Is it Possible to Understand Chartism Purely as a Movement for Political Reform?

Chartists have been defined as 'members of movement in Britain in 1837-8 seeking electoral and social reform' (Oxford Dictionary, 1991, 117). These people, primarily associated with the working classes, came together in protest of the economic and social conditions, which had plagued Britain for a number of years. The passing had not eased these conditions for the Reform Bill of 1832, the factory Reform Act of 1833 or the Poor Law Reform Act of 1834. While the government, along with the members of the aristocracy and gentry were trying to maintain the status quo, the working classes were toiling in factories and other areas of employment, which neither guaranteed safe working conditions nor decent wages. It was these abhorrent conditions that led the people to rebel against the upper classes and to try to begin to gain some semblance of rights and justice for themselves.

Background

The seeds of Chartism began to take root in the 1830s. The working classes were faced with conditions, which, if present in areas of the Western world in this day and age, would have brought employers and the captains of industry before courts and tribunals, facing financial ruin and the possibility of incarceration. Substandard housing, contaminated water supplies, polluted working areas, long hours with few breaks and mal-treatment were but a few of the more common problems that the working classes were forced to contend with in the period leading to the early 1830s.