Events & Collections

Chartism

The Chartist movement to reform Parliament grew out of the demands of the working class in industrial towns for better living and working conditions and was at its height between 1838 and 1848.

In 1836 the London Working Men’s Association was founded and in 1837 drew up a Charter of Political Demands.

There were six points:

1. The vote for every man over twenty one
2. Secret ballots
3. No property qualification for Members of Parliament
4. Payment of Members of Parliament
5. Parliamentary constituencies of equal size
6. Annual Parliaments

The Library has an extensive collection of over 500 items on Chartism, including contemporary publications, historical studies, the Northern Star newspaper on microfilm, poetry, novels, prints and objects.

One of the gems is a copy of Gammage’s History of the Chartist Movement because as Ruth and Eddie Frow say in their book Born with a Book in his hand:

” As we brought more and more books, we found that we needed still more… One or two books assumed the importance of the Holy Grail in our lives… One of these was Gammage’s History of the Chartist Movement. Over the years we perfected the technique of going into a bookshop, one of us engaging the bookseller in idle conversation using the question, “Have you a copy of Gammage?”, as an opening ploy, while the other scanned the shelves at leisure and without interruption. After a time, the question became academic and we knew we would never achieve the happiness of owning a Gammage. But one day in Steedman’s in Grey Street, Newcastle, one of us was up a ladder while the other worked the lower shelves. Suddenly there was a strangled cry and the ladder shook. White and shaken, we both checked the top shelf and there, for a reasonable sum, was a copy of Gammage. We paid our money and went for a coffee to restore our frayed nerves. But a dimension had gone for our lives. It’s not the kill, but the chase that is most fun.”

For the record, the ‘reasonable sum’ was six pounds and six shillings – although we don’t yet know which year it was purchased.

Many notable people were involved in the Chartist cause, including Ernest Jones, Feargus O’Connor, George Julian Harney – and William Cuffay who was born in 1788.  He became a journeyman tailor but lost his post in 1834 after a tailors’ strike. In 1839 he helped to form the Metropolitan Tailors’ Charter Association and was elected to the Executive of the National Charter Association in 1842. Later that year he was voted president of the London Chartists. His significance in the movement is illustrated by a contemporary report in The Times which referred to “the black man and his party”.  During 1848 William was one of three London delegates at the National Chartists Convention and was considered one of its most militant leaders. He was arrested at home on 18 August 1848 for treason and felony and after a trial was found guilty and sentenced to 21 years penal transportation.

Both Cuffay and O’Connor were present at the great Chartist meeting on Kennington Common on 10 April 1848.  The meeting is the subject of one of the first photographs of crowd scene and a copy of it is in the library’s collection.

The library also holds a number of publications by Jones, O’Connor and Harney along with a small collection of secondary material about William Cuffay.