In November, 1841 two men from Bristol, Charles Southwell (1812-60) and William Chilton (1815-55), began publishing a new periodical, the Oracle of Reason. Southwell and Chilton were both atheists and in the journal they denounced all religion as superstition. In the fourth issue Southwell wrote an article criticizing the Bible. Southwell was arrested and charged with blasphemous libel. He was found guilty and sentenced to a year in Bristol Gaol.
With Charles Southwell in prison, George Holyoake, a schoolteacher working in Sheffield, became the journal's new editor. The authorities now kept a close watch on Holyoake, and six months later he was charged with blasphemy after he made a speech in Cheltenham. Holyoake was found guilty and sentenced to six months in Gloucester Gaol.
After Holyoake was released from prison he started a new weekly journal called The Movement. The journal appeared for three years and was then replaced by The Reasoner. Holyoake's main complaint against Christianity was that it was an "impediment to rational progress". Holyoake argued that Christianity was "irrelevant speculation" and should be replaced by a belief system based on reason and science. Holyoake called this new theory Secularism and in the early 1850s groups called secular societies began forming all over Britain.
In 1853 sales of The Reasoner reached 5,000 and the journal reported that there were over forty local secular societies. Most of these societies were based in Lancashire and the West Riding, with flourishing groups in Manchester, Leeds, Huddersfield and Halifax. The radical publisher, James Watson, who had worked for Richard Carlile when he had been imprisoned for blasphemy for three years in 1819, established a large Secular Society in London.
Some people in the movement believed that George Holyoake and The Reasoner should be more critical of Christianity. Robert Cooper from Manchester claimed that Holyoake was an agnostic (the view that any ultimate reality is unknown and is probably unknowable) rather than an atheist (the positive denial of the existence of a God). In 1854 Cooper started a new journal, the Investigator, which promoted atheistic Secularism.
Charles Bradlaugh, the leader of the Secular Society in Sheffield, also disapproved of Holyoake's cautious approach to Christianity. Bradlaugh believed that religion was blocking progress and could not be ignored. In 1860 Bradlaugh and Joseph Barker, a former leader of the Chartist movement in Sheffield, formed a new journal called the National Reformer. Bradlaugh toured the country giving lectures on religion and politics and was soon acknowledged as the new leader of the Secular movement. Sales of the National Reformer reached 5,000 but in 1861 Barker left the journal because he disagreed with Bradlaugh's advocacy of birth control.
In 1866 Bradlaugh announced plans for a new "national freethought organisation" with headquarters in London and "branches in all the provincial towns". At the inaugural meeting in London, Bradlaugh was elected president and Charles Watts, a frequent contributor to the National Reformer, became secretary of the National Secular Society.
Bradlaugh continued to tour the country making speeches and in 1874 met Annie Besant, a member of the Secular Society in London and an advocate of women's rights. Bradlaugh recruited Besant to work on the National Reformer and over the next few years wrote several articles on marriage and the political status of women.
In 1877 Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant decided to publish The Fruits of Philosophy, Charles Knowlton's book advocating birth control. Besant and Bradlaugh were charged with publishing material that was "likely to deprave or corrupt those whose minds are open to immoral influences".
In court they argued that "we think it more moral to prevent conception of children than, after they are born, to murder them by want of food, air and clothing." Besant and Bradlaugh were both found guilty of publishing an "obscene libel" and sentenced to six months in prison. At the Court of Appeal the sentence was quashed.
The case gave the Secular Society national publicity. So also did Bradlaugh's election as the MP for Northampton. As he was not a Christian, Charles Bradlaugh asked for permission to affirm rather than take the oath of office. The Speaker of the House of Commons refused and Bradlaugh was expelled from Parliament. William Gladstone, the Prime Minister, supported Bradlaugh's right to affirm, but he had upset a lot of people with his views on Christianity, the monarchy and birth control and when the issue was put before Parliament, MPs voted to support the Speaker's decision to expel him.
Over the next five years Bradlaugh, supported by Annie Besant and Edward Aveling, mounted a national campaign in favour of atheists being allowed to sit in the House of Commons. When Bradlaugh attempted to take his seat in Parliament in June 1880, he was arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Bradlaugh and his supporters organised a national petition and on 7th February, 1882, he presented a list of 241,970 signatures calling for him to be allowed to take his seat. However, when he tried to take the Parliamentary oath, he was once again removed from Parliament.
In 1884 Charles Bradlaugh was once again elected to represent Northampton in the House of Commons. He took his seat and voted three times before he was excluded. He was later fined £1,500 for voting illegally. Bradlaugh's case received a great deal of national publicity and this helped the fortunes of the Secular Society. By the time he was allowed to take his seat in January, 1886, the organisation had 6,000 members and over a hundred branches.
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