The Chartists (Commentary)

This commentary is based on the classroom activity: The Chartists

Q1: Study source 1. What comment is the artist making about the Chartist petition?

A1: The artist has shown the petition to be very large because it contained 3,317,702 signatures, which was more than 50% of the male adult population.

Q2: The Chartists used a variety of different methods to persuade Parliament to give all adult males the vote.

A2: This includes: petitions (sources 1 and 4), large, open-air meetings (sources 2, 11 and 12), newspaper campaigns (source 3), threats and acts of violence (sources 3, 6, 8, 9, 10), moral arguments (sources 7 and 13) and shop boycotts (source 5)