Description: website of the Chartist magazine newport wales
newport (817) chartism (3) john frost (3)
When the Chartists began to organise in the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, the coal and iron resources of South Wales had made it the centre of the industrialised world. Landed wealth flowed into the region to exploit the natural resources and a huge urban population was formed. As the region developed, the wealth created by the miners and iron makers mostly flowed out of the region to London and the South East.
The population growth was mirrored by the increased gap between the rich and the poor. Disgraceful employment practices such a the Truck Shop system increased this disparity. Cramped housing with poor amenities, long hours and unsafe working conditions and the absence of democratic accountability fostered dissent amongst the working poor. Organisations were formed to debate and challenge the inequality.
One of the most successful was the Chartist movement that attracted some of the era's great thinkers and reformers to its cause and consolidated the widespread opposition throughout the UK into a fairly coherent grouping. The result was a six point Charter for reform of the political system that would allow representation from all parts of society. This was rejected by Parliament In 1839 and many Chartists were arrested for sedition. In the same year a popular rising in South Wales led to a march on the Wes