Tolpuddle Martyrs

Causes

Changing working conditions

Labourers formed a union to try and negotiate better pay and conditions as the new farm machinery invented had meant that fewer labourers were needed.Wages had dropped because you didn’t need to be a skilled worker in order to operate the machinery.

Development

Tolpuddle is a small village in Dorset.
Being part of a trade union was legal so the men were not breaking any laws. Their leader was George Loveless.
Part of the law said that no secret oaths were to be taken and the men had taken an oath to keep their union a secret.
A local landowner heard about this and was worried that they had formed a union. The French Revolution had made landowners and the government scared that the ideas of equality and freedom would reach the British working classes.

The six men in the union were arrested.

Consequences

Found guilty of committing an unlawful oath and sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia.

Robert Owen called a meeting of the GNCTU and 10,000 people attended the march at Copenhagen Fields. They gathered petitions and demanded that the Tolpuddle Martyrs be returned to England.

Significance

Short term

Led to the protests by the GNCTU
The persistent campaigning led to the 6 men getting a pardon in March 1836.

Long term

Many of those involved in the campaign went on to become part of the Chartist movement as a way to make the lives of working people better.

Caused the GNCTU to collapse as it was made up of miners and workers and the two groups found it difficult to work collaboratively.