On 16 October 1811, the National Society for the Education of Poor Children in the Principles of the Established Church (the Church of England) was founded to establish “National Schools.” According to their founders, poor children were to be taught to avoid vice and behave in an orderly manner within their station. To limit costs, the monitorial system was employed, by which more advanced pupils taught younger ones.

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Florence S. Boos, “The Education Act of 1870: Before and After”

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by David Rettenmaier

On 16 August 1819, at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, more than 60,000 workers gathered to demonstrate in favor of an expansion of suffrage in England. In an attempt to disperse the crowd and arrest the organizers of the demonstration, local cavalry and members of the 15th Hussars and 88th Foot attacked the crowd, killing a dozen protestors and injuring as many as 600. Though Wellington was not involved, the incident was dubbed “Peterloo” because of his persistent opposition to reform in the House of Lords. Image: Richard Carlisle, To Henry Hunt, Esq., as chairman of the emeeting assembled in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, sixteenth day of August, 1819, and to the female Reformers of Manchester and the adjacent towns who were exposed to and suffered from the wanton and fiendish attack made on them by that brutal armed force, the Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry, this plate is dedicated by their fellow labourer, Richard Carlile: a coloured engraving that depicts the Peterloo Massacre (1 October 1819), Manchester Library Services. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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James Chandler, “On Peterloo, 16 August 1819″

Sean Grass, “On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 14 September 1852″

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by David Rettenmaier

On April 1825, the British stock market began to crash. After the speculative bubble reached its peak, falling Bank of England gold reserves and a collapse in stock prices lead to panic by the end of the year.

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Angela Esterhammer, “1824: Improvisation, Speculation, and Identity-Construction”

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by David Rettenmaier

On December 1825, bank failures began in London. The collapse of important City banks lead to further bank failures across Britain and brought financial crisis to the point where the Bank of England must take extreme measures. Image: The main Bank of England façade, c. 1980. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

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Alexander J. Dick, “On the Financial Crisis, 1825-26″

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Angela Esterhammer, “1824: Improvisation, Speculation, and Identity-Construction”

Lana L. Dalley, “On Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy, 1832-34″

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by David Rettenmaier

The Swing Riots, which occurred from August 1830 to December 1830, were a series of riots by agricultural workers that resulted from the Enclosure Acts, in general, and the introduction of threshing machines in East Kent, more specifically. The Swing Riots are named after the fictitious “Captain Swing,” the figurehead for the movement. Image: Print by Henry Heath entitled “Swing!” (1830). Reproduced with permission from The British Museum.

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Carolyn Lesjak, "1750 to the Present: Acts of Enclosure and Their Afterlife" (forthcoming)

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by David Rettenmaier

On 30 October 30 1831, a crowd of 10,000 took possession of Queen Square in Bristol, as rioting in nine cities and towns marked the failure of the second version of the First Reform Bill in the House of Lords.

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Carolyn Vellenga Berman, “On the Reform Act of 1832″

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by David Rettenmaier

The Great Reform Act of 1832 was passed in June 1832 after long discussion, with King William IV giving the royal asses on 7 June 1832. This followed a failed attempt on September 1831 that was vetoed by the House of Lords. A second draft was passed after the King intervened. The Bill eliminated many rotten boroughs and created a new class of eligible voters, providing a model by which non-landowners might claim representation in Parliament. Image: First page of the Reform Act, from the British government's national archives. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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Carolyn Vellenga Berman, “On the Reform Act of 1832″

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Janice Carlisle, “On the Second Reform Act, 1867″

Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"

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by David Rettenmaier

Act to Regulate the Labour of Children and Young Persons in the Mills and Factories of the United Kingdom passed on 29 August 1833. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act"

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Peter Capuano, “On Sir Charles Bell’s The Hand, 1833″

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In July 1842 Edwin Chadwick, with Dr. Thomas Southwood Smith, published his ‘The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population,’ at his own expense. The report detailed the sanitary conditions of the poor and advocated reform, tracing public health problems directly to the awful state of urban housing the poor endured. Chadwick’s report launched the mid-century sanitary movement, though it had a slow start because change was expensive. Image: Photograph of Sir Edwin Chadwick. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"

Barbara Leckie, “‘The Bitter Cry of Outcast London’ (1883): Print Exposé and Print Reprise”

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by David Rettenmaier

Manchester strikes began on 8 August 1842. Following the rejection of the second petition, the Chartists sought to join forces with striking workers in the industrial region around Manchester, who were protesting a reduction in wages, but once again government forces moved quickly to suppress the ensuing riots. Image: Engraving depicting a Chartist riot from 1886 book True Stories of the Reign of Queen Victoria by Cornelius Brown. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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Chris R. Vanden Bossche, "On Chartism"

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Jo Briggs, “1848 and 1851: A Reconsideration of the Historical Narrative”

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by David Rettenmaier

Spurred by the 1848 cholera epidemic and Edwin Chadwick’s report on The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population, a Central Board of Health was established that provided for taxation to enforce sanitary reform and the creation of local Boards of Health. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"

Barbara Leckie, “‘The Bitter Cry of Outcast London’ (1883): Print Exposé and Print Reprise”

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On 24 August 1857, the fall of the Ohio State Life and Trust Company in the United States marked the beginning of the 1857 financial crisis. Image: "Run on the Seamen's Savings' Bank during the Panic of 1857" by Unknown - w:Harper's Weekly available at Library of Congress. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Lynn Shakinovsky, “The 1857 Financial Crisis and the Suspension of the 1844 Bank Act”

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Gooch, Joshua. “On ‘Black Friday,’ 11 May 1866″

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by David Rettenmaier

On 27 October 1857, the failure of the Liverpool Borough Bank marked the beginning of the 1857 financial crisis in England. Image: "Run on the Seamen's Savings' Bank during the Panic of 1857" by Unknown - w:Harper's Weekly available at Library of Congress. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Lynn Shakinovsky, “The 1857 Financial Crisis and the Suspension of the 1844 Bank Act”

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Gooch, Joshua. “On ‘Black Friday,’ 11 May 1866″

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24 December 1857 was regarded as the official end of the 1857 financial crisis, with the reduction of the Bank Rate from 10% to 8%. Image: "Run on the Seamen's Savings' Bank during the Panic of 1857" by Unknown - w:Harper's Weekly available at Library of Congress. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Lynn Shakinovsky, “The 1857 Financial Crisis and the Suspension of the 1844 Bank Act”

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Gooch, Joshua. “On ‘Black Friday,’ 11 May 1866″

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by David Rettenmaier

The Collapse of the City of London's oldest bill-brokerage firm and discount company, Overend, Gurney, and Company initiates the financial panic of 1866, marking a change in perception of the banking industry and stimulating new economic theories during the 1860s.

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Joshua Gooch, "On 'Black Friday,' 11 May 1866"

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by David Rettenmaier

On 15 August 1867, the Representation of the People Act, 1867 (also known as the Second Reform Act), received the royal assent. This act increased the electorate of England and Wales to approximately one man in three, theoretically including substantial numbers of working-class men. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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Janice Carlisle, "On the Second Reform Act, 1867"

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Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

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by David Rettenmaier

On 26 July 1869, the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, 1869, received the royal assent. This act reinstated compounding, the collection of tenants’ poor rates along with their rent, a practice that had been eliminated by the passage of the Second Reform Act Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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Janice Carlisle, "On the Second Reform Act, 1867"

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by David Rettenmaier

On 9 August 1870, the Education Act of 1870 (England), written by William Edward Forster, received the royal assent. The Act established local education boards empowered (but not required) to levy taxes to support the education of children ages 5-13 in “Board Schools,” for which fees could also be charged. It also permitted local boards to fund existing and future religious schools. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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Florence S. Boos, “The Education Act of 1870: Before and After”

Herbert F. Tucker, “In the Event of a Second Reform”

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September 1873 saw the beginning of the "panic of 1873," a financial crisis brought on in part by speculation in railroads. The crisis included the fall of American banking house Jay Cook & Company, which was precipitated by the failure of Northern Pacific Railway shares. The panic triggered a depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 until 1879. Image: Portrait, Jay Cooke, founder of Jay Cooke & Company. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

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Deborah Denenholz Morse, “The Way He Thought Then: Modernity and the Retreat of the Public Liberal in Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now, 1873”

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In July 1888, the London Matchgirls' Strike occurred.

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Heidi Kaufman, “1800-1900: Inside and Outside the Nineteenth-Century East End”

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Between 14 January 1893 and 16 January 1893, the Independent Labour Party was founded. After three candidates who had campaigned as labor representatives were elected to parliament in 1892, the Independent Labour Party held its first conference and issued a platform calling for collective ownership, free public education, unemployment relief, and a minimum wage. The ILP would later join a broader coalition, the Labour Representation Committee formed at a conference held 26-27 February 1900, and on 15 February 1906 the name Labour Party was adopted.

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Florence Boos, “The Socialist League, founded 30 December 1884″

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