Anger in the slums manifested in various ways. During the 19th Century, anger was increasingly used in a more organised fashion to voice grievances with the conditions of the slums. With increasing industrialisation factories provided the main employment for those living in slums.[1] Organised anger often resulted in formal strikes, which would sometimes boil over into violence. This became the primary form of expression of working anger.[2] Funnelling anger into protest and organisation gave the feelings of those in the slums legitimacy. This broke the narrative of anger in the slums being animal-like violence by providing a voice that demanded to be taken seriously rather than patronised.
The portrayal of anger in the slums in the contemporary press can demonstrate why transforming anger into legitimate protest and organised resistance was necessary.[3] The defining feature of this coverage was condemnation. This took many forms, often middle and upper class journalists were keen to portray anger in the slums as a symptom of a a working class unable to control their impulses.[4] This can be seen in coverage of a Birmingham riot in 1847..
“The poor persons in the neighbourhood, feeling that while they had been paying highly for flour while they had not been receiving just weight, assembled in considerable economic numbers in front of the premises, during the venting, hooting and yelling, which attracted greater numbers to the spot, till there could not have been fewer than several thousand present. A suggestion was made to break open the doors and it was even proposed to set fire to the premises, and take summary vengeance upon the inmates, when information of the circumstances and a request for assistance was sent to the Stanford Street station… They were speedily ambushed and the mob turned their attention to the police, against whom they directed their missiles” [5]
In this article a group of ‘poorer persons’ assembled outside of a flour shop, are described as a mob and rioting. They then turn their anger on the police and are vaguely described as throwing missiles. However, the actual actions described in this article amount to assembling, yelling, some rocks being thrown and then going home. The article nonetheless speaks hyperbolically about this, claiming that several thousand people amassed outside of a small flour shop. It decides that they were plotting to ‘take summary vengeance upon the inmates’ by burning them alive, despite there being little evidence of this. This is all framed in the context of a bitter dispute over overcharging for flour. This article is typical of the attitude held towards those living in the slums and their concerns. Certain elements of society aimed to portray slum inhabitants as almost a different species to themselves.[6] Even those seeking to reform and improve conditions were prone to emphasises the moral depravity of those living there.[7] This article represents why legitimate actions like strikes, and organisation of their anger, were needed for achieving any real change in conditions.
Anger as a tool of agitation allowed slum inhabitants to campaign and advocate for improvements themselves and express their own agency rather than relying on the kindness of charity and social reformers.[8] Assembling and taking action in large numbers was necessary for this, a few angry men could be ignored and labelled individual troublemakers, but the masses could not.[9] This would routinely lead to the groups being labelled mobs and rioters.[10] Striking became endorsed by working class political leaders in the 19th century as their best tool for change.[11] The union leaders characterised any violence that came with the strikes as an expression of the agitation of workers, and an act of political protest.[12] One union leader was explicit in this language about violence, writing later about his role in organising the strikes
“I told the Manchester Conference I should vote for the resolution because it would mean fighting, and I saw it must come to that. The spread of the strikes would and must be followed by a general outbreak. The authorities of the land would try to quell it; but we must resist them. There was nothing now but a physical force struggles to be looked for. We must get the people out to fight and they must be irresistible, if they were united.”[13]
Thomas Cooper, the author, was later arrested for attending one of the strikes which turned violent after strike breakers re-entered a mine to work despite pickets being present.[14] While many of the goals of the Plug riots were not achieved, the show of force and demonstration of the power of organised anger was clear.[15] Thomas Cooper’s rhetoric in the above quote shows the tactics that were emerging from organised labour, and his later arrest while trying to enforce a general strike can show how much organisers were feared by authorities. The tactics would dominate British Labour politics for the rest of the Nineteenth Century.[16] Trade unionism emerged from this anger and would gradually, through shows of force such as this, give legitimacy to anger in the slums.[17]
This demonstration of anger broke the perception of slum dwellers as animalistic and brutish. The response from employers was to reduce the agency of the strikers involved and portray ‘agitators’ as bad apples that whipped up anger.[18] A pamphlet written by a factory owner who claimed to have prevented strikes, told the story of a bizarre conversation between a Lancaster employee and his employer that demonstrates this..
“…I will relate a conversation which actually took place between a master spinner in the South of Lancashire and one of his workmen. It was during the turn-out of 1841, commonly known as the Boiler-Plug Riots… He (The Employer) received the, and after blaming them for their riotous conduct told them what he considered was the real cause of their suffering; whereupon one of the deputation said –
“Well, Master; don’t you think you’re to blame for all this?”
“How so, M—?” Said the master
“Why,” said the man, “you find great fault with us for taking the advice of —(naming the agitators of the day); and now you tell us what master is there who has tried to explain to us your way of thinking? If you believe were so far wrong, why don’t you come out and set us right. When we want information we have to get it from The northern Star, and such like (naming cheap journals of the day); they take our view of things, and, if we know no better, you mustn’t be surprised at our doing as we do.”[19]
This pamphlet then continues to asses that the lesson to be learned from the Plug Riots are that workers are improperly educated and that is the cause of their anger and violence.[20] This sort of publication can show how anger was viewed by those who owned industry and their perception of their own contribution to the social problems of the slums. The author also lists how factory owners have contributed much to education, but suggests that adult education is needed to stop workers being mislead by agitators into thinking their anger can lead anywhere.[21] The solution suggested is to re-educate workers, this continues the perception of workers as lesser. However, it is apparent that even in these circles the anger of the strikes had forced people to take more seriously the feelings of their workers and acknowledge their own role in improving life in the slums.
James Graham, a politician of the time, echoed this reductive opinion, writing after the strikes that
‘The police and soldiers have done their duty, the time is arrived when moral and religious instruction must go forth to reclaim that people from the error of their ways’.[22]
However, despite the slow progress in changing attitudes, the reaction proves that their anger and agency had to be taken more seriously than prior to the strikes.
This continued later into the Nineteenth Century as trade unions increased in number and organisation.[23] Striking would still often turn violent, but the increased organisation the growing evidence that violence was not needed for expression decreased the regularity of this.[24] One example is the Southampton Dock Strike which occurred during an economic downturn in 1890.[25] Coverage of this strike is free from the language in the previous quotes as their demands were taken more seriously.
“The news of the strike soon spread and it appeared evident that the men were determined to make it assume as large dimensions as possible… At 7 o’clock the first meeting of the day was held under the trees on the Platform and when Mr. Sprow Declared that the strike had indeed begun, and men had rallied nobly round the banner of the union. It was not only Dockers who had struck but other unskilled labourers would join them and show an unbroken front to the employers. He charged the Dock Company with having broken their agreement by trying to undersell the Docker, and declared that the men should not go back to work until they were treated in a fair and legitimate manner”[26]
This quote shows the change that took place in perception of strikes. The coverage goes on to describe “joyful singing of union songs”’ and other activities.[27] While police were later called to calm the strikes, but perceptions of striking as an expression of anger had changed greatly since the Plug Riots.
Disassociating striking and unionism with general anger and rioting became important as the movement strived for more legitimacy.[28] To fully reject the narratives of slum and working class anger, strikes were devolved to be more organised, more peaceful and economically damaging enough to make their point without the need for violence.[29] The Labour organisation published a pamphlet which emphasised the need for peaceful assembly in striking, it aimed to portray police violence against strikers as the problem which was only possible with peaceful assembly..
“At Featherstone some soldiers, no doubt mistaking a peaceful assembly of black-faced miners for tribe or araba or Hottentots, poured a volley of Lee-Mitford bullets into their midst. For months’ newspapers recorded with gruesome minuteness the heart-rending scenes of destitution among the miner’s families. Subscriptions were raised for them and the Church’s extracted spiritual solace from their suffering…..”[30]
Encouraging strikers to be less violent than those seeking to end the strikes caused some problems, but it allowed the narrative of violence to be changed. Violence against the working men expressing themselves would be shown, rather than the working man as a violent animal. These sorts of publications show the maturing of the labour and socialist movements, and the development that expression of anger took.
Anger in the slums progressed from being used as evidence of a Darwinist belief in the animalistic working class, to organised expression used to improve conditions.[31] Too often in discussing reforms of the Nineteenth Century those living in the slums are condemned to be subjects in the narrative of social reformers and charity helping them out of altruism.[32] Through looking at how the working class used their anger to improve things for themselves we can instead see how those living in the slums achieved improvements and forced recognition of their problems through their own actions. By forming organisations that used anger and their numbers to their benefit, we can see how people, rather than charity, formed such a large part of improving their own lives.[33] By ignoring the outcome of their anger, it is easy to reduce the inhabitants to subjects without agency. However, this is a mistake. The expression of anger through unionism, and the utilising their position as the drivers of the economic progress of the 19th century, shows the working poor of the slums did contribute to achieving progress in improving conditions.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
A Preston Manufacturer, ‘Strikes Prevented’ , Knowsley Phampley Collection, 1854, Avilable online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60100647, Date Accessed: Dec 3 2017
Author Unknown, ‘Riot in Birmingham: Threatened Destruction of a Flour Mill’, Berrow’s Worcester Journal, Thursday June 17, 1847, British Library Newspapers Part II: 1800-1900
Author Unknown, ‘Great Strike in The Oldham Cotton Trade’, The Leeds Mercury, Tuesday July 21, 1885, Issue 14753, British Library Newspapers Part I 1800-1900
Author Unknown, ‘The Labour Agitation in Southampton’, The Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday September 13 1890, P. 3, Issue 4618, British Library Newspapers Part II 1800-1900
Cooper, T, ‘The Life of Thomas Cooper’, (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1872), P.208
Glaser, J, B, ‘On Strikes’, LSE Selected Pamphlets 1890, Available Online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60218009, Date Accessed: Dec 3 2017
Hall, L, ‘Old and New Unionism: Being a reply to a leadlfet entitled: “To Hell with Trades Unionism’, LSE selected Pamphlets, 1894, Available Online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60218617, Date Accessed: Dec 3 2017
Southall, H.R, Gilbert, D.R, Gregory, I, Great Britain Historical Database : Census Statistics, Employment, 1841-1931, (1988), Available Online: https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=3706&type=data%20catalogue, Date Accessed: Dec 1 2017
Secondary Sources
Beier, A. L. ‘Identity, Language, and Resistance in the Making of the Victorian “Criminal Class”: Mayhew’s Convict Revisited.’ Journal of British Studies 44:3 (2005) Pp. 501
Belchem, J, C, ‘Radical Language and Ideology in Early Nineteenth-Century England: The Challenge of the Platform’, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Summer 1988) Pp. 247-259
Calhourn, C, ‘Industrialization and Social Radicalism: British and French Workers’ Movements and the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Crises, Theory and Society, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Jul 1983), Pp. 485-504, P.496
Clark, A, ‘The Rhetoric of Chartist Domesticity: Gener, Language and Class in the 1830s and 1840s’, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan 1992) Pp. 62-88,
Cronin, J, E, ‘The Perculiar Pattern of British Strikes since 1888’, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, (Spring 1979) Pp. 118-141,
Conley, C. A. ‘Wars among Savages: Homicide and Ethnicity in the Victorian United Kingdom’ Journal of British Studies 44:4 (Oct, 2005) Pp.777
Parssinen, T, M, ‘Association, Convention and Anti-Parliament in British Radical Politics, 1771-1848’, The English Historical Review, Vol. 88, No. 348, (Jul 1973) Pp. 504-533 P.529
Rudé, G, ‘Protest and Punishment in Nineteenth-Century Britain’, Albian: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, Violence and Social Control (Spring 1973) P. 1-23 P.2
Tyrrell, A, ‘Class Consciousness in Early Victorian Britain: Samuel Smiles, Leeds Politics, and the Self-Help Creed’, Journal Of British Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2, (May 1970), Pp. 102-125,
Williams, K, ‘Promoting the ‘New Europe’: Education or Proselytism’, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 85, No. 337, (Spring 1996) Pp. 49-57, P.50
Illustrations
Figure 1: Artist Unknown, ‘Plug Riot in Preston’, The Illustrated London News, (Engraving, August 1842)
Figure 2: On Strikes cover, taken from Glaser, J, B, ‘On Strikes’, LSE Selected Pamphlets 1890, Available Online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60218009, Date Accessed: Dec 3 2017
‘The Plug Plot Riot in Preston, Illustration from ‘The Illustrated London News’ August 1842 (Enggraving) Engliusb School, 1842, Engraving
[1] Southall, H.R, Gilbert, D.R, Gregory, I, Great Britain Historical Database : Census Statistics, Employment, 1841-1931, (1988), Available Online: https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=3706&type=data%20catalogue, Date Accessed: Dec 1 2017
[2] Cronin, J, E, ‘The Peculiar Pattern of British Strikers Since 1888’, Journal Of British Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, (Spring 1979) Pp. 188-141, P.122
[3] Calhourn, C, ‘Industrialization and Social Radicalism: British and French Workers’ Movements and the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Crises, Theory and Society, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Jul 1983), Pp. 485-504, P.496
[4] Conley, C. A. ‘Wars among Savages: Homicide and Ethnicity in the Victorian United Kingdom’ Journal of British Studies 44:4 (Oct, 2005) Pp. 777
[5] Author Unknown, ‘Riot in Birmingham: Threatened Destruction of a Flour Mill’, Berrow’s Worcester Journal, Thursday June 17, 1847, British Library Newspapers Part II: 1800-1900
[6] Conley, C. A. ‘Wars among Savages: Homicide and Ethnicity in the Victorian United Kingdom’ Journal of British Studies 44:4 (Oct, 2005) Pp. 777
[7] Beier, A. L. ‘Identity, Language, and Resistance in the Making of the Victorian “Criminal Class”: Mayhew’s Convict Revisited.’ Journal of British Studies 44:3 (2005) Pp. 501
[8] Hall, L, ‘Old and New Unionism: Being a reply to a leadlfet entitled: “To Hell with Trades Unionism’, LSE selected Pamphlets, 1894, Available Online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60218617, Date Accessed: Dec 3 2017 P.5
[9] Parssinen, T, M, ‘Association, Convention and Anti-Parliament in British Radical Politics, 1771-1848’, The English Historical Review, Vol. 88, No. 348, (Jul 1973) Pp. 504-533 P.529
[10] Rudé, G, ‘Protest and Punishment in Nineteenth-Century Britain’, Albian: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, Violence and Social Control (Spring 1973) P. 1-23 P.2
[11] Cronin, J, E, ‘The Perculiar Pattern of British Strikes since 1888’, P.127
[12] Parssinen, T, M, ‘Association, Convention and Anti-Parliament in British Radical Politics, 1771-1848’, P.529
[13] Cooper, T, ‘The Life of Thomas Cooper’, (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1872), P.208
[14] Author Unknown, ‘Great Strike in The Oldham Cotton Trade’, The Leeds Mercury, Tuesday July 21, 1885, Issue 14753, British Library Newspapers Part I 1800-1900
[15] Clark, A, ‘The Rhetoric of Chartist Domesticity: Gener, Language and Class in the 1830s and 1840s’, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan 1992) Pp. 62-88,P.84
[16] Cronin, J, E, ‘The Perculiar Pattern of British Strikes since 1888’, P.118
[17] Belchem, J, C, ‘Radical Language and Ideology in Early Nineteenth-Century England: The Challenge of the Platform’, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Summer 1988) Pp. 247-259 P.257
[18] A Preston Manufacturer, ‘Strikes Prevented’ , Knowsley Phampley Collection, 1854, Avilable online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60100647, Date Accessed: Dec 3 2017, P.7-8
[19] A Preston Manufacturer, ‘Strikes Prevented’ P.7-8
[20] A Preston Manufacturer, ‘Strikes Prevented’ , P.9
[21] A Preston Manufacturer, ‘Strikes Prevented’ , P.10
[22] Graham, J, Quoted in : Williams, K, ‘Promoting the ‘New Europe’: Education or Proselytism’, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 85, No. 337, (Spring 1996) Pp. 49-57, P.50
[23] Bailey, R, E, Boyer, G, R, Hatton, T, J, ‘The Union Wage Effect in Late Nineteenth Century Britain’, Economica, Vol. 61, No. 244 (Nov 1994), Pp. 435-456, P.437
[24] Hall, L, ‘Old and New Unionism: Being a reply to a leadlfet entitled: “To Hell with Trades Unionism’, P.9
[25] Cronin, J, E, ‘The Perculiar Pattern of British Strikes since 1888’, P.118
[26] Author Unknown, ‘The Labour Agitation in Southampton’, The Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday September 13 1890, P. 3, Issue 4618, British Library Newspapers Part II 1800-1900,
[27] Author Unknown, ‘The Labour Agitation in Southampton’, The Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday September 13 1890, P. 3, Issue 4618, British Library Newspapers Part II 1800-1900,
[28] Bailey, R, E, Boyer, G, R, Hatton, T, J, ‘The Union Wage Effect in Late Nineteenth Century Britain’, P. 438
[29] Bailey, R, E, Boyer, G, R, Hatton, T, J, ‘The Union Wage Effect in Late Nineteenth Century Britain’, P.438
[30] Glaser, J, B, ‘On Strikes’, LSE Selected Pamphlets 1890, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60218009, Date Accessed: Dec 3 2017, P.4
[31] Tyrrell, A, ‘Class Consciousness in Early Victorian Britain: Samuel Smiles, Leeds Politics, and the Self-Help Creed’, Journal Of British Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2, (May 1970), Pp. 102-125, P.125
[32] Tyrrell, A, ‘Class Consciousness in Early Victorian Britain: Samuel Smiles, Leeds Politics, and the Self-Help Creed’, P.104
[33] Bailey, R, E, Boyer, G, R, Hatton, T, J, ‘The Union Wage Effect in Late Nineteenth Century Britain’, P. 438
Exploring the Slum 