Dbq Chartism

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The other piece of legislation with the most intense resistance was the New Poor Law introduced in 1834. That policy was criticised because of its dire consequences on poor relief and the people identified with Chartism when they all condemned the injustice carried by this act. Politicians were called untrustworthy, since the New Poor Law was accepted without controversy by Members of Parliament, even if it was at odds with the people’s interests. Indeed, the workhouse system led to the separation of families, the humiliation of the poor and their stigmatisation as people who did not embrace the Victorian virtues of self-help praised by the Liberals and did not deserve respectability. The clauses of the Poor Law encouraged infanticide, threatened …show more content…

Associated with the New Poor Laws, the 1832 Anatomy Act also raised protests because it was seen as a utilitarian measure opposed to the dignity of the most disadvantaged even as regards death. According to the latter and the Chartists, this act highlighted the wish of the Whigs to degrade the poor by putting their bodies on “a level with the bodies of beasts.” The mass then allied with the Chartist movement to gain emancipation from the Whigs’ oppression: since the government proved to be insensitive to the people’s pain, they had to ask for political …show more content…

Chartist campaigners thus criticised the Whigs government and the repressive measures it endorsed to raise a sense of political awareness amongst the people. Thanks to the issues tackled, the accessibility of the discourses, and the attractive popular gatherings organised, the movement searched to mobilise even the lowest class of the population. It focused on the problems of the poor, which were predominantly caused by the economic and social policies voted by the Liberals. The Whigs thus threatened the traditions and lives of the working people, and Chartism encouraged massive political engagement to bring reform to a decaying and unrepresentative political system, especially through the extension of franchise. Joining both political and social issues, “the Charter was a means to an end – the means was their political rights and the end was social

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