 1830s and 1840s which espoused the People's Charter, a petition which Chartists presented - or attempted to present - to Parliament on a number of occasions. Its six points set out much of the radical agenda of the mid-Victorian era: annual parliaments, universal manhood suffrage, abolition of the property qualification for members of the House of Commons, the secret ballot, equal electoral districts, and payment of MPs. (Splendidly Victorian, 2017)
Edited by Michael H. Shirley and Todd E. A Larson
Chartism is less the name of a coherent political movement than it is a term of convenience applied to the various protest movements of the 1830s and 1840s which espoused the People's Charter, a petition which Chartists presented - or attempted to present - to Parliament on a number of occasions. Its six points set out much of the radical agenda of the mid-Victorian era: annual parliaments, universal manhood suffrage, abolition of the property qualification for members of the House of Commons, the secret ballot, equal electoral districts, and payment of MPs. (Splendidly Victorian, 2017)
However, as Gregory Claeys explains, the significance and aims of Chartism extend beyond working-class voting rights:
No cursory survey can do justice to the breadth and extent of Chartism, the most important working-class movement in nineteenth-century Britain, 'the bitter discontent grown fierce and mad', as Thomas Carlyle famously termed it. Ostensibly aiming at parliamentary reform, driven by the economic distress of the working classes and the resolve that only popular sovereignty would alleviate that suffering, its ambitions encompassed nearly every other type of social, economic and moral improvement for some twenty years after 1836. (“General Introduction,” Chartist Movement in Britain, 1838-1856: Volume 1, 2021)
Edited by Gregory Claeys
No cursory survey can do justice to the breadth and extent of Chartism, the most important working-class movement in nineteenth-century Britain, 'the bitter discontent grown fierce and mad', as Thomas Carlyle famously termed it. Ostensibly aiming at parliamentary reform, driven by the economic distress of the working classes and the resolve that only popular sovereignty would alleviate that suffering, its ambitions encompassed nearly every other type of social, economic and moral improvement for some twenty years after 1836. (“General Introduction,” Chartist Movement in Britain, 1838-1856: Volume 1, 2021)
The movement united industrial areas, encompassing factory workers, coal miners, and other manual laborers from London and Northern England to South Wales. While Chartism did not achieve all its goals, it left an important legacy and paved the way for other working-class social movements in the nineteenth century and beyond, ultimately helping to shape class consciousness in Britain.
Origins of the movement
According to Claeys, there are four main sources of discontent that gave life to the Chartist movement: pressure for voting rights, backlash to the Great Reform Act and the Poor Law Amendment Act, and declining economic conditions.
Pressure for voting rights
As Claeys explains “pressure for the extension of the franchise, even for universal male suffrage, had been nearly constant since the foundation of the London Corresponding Society in 1792,” a society created to promote parliamentary reform among radicals (2021). Therefore, the stage was already set for the suffrage campaign among the working classes.
The Great Reform Act (1832)
The Great Reform Act made changes to the British electoral system, extending the vote to middle-class men, established to address the criticism that the democratic system was not representative. The Act made some improvements: it gave the vote to one in five men who had property valued at over £10, created seats for MPs in industrial towns like Birmingham, and removed seats from “rotten boroughs” i.e., places with very small populations often dominated by an individual wealthy patron.
While these reforms enabled middle-class men to participate in democracy, working-class activists saw the Great Reform Act as a failure:
It extended the franchise only marginally, enlarging the electorate from about 516,000 to about 813,000, and gave the right to vote to about one in five adult males in England and Wales, and one in eight in Scotland. For those who had sacrificed time, energy and even blood during the agitation of 1830-2, these provisions were scarcely sufficient. (Claeys, 2021).
(For more on the Great Reform Act, see Eric J. Evans’ The Great Reform Act of 1832, [2008].)
The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834)
The Poor Law Amendment Act was a widely controversial piece of legislation that many saw as a draconian and punitive measure against the poor. In March 1834, a commission concluded that financial relief to the poor was perpetuating poverty; the idea that government “hand-outs” were a pointless endeavor had already gained traction due to Thomas Malthus’ theory of population control. In response, the Poor Law Amendment Act removed “outdoor relief” (i.e., financial relief given to the able-bodied) unless a person was physically unable to work, and instead only provided relief (in the form of food, clothing, and shelter) if paupers entered the workhouse. The workhouses, however, were typically feared and loathed by the poor, owing to reports of abusive conditions and excessive manual labor. (For more on this, see Peter Jones and Steven King’s Pauper Voices, Public Opinion and Workhouse Reform in Mid-Victorian England, 2020)
As Claeys writes,
Resistance to the implementation of the law was bitter and widespread, especially in the industrial districts, and was linked directly to the beginnings of Chartist organisation in many areas by many contemporary observers, such as Lord John Russell. (2021)
Declining economic conditions
Chartism is often called a “knife and fork” movement, meaning it tended to be at its most popular during times of economic downturn. In the 1830s and 1840s, when Chartism emerged, Britain was experiencing an economic recession, particularly impacting those in manual trades, such as ironworkers.
While Chartism’s focus was on securing political reform, this was inextricably tied to economic and social conditions:
The form of the [Chartist’s] demands were purely political, but the object was strictly economic. Political equality was proclaimed as the only weapon to secure equality of condition and the abolition of class privilege. The concomitant social equality would then pull down the mountains of wealth and fill up the valleys of want. The task could be effected by the workingmen only. [...] It was this expression of class consciousness and realization of class interests that distinguished Chartism both from utopian socialism and from previous democratic movements in England. (Frank F. Rosenblatt, The Chartist Movement, 2019).
Frank F Rosenblatt
The form of the [Chartist’s] demands were purely political, but the object was strictly economic. Political equality was proclaimed as the only weapon to secure equality of condition and the abolition of class privilege. The concomitant social equality would then pull down the mountains of wealth and fill up the valleys of want. The task could be effected by the workingmen only. [...] It was this expression of class consciousness and realization of class interests that distinguished Chartism both from utopian socialism and from previous democratic movements in England. (Frank F. Rosenblatt, The Chartist Movement, 2019).
The declining economic conditions in the wake of industrialization in conjunction with worsening conditions and pay for laborers, helped to ignite the Chartist cause.
The beginnings of Chartism
The formation of the London Working Men’s Association
Chartism is seen as officially beginning at the formation of the London Working Men’s Association in June 1836 under the leadership of Henry Hetherington, John Cleave, William Lovett, Henry Vincent, and George Julian Harvey. At its formation, there was “little thought then that the movement which they inaugurated was destined to play such a revolutionary role in the life of the English working class” (Rosenblatt, 2019).
The most significant role the association played in Chartism was in drawing up the People’s Charter (also known as the “Six Points”.)
The Charter outlined six main aims:
- Extension of the vote to all men over 21
- The secret ballot
- No property qualification to become an MP
- Payment for MPs
- Electoral districts of equal size
- Annual parliaments
The Charter initially also included a provision for women’s right to vote, but this was discarded out of fear it may damage the campaign for male suffrage. Some male Chartists continued to advocate for women’s suffrage, including R. J. Richardson who wrote The Rights of Women (1840; reprinted in Claeys, Chartist Movement in Britain, 1838-1856: Volume 2, 2021), which demanded women’s rights to vote. (To learn more about how women obtained the vote, see our study guide “Who were the Suffragettes?”)
The Charter was published in May 1838 to mixed reception:
The publication of the People’s Charter gave a fresh impetus to the enthusiasm of the universal suffragists. [...] The general press cautioned against the Chartist missionaries who were branded as scoundrels, firebrands, plunderers, knaves, and assassins. The people, however, paid little heed to these warnings and eagerly demonstrated their “general approbation” of the Charter in a series of grand meetings and parades. (Rosenblatt, 2019)
With the Charter circulating, the Chartists moved to collecting signatures for their National Petition.
The General Convention of the Industrious Classes
The first Chartist Convention (the General Convention of the Industrious Classes) was held for the first time on 4 February 1838 in a coffee shop at Charing Cross with popular leader William Lovett as secretary. The convention aimed to oversee the petition that the Chartists would present to Parliament. However, few were under the pretence that the petition would be readily accepted. As such, they began to discuss what they would do if the House of Commons rejected the petition:
the Convention began to consider the ‘ulterior measures' which might be adopted to intimidate the Government into reconsidering a rejection. In May 1839 the suggested options were published as the ‘Manifesto of Ulterior Measures', which contained the famous phrase that the poor would prevail against their oppressors ‘peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must'. (John Walton, Chartism)
John Walton
the Convention began to consider the ‘ulterior measures' which might be adopted to intimidate the Government into reconsidering a rejection. In May 1839 the suggested options were published as the ‘Manifesto of Ulterior Measures', which contained the famous phrase that the poor would prevail against their oppressors ‘peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must'. (John Walton, Chartism)
The delegates had different perspectives on militant action, which forms were justified and which would be most effective. The lack of unity over this particular issue, and others, would come to be commonplace throughout the movement. Peter McDouall, for example, consistently argued that the aims of the Charter could only be achieved through physical force. Many Chartists changed their position on militant action with prominent figures such as Feargus O’Connor (owner of the Chartist newspaper the Northern Star), George Harney, William Cuffay who, initially advocating for peaceful means, would become more inflammatory over time. This position clashed with leaders such as Lovett, Thomas Attwood, and John Collins who favored what they termed “moral force.” For more on the debate of moral vs physical force within the Chartist movement, see Ray Challinor “Peter Murray McDouall and ‘Physical Force Chartism’” (1981) and Margaret Chase’s “Moral Force and Physical Force Chartism” (2018).
Major demonstrations and riots
The Bull Ring Riots (Birmingham)
In May 1839, the convention moved from London to Birmingham and meetings were to be held at the Bull Ring. When Attwood presented the petition to Parliament on 14 June, which had garnered over 1.25 million signatures, there were concerns over public order. To prevent this, local magistrates tried to ban the meetings and special constables were sent to patrol the area.
As Rosenblatt writes,
Since the days of the agitation for the Reform Bill, the people had been accustomed to assemble in vast multitudes in the Bull Ring, where they not only aired their grievances but also listened to the reading of newspapers and discussed political events. The simultaneous meetings struck terror to the hearts of the middle class, and the mayor undertook to restrain the masses from holding public meetings in the city, and particularly in the popular Ring. The resentment of the workingmen against this infringement upon their rights was on a par with their hostility towards the newly-introduced metropolitan police. Nevertheless, no open conflict occurred until the mayor attempted to enforce his proclamation. (2019)
When the police entered the Bull Ring, accompanied by the mayor and several dragoons, to disrupt a Chartist meeting on the evening of 4 July, chaos ensued. Men, women, and children were injured and, in the panic, the police were forced to flee. However, they did soon return with reinforcements to disperse the group and suppress any who resisted. The mayor read the Riot Act and placed guards around the area to prevent the crowd reuniting.
Despite this police presence, around midnight, the crowds gathered again outside the city and tore down the railings at St. Thomas’ Church for weapons, before they were pleaded to desist by Chartists John Taylor and Peter McDouall. The police declared martial law and made numerous arrests. The crowds continued to meet daily and clash with the police, incensed by the violence used by the police. The next morning, Taylor and ten other Chartists were arrested and sent to Warwick Jail, prompting further outrage.
The Chartist petition was rejected on 12 July, leading to more riots across the country. This second round of rioting at the Bull Ring began on 15 July, resulting in arrests, imprisonments, and transportation.
If you want to learn more about the Bull Ring Riots, the UK Parliament website has numerous primary resources.
The Newport Rising
On the night of 3 November into the next morning, thousands of Welsh miners and ironworkers took to the streets in Newport with the aim of liberating several Chartists, including leader Henry Vincent, an “idol of the Welsh miners,” who had been arrested in the name of the cause:
Frost himself, on the 28th of September, wrote to a former colleague, a magistrate of the county, exhorting him to obtain a mitigation of Vincent’s treatment. All remonstrances and protests, however, were of no avail. It was then that the Welsh Chartists conceived the idea of releasing Vincent by force and began to perfect plans which culminated in the Newport Riot of November 4, 1839, when thousands of men “rushed like a torrent from the hills,” armed with the gun, the pike, and the bludgeon, “to lay in ruins the commercial emporium of their county” (Rosenblatt, 2019).
Frank F. Rosenblatt
Frost himself, on the 28th of September, wrote to a former colleague, a magistrate of the county, exhorting him to obtain a mitigation of Vincent’s treatment. All remonstrances and protests, however, were of no avail. It was then that the Welsh Chartists conceived the idea of releasing Vincent by force and began to perfect plans which culminated in the Newport Riot of November 4, 1839, when thousands of men “rushed like a torrent from the hills,” armed with the gun, the pike, and the bludgeon, “to lay in ruins the commercial emporium of their county” (Rosenblatt, 2019).
The march was led by John Frost, former Mayor of Newport and Chartist, previously removed from his position as magistrate for his radical sentiments, along with coal miner and Chartist Zephaniah Williams, and Chartist leader William Jones. As Ivor Wilks explains,
How many there were we cannot really say. Townspeople who gave evidence before the magistrates seemed to be in a measure of agreement that 5,000 men, give or take 1,000, had actually entered Newport, but no one was in a position even to guess the numbers that were still on the march. (South Wales and the Rising of 1839, 2021).
Ivor Wilks
How many there were we cannot really say. Townspeople who gave evidence before the magistrates seemed to be in a measure of agreement that 5,000 men, give or take 1,000, had actually entered Newport, but no one was in a position even to guess the numbers that were still on the march. (South Wales and the Rising of 1839, 2021).
The authorities, having been alerted to this protest, waited for the demonstrators at the Westgate Hotel, where they opened fire. The Newport riots resulted in the deaths of 22 Chartists, 50 people wounded, and 200 Chartists arrested, including leaders Frost, Williams, and Jones being arrested for treason (their sentences were reduced from being hanged, drawn, and quartered to being transported to Australia).
Walton comments upon the significance of the Newport Rising, despite these heavy losses:
[The riots] showed how deeply feelings ran among the working class in the raw and independent new industrial settlements of the Valleys, is difficult now to judge, not least because at the trials the Chartists' lawyers were at pains to reduce the gravity of the charge by labelling the episode as a mere riot rather than a full-scale insurrection. But it appears that the rising was based on a well-established network of Chartist cells, meeting in beerhouses and keeping their counsel, and that the fall of Newport was intended to be a signal for other risings elsewhere, especially in south Yorkshire. The failure of the attack provided dispiriting confirmation of the impossibility of taking on the army in an isolated campaign, while exposing the myth that British troops would not open fire under such circumstances. (2002)
The end of Chartism
From around 1842 to 1847, support for the Chartist movement began to decline. This is owing to numerous factors including the revitalization of trade after years of economic strife (culminating in the Great Strike of 1842), as well as the fact that numerous Chartist supporters had turned to other causes such as the Anti-Corn League or campaigning for the factory reform. The Chartist’s second petition garnered more than 3 million signatures but was again rejected by the House of Commons in May 1842.
Chartist supporters had also lost numerous leaders, either temporarily or permanently, due to continuous arrests since the start of the movement. In 1843, for example, major Chartist figure Feargus O’Connor and 58 others went on trial in Lancaster for inciting riots, strikes, and other forms of disorder. The judge, however, showed leniency and O’Connor accepted an agreement designed to curtail future Chartist activity:
This ensured that there would be no recurrence of the alliance between Chartism and organized labour which had so frightened the authorities in August and September 1842. (Walton, 2002)
However, as Geoffrey Alderman explains, the Chartists saw one further chance to petition parliament:
But the onset of recession, in 1846-7, gave the movement a final lease of life. A new petition, alleged to contain two million signatures (many of which were certainly forged) was presented to Parliament, to the accompaniment of a great deal of silly talk of violence if it should be rejected. (Modern Britain 1700-1983, 2023)
Geoffrey Alderman
But the onset of recession, in 1846-7, gave the movement a final lease of life. A new petition, alleged to contain two million signatures (many of which were certainly forged) was presented to Parliament, to the accompaniment of a great deal of silly talk of violence if it should be rejected. (Modern Britain 1700-1983, 2023)
The Chartists planned a mass demonstration at Kennington Common on 10 April 1848, across from the Houses of Parliament, where Feargus O’Connor would deliver the third petition, which allegedly had 5.75 million signatures (Parliament stated there were less than 2 million). However, the Kennington Common rally did not have the impact the Chartists hoped:
In the event the much publicised Kennington Common rally, on 10 April 1848, attracted a crowd estimated by The Times at about 20,000, which no less than 150,000 special constables had been recruited to hold in check. The petition was rejected. There was no insurrection. Chartism collapsed. (Alderman, 2023)
On 13 May, the National Assembly was dissolved, marking the end of Chartism:
The leaders, in disillusionment and desperation, left for the country, held mass meetings, delivered violent speeches, and threatened to organise a National Guard. In some places scenes of violence were enacted, in others spies and police agents manufactured secret conspiracies. These were followed by wholesale arrests. From May to October, 1848, a reign of terror swept over England. Altogether about ninety Chartist leaders were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment, up to a maximum of two years, in London, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire. Ernest Jones received the maximum term in July, and was treated at first like a common criminal in his prison, until O’Connor paid 5s. a week for him in order to secure better treatment and self-occupation. (Max Beer, A History of British Socialism (1919): Volume 2, 2020)
Max Beer
The leaders, in disillusionment and desperation, left for the country, held mass meetings, delivered violent speeches, and threatened to organise a National Guard. In some places scenes of violence were enacted, in others spies and police agents manufactured secret conspiracies. These were followed by wholesale arrests. From May to October, 1848, a reign of terror swept over England. Altogether about ninety Chartist leaders were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment, up to a maximum of two years, in London, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire. Ernest Jones received the maximum term in July, and was treated at first like a common criminal in his prison, until O’Connor paid 5s. a week for him in order to secure better treatment and self-occupation. (Max Beer, A History of British Socialism (1919): Volume 2, 2020)
As Beer indicates here, many Chartist radicals continued to support the cause after 1848. Michael H. Shirley writes,
Radicals continued to maintain the six points of the Charter as goals for years after the disappointments of 1848. The methods they espoused changed, but their ideology remained essentially the same. They concentrated, however, on obtaining the franchise, without which, they asserted, no further reform could come. (2020)
Criticism of the movement
The Chartist movement is often criticized for its lack of cohesive leadership, inability to gain support from higher classes, and failure to achieve its immediate goals.
Lack of leadership
The Chartist movement was characterized by conflict among its leaders, with some taking a more moderate approach and others favoring violent resurrection as a way to achieve their aims. The movement also saw key figures leaving to join other organizations such as the National Reform League, the People’s Charter Union, and the Social Reform League.
Radicalism
While Chartism was, by its very nature, radical, this hampered the movement in gaining support from influential individuals in higher classes. Edward Royle writes,
Even in the darkest days, sympathisers were to be found among the higher classes, including T. S. Duncombe, the Chartists’ best friend in Parliament, and Sir Charles Napier, commander of the troops in the North between 1839 and 1841. But the tone given to Chartism by the physical force of the men of the North and elsewhere precluded any genuine attempt at co-operation with the higher classes, and the Northern Star was openly contemptuous of such efforts. (Chartism, 2014)
Edward Royle
Even in the darkest days, sympathisers were to be found among the higher classes, including T. S. Duncombe, the Chartists’ best friend in Parliament, and Sir Charles Napier, commander of the troops in the North between 1839 and 1841. But the tone given to Chartism by the physical force of the men of the North and elsewhere precluded any genuine attempt at co-operation with the higher classes, and the Northern Star was openly contemptuous of such efforts. (Chartism, 2014)
Failure to achieve goals
Many historians, while acknowledging the importance of Chartism, have deemed it a failure in that it did not achieve what it set out to:
Chartism is usually deemed a failure, even by sympathetic historians. [...] Despite all its activity in 1838–42 it did not even manage to persuade Parliament to look at its petitions, and its revival in 1848 was more due to a further downturn in the economy than to any particular efforts of the Chartists themselves. [...] Although all the Chartist demands except annual parliaments were eventually granted, the first, abolition of the property qualification for MPs, did not happen until 1858 and Chartism can claim little direct credit for it. (Sean Lang, Parliamentary Reform 1785-1928, 2005)
Sean Lang
Chartism is usually deemed a failure, even by sympathetic historians. [...] Despite all its activity in 1838–42 it did not even manage to persuade Parliament to look at its petitions, and its revival in 1848 was more due to a further downturn in the economy than to any particular efforts of the Chartists themselves. [...] Although all the Chartist demands except annual parliaments were eventually granted, the first, abolition of the property qualification for MPs, did not happen until 1858 and Chartism can claim little direct credit for it. (Sean Lang, Parliamentary Reform 1785-1928, 2005)
The impact of Chartism
Despite its failures, Chartism was undoubtedly one of the most important working-class movements, as Damien Kingsbury writes,
Chartism failed to achieve its goals at the time but directly influenced events in Australia (1855–1856), New Zealand (1858) and Canada (1867). It also contributed to the 1867 Reform Act, which widened the UK voting franchise, as well as providing the foundations for the eventual democratization of the UK parliament (The Rise and Decline of Modern Democracy, 2023)
Damien Kingsbury
Chartism failed to achieve its goals at the time but directly influenced events in Australia (1855–1856), New Zealand (1858) and Canada (1867). It also contributed to the 1867 Reform Act, which widened the UK voting franchise, as well as providing the foundations for the eventual democratization of the UK parliament (The Rise and Decline of Modern Democracy, 2023)
Even Friedrich Engels, co-writer of The Communist Manifesto (1848) alongside Karl Marx, regarded it as a class movement that was “free from all bourgeois elements”:
[...] in Chartism it is the whole working class which arises against the bourgeoisie, and attacks, first of all, the political power, the legislative rampart with which the bourgeoisie has surrounded itself. (The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844, 1845, [2005])
Friedrich Engels
[...] in Chartism it is the whole working class which arises against the bourgeoisie, and attacks, first of all, the political power, the legislative rampart with which the bourgeoisie has surrounded itself. (The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844, 1845, [2005])
Chartism laid the groundwork for future democratic reforms, highlighting the disenfranchisement of the proletariat. The movement also continued to inspire other social and political movements in Britain and proved that working-class movements could also be strategic, intellectual, and grounded in reason. Ultimately, Chartism gave rise to the idea of class consciousness that continues to underpin the conversation around economic inequality and social justice today.
Further reading on Perlego
Chartism, Commemoration and the Cult of the Radical Hero (2019) by Matthew Roberts
Chartism and the Churches: A Study in Democracy (2019) by Harold Underwood Faulkner
Chartist Fiction: Volume One (2016) by Ian Haywood
The Dignity of Chartism (2015) edited by Dorothy Thompson
Poverty and Poor Law Reform in Nineteenth-Century Britain, 1834-1914: From Chadwick to Booth (2013) by David Englander
What is Chartism in simple terms?
What were the six points of the People’s Charter?
Who are some of the main figures of the Chartist movement?
What was a major event during the Chartist movement?
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PhD, English Literature (Lancaster University)
Sophie Raine has a PhD from Lancaster University. Her work focuses on penny dreadfuls and urban spaces. Her previous publications have been featured in VPFA (2019; 2022) and the Palgrave Handbook for Steam Age Gothic (2021) and her co-edited collection Penny Dreadfuls and the Gothic was released in 2023 with University of Wales Press.