In his autobiography, Passages in the Life
of a Radical, Samuel Bamford
claims that women first became involved in the struggle for universal
suffrage in the summer of 1818. Bamford describes a meeting at Lydgate
in Saddleworth where women were allowed to vote for and against resolutions.
Bamford points out that: "This was a new idea; and the women,
who attended numerously on that bleak ridge, were mightily pleased
with it."
In June 1819 the first Female Union was formed by Alice Kitchen in
Blackburn. Later that year there were Female Reform Groups in Manchester,
Oldham and Royton. The leader of the Manchester
Female Reform Group was Mary Fildes. A
passionate radical she named her two sons after John
Cartwright and Henry Hunt. Fildes was
also involved in the campaign for birth control and when she attempted
to sell books on the subject she was accused in the local press of
distributing pornography. Fildes was one of the speakers at the St.
Peter's Field meeting on 16th August, 1819. Some reports claimed
that the Manchester & Salford Yeomanry
attempted to murder Mary Fildes while arresting
the leaders of the demonstration.
Susanna Saxton, was the secretary of the
Manchester Female Reformers. Susanna wrote several pamphlets on universal
suffrage. The most popular was The Manchester
Female Reformers Address to the Wives, Mothers, Sisters and Daughters
of the Higher and Middling Classes of Society. Although
Saxton addressed women as "Sisters of the Earth", she argued
that women's main role was to support their husbands in their struggle
for universal male suffrage. They were also urged "to install
into the minds of our children, a deep and rooted hatred of our corrupt
and tyrannical rulers." Of the pamphlets published during this
period that have survived, none suggest that women should be given
the vote.
Women reformers in 1819
(1)
Samuel Bamford wrote about the involvement
of women in the struggle for universal suffrage in his book Passages
in the Life of a Radical.
At
one of these meetings, which took place at Lydgate, in Saddleworth,
and at which Bagguley, Drummond, Fitton, Haigh, and others were the
principal speakers, I, in the course of an address, insisted on the
right, and the propriety also, of females who were present at such
assemblages voting by a show of hands for or against the resolutions.
This was a new idea; and the women, who attended numerously on that
bleak ridge, were mightily pleased with it. When the resolution was
put the women held up their hands amid much laughter; and ever from
that time females voted with the men at the Radical meetings.
(2)
The British Volunteer newspaper (10th July, 1819)
Among the many schemes which now endanger the peace of our society,
are some for the forming female political associations, to inculcate
in the minds of mothers and of the rising generation a disrespect
for parliament. One of these, it is alleged, has been formed in Blackburn,
in this county!!!
(3)
In his account in The Times published
on 19th August, 1819, John Tyas described
the female reformers at St. Peter's Field.
A club of Female Reformers, amounting in numbers,
according to our calculations, 150 came from Oldham; and another,
not quite so numerous, from Royton. The first bore a white silk banner,
by far the most elegant displayed during the day, inscribed 'Major
Cartwright's Bill, Annual Parliaments, Universal Suffrage, and Vote
by Ballot'. The females of Royton bore two red flags, the one inscribed
'Let us die like men, and not sold like slaves'; the other 'Annual
Parliaments and Universal Suffrage'.
A group of women of Manchester, attracted by the crowd, came to the
corner of the street where we had taken our post. They viewed the
Oldham Female Reformers for some time with a look in which compassion
and disgust was equally blended, and at last burst out into an indignant
exclamation - "Go home to your families, and leave sike-like
as these to your husbands and sons, who better understand them."
The women who addressed them were of the lower order of life.
George
Cruikshank produced Female Reformers of Blackburn
after he read about the group in the Black Dwarf (12th August
1819)
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