There were three large public activities in the country, which had an important effect on Manchester.
The agitation of the Chartists, to have the People’s Charter accepted by the Government.
The abrogation of the Corn Laws, finally carried out in 1846.
The Ten Hours Act of 1847.
Chartism
This movement, which was focussed on a change in the laws on voting (and particularly on universal male suffrage), was a reaction to the failure of the 1832 Reform Act, to open the possibility of voting for the working classes.
The Six Demands of the Chartists were:
Universal Manhood suffrage (voting rights for all men over 21)
Equal-sized electoral constituencies
Voting by secret ballot
Abolition of property qualifications for Members of Parliament
Payment of salaries to MPs (allowing non-wealthy individuals to serve)
Annual parliamentary elections
The Chartist movement was basically formed and advanced by working class persons (male and female), who were particularly interested in having voting rights for at least a part of the working class. It had a maximum of 50,000 active members, with 400 branches. It published the newspaper “The Northern Star” in Manchester, with a circulation of 40,000. There were mass meetings on open spaces, for example 150,000 on Kerstal Moor, at the outskirts of Manchester.
“Women played a significant part in Chartism. Although the Charter failed to include women in its demand for the vote, many female Chartists were active as speakers, organisers and demonstrators in support of the cause. In places such as Ashton-under-Lyne and Carlisle, women accounted for one in five signatories to the first Chartist petition, presented to Parliament in 1839, and there may have been as many as two hundred female Chartist organisations.”
www.Chartistancestors.co.uk , Chartist women
The name comes from the “People’s Charter” which was signed by 1,200,000 persons in 1838, requesting Parliament to make changes in the electoral laws, in the direction of the points noted above. The document was physically presented at the entrance to the House of Commons in July 1839, but the Members of Parliament – by a majority – refused to consider it.
In July 1840, the National Charter Association was established in Manchester, to combine the activities of the individual local groups. On the 4th May 1842, a second petition of three million signatures was presented to Parliament, but rejected by the Members of Parliament. At this stage, the requirements of the members of the Chartist movement were increased to include emergency financial measures to correct the decrements in purchasing power, and thus make possible less hunger.
“The Chartist demonstration held on Kersal Moor was estimated by the Northern Star to have been attended by half a million people. This was, of course, a gross exaggeration, but it was larger than its predecessor of Sept. 25, which was said to number 300,000.” 2.45
2.45 Axon, “Annals of Manchester”, December 1839, p. 208.
“The strike for the People’s Charter began in the Ashton, Stalybridge, Dukinfield and Hyde area near Manchester on Monday 8 August 1842 following Chartist-led public meetings held between 26 July and 7 August and following a turnout of Bayley Brothers’ cotton factory workers in Stalybridge over a wage reduction on Friday 5 August. From the start the aim of the strike was to pressurise the government into enacting the People’s Charter by a forceful display of public opinion. However a second aim was to obtain a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work, and there were divisions over these aims among the original Chartist leaders of the strike. The strike was taken by the Ashton and Stalybridge turnouts to Manchester on Tuesday 9 August. It was spread to Bolton, Rochdale, Stockport, Oldham, Bury, Preston, Blackburn, Glossop and many other towns ranging geographically through Southeast Lancashire, Northeast Cheshire, Northwest Derbyshire and North Lancashire.
The strike was spread by crowds marching from town to town turning out the workers in the factories and workshops and pulling out the plugs of the steam boilers which powered the factories to temporarily disable the machinery. From this drawing of the boiler plugs by the turnouts the strike gained its contemporary name of the ‘Plug Plot’, which emphasised the view of many contemporaries that the strike had been planned in advance by either the Anti-Corn Law League (ACLL) or the Chartists. The strike was also spread by delegate missions performed by six of the original leaders of the strike in the Ashton and Stalybridge area. Working people in many different occupations took part in the strike. These included not only factory operatives but also handloom weavers, skilled artisans, engineers, labourers and miners. Trades delegate conferences sat in Manchester from Thursday 11 to Saturday 20 August and declared in favour of the aim of the strike being the enactment of the People’s Charter. During this time the strike throughout the Northwest was overwhelmingly for the enactment of the People’s Charter. From around Saturday 20 August the civil and military authorities began to regain control. The return to work in many places began soon after 20 August, with those who remained on strike, in some cases up to October, merely calling for higher wages..” 2.46
Attempts to separate wage demands from the Charter were soundly defeated – with 120 votes in favour of a resolution that explicitly linked the two. Of the 85 delegates who spoke or indicated their constituencies’ views, 58 were for the Charter, seven for making this a struggle for wages alone, 19 had been instructed to abide by the decision of the conference, and one had no mandate.
“The distress in the manufacturing district led to a great strike. Thousands of men flocked into Manchester, August 9, with banners and bludgeons, and for three days turned the workpeople out of the mills. On the 12th there was a meeting of 358 Chartist delegates of the factory districts held at Manchester, when 320 voted for the continuance of the strike until the Charter was repealed. Another meeting was held on the l5th, and on the 16th the delegates were dispersed by the police. The original reason for this gathering was the completion of a monument to Henry Hunt.” (9 to 16 August, 1842) 2.47
2.46 www.ChartistAncestors.co.uk , General Strike 1842
2.47 Axon, “The Annals of Manchester”, p. 218.
“A Chartist meeting was held on Sunday, April 16, at Smithfield [Manchester], and was said to have been attended by 100,000 persons. On the 17th it was stated in the National Convention that the Chartist petition from Manchester had received 170,000 signatures.” 2.48
PICTURE
Chartist Meeting, Kennington Common, London, 1848
2.48 Axon, Annals of Manchester, April 1848, p. 245
