Power and the People - Part 3
Everything you need to know about Power and the People Chapter 3: Reform and Reformers
- Created by: alexandralester
- Created on: 01-06-18 15:23
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- 3. Reform and Reformers
- 1. Context
- Rapidly increasing population
- More people in towns than country
- Conflicting theories on government emerged
- Huge improvement in communication
- Industrial revolution
- Income and wealth mainly from industry
- New class of business men etc
- Rapidly increasing population
- 2. The Chartists
- Peterloo massacre, 1819
- A crowd of 100,000 people gathered to listen to Henry Hunt talk about reform
- The govt. sent the army to disperse the crowd, killing 11 people and injuring 400
- Showed how the govt. was not ready to listen to change
- Journalists were arrested so they didn't portray the govt. in a bad light (censorship)
- Great Reform Act, 1832
- The 3rd Reform Bill the House of Commons tried to pass (the other 3 rejected by House of Lords)
- Govt. recognised change necessary & wanted to control this change
- The Bill included disenfranchising some boroughs in England and Wales
- also included broadening franchise property qualifications (i.e. farmers and small landowners could vote), BUT women explicitly forbidden
- This lead to increased protests from ordinary people
- Chartism, 1838
- What was Chartism?
- 1838 a people's charter listed demands of radicals - aka Chartists
- Now known as the 1st political party
- They used every tool to promote their message e.g. newspapers and petitions
- What impact did it have?
- Govt.'s response was repression and no concessions
- Made no martyrs but had harsh punishments
- 11 men transported to Australia 1839
- Killed the movement with no points achieved
- Failure? No bc over next 50 years, 5/6 points were achieved
- Govt.'s response was repression and no concessions
- What was Chartism?
- Peterloo massacre, 1819
- 3. Protest and Change - Case Studies
- 1. Thomas Clarkson and Anti-Slavery
- Society for Abolition of Slave Trade persuaded William Wilberforce to introduce an anti slavery motion into House of Commons
- Manchester sent a petition with 10,000 names!
- Thomas Clarkson was an undergraduate from Cambridge (so intelligent) and wrote an essay anti-slavery
- Collected a chest of artifacts with facts and evidence of horrors of slavery
- Clever idea was boycotting goods made by slave trade, e.g. West Indian sugar
- 1807, Bill abolished slave trade, but not till 1833 was it banned in entire British Empire
- 2. Anti-Corn Law League
- Corn laws set up 1815, placing import tax (tariffs) on corn to benefit local farmers
- Bad harvest in 1845 led to increased support of League
- They were v. organised, had ads, sold memorabilia and signed petitions
- Sir Robert Peel repealed the Law in 1846 in response to Irish Potato Famine
- 3. Social Reform - Lord Shaftesbury
- A well known social reformer
- Became an MP and improved Lunacy Laws and the way 'lunatics' were treated
- Reformed factory laws - introduced Ten Hours Bill, limiting children under 9 labour hours
- Believed in education, became president of Ragged School Union
- 1. Thomas Clarkson and Anti-Slavery
- 1. Context
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