England in the 1840s

Queen Victoria 1837-1901

Hungry Forties

• Profits squeeze
• Sluggish markets
• Subsistence
• Iron Law of Wages
• Bad harvests

Depression--the Hungry Forties

• Polarization: class and poverty
• Working class exclusion/defeat
• Two Englands?

Literary Depictions

Thomas Carlyle's essays

Benjamin Disraeli

• Sybil 1845

Charles Dickens

• Oliver Twist 1837-39
• Hard Times 1845
• McChoakumchild

Elizabeth Gaskell

• Mary Barton 1848
• North and South 1855

Chartism

Anti-Poor Law Movement

London Working Men's Association 1836

The People's Charter 1837

• Manhood suffrage
• Secret ballot
• Payment of MPs
• Abolition of property qualification
• Equal constituencies
• Annual parliamentary elections

Women's suffrage

• Why not?

Moral force or physical force?

Feargus O'Connor link

The Northern Star link

1839

• Convention of the Industrious Classes
• General Napier
• General Strike
• John Frost link

1840-1842

• National Charter Association
• Complete Suffrage Union
• Manchester Plug Riots

Anti-Corn Law League 1838

Richard Cobden link

Benefits of repeal:

• Prosperity in manufacturing
• Relieve the suffering poor
• More efficient agriculture
• World peace

John Bright

• Quaker moralism
• Nonconformists

Free Trade Hall, Manchester 1843

Ebenezer Elliott

Sir Robert Peel, 1841-1846 PM

• Irish Famine
• Repeal of Corn Laws 1846
• Split his party

Revolution of 1848 in Europe

• Chartist petition link
• Kennington Common

Why did the founders of Chartism believe that political reform was the key to the economic betterment of the working class?

What political reforms did they demand?

Why was the Whig/Tory political elite united in opposition to them?

Why did many people find the arguments of the Anti-Corn Law League persuasive?

Why did Sir Robert Peel, once again, split the Conservative Party?