| |
![]() |
|
|
4 November 1839
Frustrated by the lack of progress in improving working conditions, Chartists (see 1838 The People's Charter) and their supporters demonstrate in Newport, south Wales. Chartist John Frost leads ironworkers, quarrymen and miners into the town, where they march on the Westgate Hotel, where magistrates and soldiers are assembled. Soldiers fire on the demonstrators and kill more than 20 of them. Frost and fellow local leader Zephaniah Williams are transported for life, and national Chartist leaders William Lovett and Feargus O'Connor are both imprisoned. From jail in July 1840, O'Connor gives his blessing to the founding of the National Charter Association, which provides central organisation and helps keep Chartism alive. |
|