FEMALE RADICALS - WOMEN IN CHARTISM
Women's Role in the Chartist Movement
Although women’s participation in the Chartism Movement could be considered supplemental or secondary (the vote for women was not part of the Chartists’ demand for electoral reform) there is no doubt that women played an important part in chartism.
Female chartists often referred to themselves as sisters and countrywomen, and like their male counterparts they typically belonged to the industrious or working class. In the public arena the women attended reform meetings and demonstrations, joined the ladies’ wing of Political Unions in large towns such as Birmingham, and boycotted shopkeepers unsympathetic to the Chartist cause - for which they became the target of cartoons in newspapers and magazines such as "Punch." For the most part, however, the vast majority of female chartists played a less prominent role that included selling union subscription tickets, collecting money in support of Chartist prisoners, and organizing tea parties at which they presented embroidered gifts to the male Chartist speakers.
There were several outspoken women radicals, including Susanna Inge (London), Mary Fildes (Manchester), Anne Knight (Chelmsford and Sheffield), Elizabeth Pease (Darlington and Glasgow), but in the male dominated world of the Chartist era, women were mostly seen as the supporting cast in a movement that called for universal male suffrage and electoral reform.
Female chartists often referred to themselves as sisters and countrywomen, and like their male counterparts they typically belonged to the industrious or working class. In the public arena the women attended reform meetings and demonstrations, joined the ladies’ wing of Political Unions in large towns such as Birmingham, and boycotted shopkeepers unsympathetic to the Chartist cause - for which they became the target of cartoons in newspapers and magazines such as "Punch." For the most part, however, the vast majority of female chartists played a less prominent role that included selling union subscription tickets, collecting money in support of Chartist prisoners, and organizing tea parties at which they presented embroidered gifts to the male Chartist speakers.
There were several outspoken women radicals, including Susanna Inge (London), Mary Fildes (Manchester), Anne Knight (Chelmsford and Sheffield), Elizabeth Pease (Darlington and Glasgow), but in the male dominated world of the Chartist era, women were mostly seen as the supporting cast in a movement that called for universal male suffrage and electoral reform.
In keeping with popular thought and feeling of the times, Birmingham Chartist John Collins believed a woman's place was in the home. On the plus side he also believed since politics had interfered with women's lives, so women should have the right to interfere with politics. In one clever turn of phrase he said it was not the Chartists who “drag women from their proper sphere” rather the “aristocracy …. who drag women to the factory”. (True Scotsman Sept 26 1838.)
To some extent Elizabeth Pease, the leader of the Women's Abolition of Slavery Society in Darlington, agreed with Collins' patriarchal thinking. The daughter of Britain's first Quaker MP, and a middle-class reformer in her own right, Elizabeth Pease was a supporter of the moral force element of the Chartist Movement. In a letter dated 14 December 1840 Miss Pease wrote John Collins she believed there were few persons whose natural feelings were so opposed to women appearing prominently before the public such as her own, but that viewed in the light of principle, such prejudice and custom must be put aside. In sharing her thoughts with John Collins, she seemed to infer women's subserviant role in the reform movement was not entirely due to male dominated society but somewhat due to the female view of her own role in it. This might explain the attitude of women toward the aggressive northern agitator Joseph Stephens. In spite of painting working women as poor mothers and announcing women should be ruled by their husbands, Stephens was enormously popular with Chartist women. |
The working class Female Birmingham Union probably had a different take on women's participation in the Chartist Movement. They likely experienced poverty at first hand, and felt the need for political reform more personally than middle class ladies supporting the cause. The Female Union sold hundreds of membership tickets for the Birmingham Political Union. The women were the first to donate funds (£10) toward the National Convention of the Industrious Classes, and at a Female Union meeting in March 1839 it was reported that one of their members, a Mrs Oxford, had single-handedly collected £32 toward the Convention. When Collins was heard to thank the Birmingham men for their support at an Anti Corn Law meeting, a member of the Birmingham Women's Union did not hesitate to remind him of their participation, calling out: "Mr Collins ....we were there!" (They were collecting funds in support of chartism's 'National Rent.') Nevertheless, the Women's Political Union of Birmingham recognized a friend in John Collins - even though on one occasion he (rather patronizingly) told them not to worry their heads on the subject of physical force, and he was known to refer to them as the "fair sex". In fairness, however, he at least warned them that talk of violence could lead to imprisonment or worse, as he did following an inflammatory address from the women of Nottingham, unlike men such as Reverend Stephens who irresponsibly exhorted the women of Norwich to fight tooth and nail alongside their armed men.
By the same token Collins attended the meetings of female radical groups in Birmingham and beyond. He mentored them, and at a meeting in September 1838 he respectfully informed the Birmingham Women's Union he had issued two thousand four hundred Union membership tickets of which upward of two thousand had been paid for. He also wrote letters to the Birmingham Women's Union when he was out of town, updating them on his Scottish tour.
By the same token Collins attended the meetings of female radical groups in Birmingham and beyond. He mentored them, and at a meeting in September 1838 he respectfully informed the Birmingham Women's Union he had issued two thousand four hundred Union membership tickets of which upward of two thousand had been paid for. He also wrote letters to the Birmingham Women's Union when he was out of town, updating them on his Scottish tour.
See also the Chartist Blog on this website for more about Women in Chartism & Hannah Collins.
Collins' Popularity with the Ladies
At one particular meeting of the Birmingham Women's Political Union on Monday 1 July 1839 - which was at the same time as the Convention of the Industrious Classes being held in Birmingham and just days before Collins' arrest for libel and sedition - there were various speakers including the famed Fergus O'Connor and John Frost, and John Collins. Ever the favourite among the ladies Collins was warmly received when he entered the room, and in response to Mrs Lapworth's announcement: "Ladies, no doubt, you are glad once more to see our old and steady friend, Mr Collins” the audience responded with much cheering and shouting: “We are!" Such was his popularity.
At that same session Mrs Lapworth alluded to the scorn and ridicule ("female virtue and feminine politicians") the Birmingham Women's Political Union had suffered at the hand of the press - in particular the Birmingham Journal, which had previously reported on their meetings but had now deserted them. Mrs Lapworth also said that during John Collins' absence on his latest lecture tour no one else had spoken up for them, giving the distinct impression that John Collins was their major supporter among Chartist leaders and the BPU.
It is not surprising that during his imprisonment in Warwick Gaol the ladies of the Birmingham Female Political Union helped collect money for his wife and family, as was reported in the local newspaper. |
Support for John Collins' family during his Imprisonment
Cheltenham elected John Collins to represent them at the National Convention of the Industrious Classes held in London in 1839. His "constituents" donated money in support of Collins' family during his imprisonment in Warwick Gaol.
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Gifts to Collins presented by Female Radicals
After Collins' release from prison he attended numerous 'soirees' and dinners. At several venues, ladies representing a group or deputation, would present him with a token of their esteem and appreciation. During a formal dinner in Edinburgh the Buchanan sisters gave Collins a massive gold ring engraved with a thistle, rose and shamrock. Calton & Mile End Female Chartists presented him with a silver medal on a silk ribbon. The women of the Rothes Paper Mills gave him a silk handkerchief and pair of gloves. In Scotland he received a tartan plaid and a richly embroidered silk scalf. Cravats were a popular gift to liberated Chartists, and one one occasion Collins was presented with a green woolen cravat embroidered with silk. On the occasion of a "Tea Meeting" in late 1841 at the Chartist Church in Birmingham (chaired by Henry Vincent) to honour of the great esteem held by the people for John Collins, a Ms Whitehouse presented him with a gold watch and a silver inkstand.