Sources for Chartism: Women Chartists 2

Women and the family

Many of women’s activities within Chartism reflected their family roles. When they raised money for the cause, it was often for the families of imprisoned men. Many Chartist children were named for Chartist leaders: for lists see Chartist Ancestors. A tactic in which it was assumed that women had a special advantage was that of exclusive dealing. Some Female Chartist Associations pledged themselves to purchase only from shopkeepers with sympathy for their cause. Women also participated in the Chartist Land Plan, which aimed to ensure a plot of land for as many of its members as possible, appealing to the rural population as well as those in industrial areas. Over 1,800 women were listed as subscribers in their own right, though this was only around 4% of the whole. Many of these may have been acting on behalf of their families, hoping for a small plot of land to help the family economy, and many more would have participated through their husbands. 

Source 4: The Northern Star, 13^th March, 1841

Mr Webb: What is the child to be called?

Mrs King: James Feargus O’Connor King.

Mr Webb: Is your husband a Chartist?

Mrs King: I don’t know, but his wife is.

Mr Webb: Are you the child’s mother?

Mrs King: Yes.

Mr Webb: You had better go home and consider it again; for if the person that you are naming your child after and was to commit high treason and get hanged, what a thing it would be.

Mrs King: If that should be the case, I should then consider it an honour to have my child called after him, so that I shall never have him out of my memory so long as the child lives; for I think Feargus O’Connor a great deal honester man than those who are punishing him.

Mr Webb: Well, if you are determined to have it named after him, I must name it; but I never met such an obstinate lady as you before.

Mr Webb then registered the child by the above name.

Women and education

Chartist leaders saw women as above all the educators of their children. The commitment of mothers to the cause was essential for the creation of a changed world. It was their task to shape the character of the next generation. It could also mean of course a greater awareness of the importance of women’s own education, given their part as both mothers and as teachers in the upbringing of the young. Some Chartist men, like William Lovett, might believe that they themselves should act as the instructors of their wives, partly because of a sense that their wives were not their equals either in education or political commitment. Many leading women Chartists took up and developed this stress on education and were especially active in the organisation of Chartist cultural and social life. They founded and taught in Sunday Schools, actively backed Chartist Churches, and helped to develop temperance and teetotal Chartism. Some, like the woman who wrote in Chartist periodicals as Sophia, pointed out the conflict of interests which could arise if women pursued their own educational interests.

Source 5: W. E. Adams, Memoirs of a Social Atom, London: Hutchinson and Co., 1903, pages 163-164

Few men now living, I fancy, had an earlier introduction to Chartism than I had. My people, though there wasn't a man among them, were all Chartists, or at least all interested in the Chartist movement. If they did not keep the ‘sacred month’, it was because they thought the suspension of labour on the part of a few poor washerwomen would have no effect on the policy of the country. But they did for a time abstain from the use of excisable commodities. There were other indications of their tendencies. We had a dog called Rodney. My grandmother disliked that name because she had a curious sort of notion that Admiral Rodney, having been elevated to the peerage, had been hostile to the people. The old lady, too, was careful to explain to me that Cobbet and Cobden were two different persons - that Cobbet was the hero, and that Cobden was just a middle-class advocate. One of the pictures that I longest remember - it stood alongside samplers and stencilled drawings, and not far from a china statuette of George Washington - was a portrait of John Frost. A line at the top of the picture indicated that it belonged to a series called the Portrait Gallery of People’s Friends. Above the head was a laurel wreath, while below was a representation of Mr. Frost appealing to Justice on behalf of a group of ragged and wretched outcasts. I have been familiar with the picture since childhood, and cherish it as a memento of stirring times.

Source 6: Letter from ‘M’, English Chartist Circular, 1, number 25, 1841, page 102

It is a great truth that women hold in their hands the character, and consequently, the destiny of a nation. What they are themselves, such are their children. The influences which surround the first six years of the child determine its character for life. Interest or habit may afterwards induce an individual to act differently, but such actions will not be natural: the first six years has given the bias, and be it for good or evil, it is never eradicated. How culpable then are those who neglect the education of our first teachers. No nation ever appreciated the influence of the mother so much as did the Romans in the days of their greatness. We are told by Quintillian that as “soon as the child was born, he was not given in charge to an hired nurse, to live with her in some pitiful hole, that served her for lodgings, but was brought up in the lap and bosom of the mother who reckoned it among her chief commendations to keep the house, and attend on the children. Some ancient matron was pitched on out of the neighbours whose life and manners rendered her worthy of that office to whose care the children of every family were committed; before whom it was reckoned the most heinous thing in the world to speak an ill word, or do an ill action. Nor had she an eye only to their instruction and the business that they were to follow, but with an equal modesty and gravity, she regulated their divertissements and recreations. Thus Cornelia, Aurelia, and Attica, mothers to the Gracchi, Julius Caesar, and Augustus, are represented to have undertaken the offices of governess, and to have employed themselves in the education of noblemen’s children. The strictness and severity of such an institution had this very good design - that the mind, by being thus preserved in its premature innocence and integrity, and not debauched by ill custom, or ill example, might apply itself with the greatest willingness to liberal arts, and embrace them with all its powers and faculties” that, whether it was particularly inclined either to the profession of arms, or to the understanding of the law, or to the practice of eloquence, it might make that its only business, and greedily drink in the whole knowledge of the favourite study. “Now if the women of England had the knowledge the Roman matrons possessed, they might, if they came forward, win the charter sooner than the men” but have they? Is it not notorious that the wives of the working classes, take them as a body, are with the finest capacities, lost in ignorance. If the great body of the men are not much better in this particular, what is to be expected of the women who have fewer opportunities of improving themselves? What follows from this? Why that before they can come forward to aid us in a great political struggle, they must first be taught what they are to struggle for, and what kind of assistance is expected from them. This brings me to the plan I wish to propose: The wives and daughters of the Chartists must be made to understand their political and social rights; they must be made chartists of if we would have those over whom they have had an influence true and strong in the cause they have adopted. Now what method would be best of imparting to them the requisite instruction? Few, very few, venture to our rooms to hear us lecture, and unless; we have opportunities of instructing them they can never become intelligent converts to our cause. What then is to be done? I propose that the leader, the lecturer, or the council of every town in which there is a chartist branch, to select from the ladies who take an interest in the cause, a certain number who they may deem the most capable of imparting instruction, and after examining these ladies as to their capacity to teach, and knowledge of the principles they solicit them to go in their name to the wives, sisters and daughters, of chartists in given districts, with political pamphlets, chartist tracts and ENGLISH CHARTIST CIRCULARS; these publications to be lent to those who can read, and read and explained to those who cannot read. Their first object must be to gain their affections; next, to rouse their self esteem or sense of moral dignity; and lastly, by arguments, illustrations and catechisms, familiarly to inculcate the principles. I have always observed that women make the best preparatory teachers. This may be one reason why the Methodists and other religious bodies, sanction their enthusiastic female members in visiting the houses of their poorer brethren for the purpose of giving religious instruction. Be this as it may, the idea is excellent, and the practice is crowned with success. What has been turned to so good an account in the religious world may be equally capable in the political, if judiciously managed. I therefore throw the suggestion out to those who have it in their power to test its utility.

Bath, June 23, 1841. M. M - n.

Sources for Chartism: Women Chartists 1

Political action

In the first phase of Chartism, women were especially active in mass demonstrations and street activity. The cohesion built up in women’s campaigns against the New Poor Law and for the limitation of factory hours carried through into Chartism. In Bradford, for instance, women had agitated against the New Poor Law, and in August 1839 women radicals marched in procession through the streets, with banners at their head. Their membership included women working in the worsted mills, as well as the wives and daughters of male Chartists in other trades, and there was some overlap between their commitment to industrial action and to Chartism. Thousands of women attended mass meetings, Chartist processions. Women signed petitions and helped to gather names. In 1842, nearly 11,000 women in Merthyr Tydfil signed a petition for the reprieve of those who had been the leaders of the rising in Newport. And though women's participation is often thought to have died away after 1842, there was clearly still much continuing activity and a revival of female associations in the years 1847-50.

Source 1: ‘The Address of the Female Political Association of Nottingham to the Patriotic Women of England’, Northern Star, 8^th December 1838, page 6

Sisters and fellow countrywomen,

At a time like the present, when your important energies are required in aid of those measures in which our husbands, fathers, brothers, and children are now so actively and zealously engaged, headed by the first men and patriots of the day, using every exertion - every possible legal means in their power, towards the uprooting of that oppression and injustice which have so long characterised the legislative measures of this country, and laid its best interests prostrate at their feet, and sacrificed our industry, and that of our husbands, fathers and friends, at the shrine of misrule and extravagance , unprecedented in the annals of British legislation, and brought upon us those heart rending scenes of misery and woe, until the heart sickens in despair at the mere contemplation of such horrifying misery and uncalled for wretchedness of a people and nation proverbial for its industry and unceasing toil, the fruits and sweets of which are dashed from our lips by misrule and oppressive taxation, that others may revel in all the gaieties and luxuries of life; while, alas! millions upon millions of yourselves, husbands, children, are doomed from early life - from infancy to old age, scarcely to taste its common comforts, and to descend into the grave, sickened and wearied of an existence embittered to the last moment by cruelty, misrule and oppression, wickedly and basely called government; existing for no other purpose than the participating in the sweets derived from the long and arduous toil of the people. Yes, sisters, and fellow countrywomen, these are facts, or your situation would not have been what it is; you would not have beheld the tattered garments of your children, nor their poor pallid countenances, nor the care worn looks of your husbands, who, with their many hours of slavish toil, cannot provide food and raiment convenient for them to satisfy Nature’s cravings. Thus situated, what must be your feelings towards those who have had the base temerity, by the craftiness of their legislative measures, to bring you into this state of wretchedness, and your children to want. Sisters and women of England, much is yet in your power, to aid the great and holy cause now so gloriously spreading throughout the land. Aid your husbands, brothers, friends and children. Urge and demand, at their hands, the fulfillment of their duty in the great and holy cause of freedom and eternal justice. Let them know that the union of millions is strength and power, not to be resisted by tyrants. Urge upon them the necessity of throwing in their mite to the general and national fund, in order to give strength and power to those deputed by the people, to fight the great and glorious fight of freedom. Sisters and women of England, all this is in your power to perform, nay more; and we would feign draw your most serious attention to it, namely, from the immensity of public meetings and demonstrations taking place in every town, city and village throughout the kingdom, it cannot but be evident to you all, that a most important impression has been made upon the public mind, and of some of the middle classes too, that they are now beginning to manifest their doubts and fears; and yet, even with this before their eyes, they are fearful and cowardly enough still to keep aloof from the cause espoused by the people. In a short time they will be too late to be considered of the least importance; in fact, they must ever be considered in the light of false friends, and of no moment whatever to the people, only to be closely watched to prevent them doing mischief by their treachery to the common cause because they might be tempted to betray, for the sake of the shop - to gain the smiles of and custom of the Aristocracy, the great enemies of the liberties of the people. Much, sisters, is said of the important services of the middle class men who in the scale of number and intellect are very inferior indeed to the rough and hardy diamonds of the industrious classes, your husbands, sons &c , who if once called out to the field of honour and patriotism, as no doubt they very soon will be, the job - the affair will soon be terminated; we shall then see in whom and where the physical and intellectual powers are to be found, whether in the thousands or in the millions bent on justice &c, the former priding themselves on their importance behind their counters, with as little claim to your respect as possible, and who, if deserted by the working classes like yourselves, would very soon be under the necessity of changing their tones and closing their shops, in which so much miserable sycophancy is displayed, most contemptible in the eyes of the people. Under these considerations we respectfully suggest that the shopocracy be left to their fate, and that no persons are so well qualified to bring these very important personages to their senses as the women of England upon whose minds we would impress as a public duty the necessity of expending their money only with the people or shopkeepers friendly to the cause of freedom, justice, Universal Suffrage, &c. In a very few months the common enemy would be made to bite the dust of their empty shops and empty tills. You, sisters, the patriotic women of England, in these transactions are the most fit and proper persons to deal out the blow and most effectually too; the lead and completion of this, if properly conducted and with spirit would soon be productive of beneficial results. Let every shop and shopkeeper be noted in a book kept for the purpose, stating name, residence, trade, and whether Whig or Tory; also, another book containing the names of those friendly to the cause of the people and the great enterprise in which you and they are embarked as brothers and sisters in the sacred cause of liberty, humanity, and justice to encourage each other by mutual dealings in the way of trading, and not to spend your hard earnings with men opposed to the bettering of our common country. Sisters, oppressed countrywomen, we have too long witnessed exclusive dealing as the motto of our political opponents, necessity and self-defence compel us reluctantly to recommend its adoption. It is no sin to return the compliment, and we pray that it may be done effectually in order to convince our enemies of their weakness if not their wickedness in setting the example of exclusive dealing; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth shall be our motto until the system undergoes a change and our self-willed opponents think proper to set an example worthy to be followed by us whom they so meanly treat with cruel contumely, without the shadow of a reason for so doing. But we pity their want of charity and reason in thus acting, and that from necessity we feel it a duty to fight them with their own weapons and on their own terms, and in thus doing we feel confident of the support of our husbands, friends and children, whose battle we do most solemnly pledge ourselves to fight until the glorious shout of victory and liberty shall echo through the vast canopy of heaven, and be sanctified by that God who had promised to protect the poor and needy from the hands of their oppressors. Therefore, sisters and countrywomen, we say to you be of good cheer; the time must and will arrive when your aid and sympathies may be required in the field to fight, for be assured a great and deadly struggle must take place ere our tyrant oppressors yield to reason and justice. They mean to fight and to slay the people; while our and yours will be the solemn duty to aid the wounded to dress their wounds, and perhaps to afford the last sad solace of our affections in the hour of death. 'Tis better to die by the sword than by famine, and we shall glory in seeing every working man of England selling his coat to buy a sword or a rifle to be prepared for the event. Under these circumstances, we again repeat, urge on your husbands, fathers, brothers, friends, and neighbours to be prepared and ready for the conflict. Urge upon them the necessity of calm reflection and duty to be sober, frugal, patriotic and to consider themselves bound by the sacred ties of nature to protect and shield their wives and children, now stalking through the land, alike degrading to the legislature and the religion of the country. Trusting, sisters, and countrywomen that you will respond to us in your kindest and most patriotic sympathies and services in the cause of our common country in every legal manner possible.

We remain, your devoted friends and sisters,

The Members of

THE NOTTINGHAM FEMALE POLITICAL UNION

Nottingham, Nov. 26, 1828

Mary Savage

Secretary.

Source 2: ‘The Females of Holbrooke to the Chartists of Great Britain and Ireland, in Behalf of Mrs. Frost, Mrs Williams, and Mrs. Jones’, The Northern Star, 5^th February 1842, page 7

Brethren and Sisters in the cause of liberty, permit us to call your attention to an appeal in the Star of the 15 January, in the behalf of the Whig made widows of the Welsh patriots who it appears are in a very distressed state, and having nothing to depend on for their support, but what little they can obtain by their own limited exertions. Mrs Jones considers herself neglected by her husband's pretended friends. Have you responded to this call? If not, hasten to do so; for remember, their husbands were banished for their devotion to that good cause for which so many have been made martyrs. Their only crime consisted in their hatred of tyranny, oppression, and injustice; with a determination to have to comforts of the poor restored, and their rights and liberties protected. Has the call from Mr. Wilkison aroused you to a sense of your duty? The claims of the destitute and disconsolate widows, at this time are imperative. We are aware that unsolicited gratitude is the most valuable, but consider it better late than never. Come then to work in good earnest, and make amends for the past by working double tides for the future. One million of pence amounts to the considerable sum of £4166 13s 4d to raise this sum would only require one penny from every six families in the United Queendom. Surely, if every exertion was made, this sum might be raised, which would not only place them beyond want for ever, but we are inclined to think, would restore the patriots back to their country and friends. Recollect what a few pounds the last convention cost the country, who by their ale exertions obtained a level vote in the house of commons, and had it not been for the casting vote of that marble-hearted wretch, the speaker, in all probability ere this, they would have been restored to their destitute and disconsolate wives and families. Come, then, ye good and true, stain not the Chartist banner with ingratitude, but show your hatred to tyranny, injustice, and cold blooded despotism by doing all that lies in your power for its victims. We particularly request that the females of every place where Chartism has taken root, will appoint individuals to wait on all whom they conceive might be prevailed upon to give something towards relieving these much injured and heartbroken individuals. We think if this plan was carried out effectually, it would be attended with good effects. Though living in a remote village on one of the frigid mountains in Derbyshire, we pledge ourselves to do our duty and hope all good Chartists will do theirs.

Source 3: Northern Star 30^th April 1842, page 4

Caroline Maria Williams writes us to complain that having recently opened a school for infants, at Bristol, with a fair prospect of success, the parish clergyman took the trouble to go round the neighbourhood and advise people not to send their children to her as she was a Chartist, by which her school has been very seriously injured. We can only say that if it be so, the parson is a busy, dirty, meddling fellow.