Lady Insurrectionists

In this groundbreaking history, Judy Cox brings to life the radical voices of women who refused to be sidelined – figures such as the ‘Red-Hot Radical’ poet Eliza Cook, Quaker abolitionist Elizabeth Pease and the electrifying Chartist speaker Mary Ann Walker. Far from being passive auxiliaries, these women were insurrectionists in thought and action. They spoke from platforms and organised strikes, boycotts and petitions to demand political rights as workers, women and democrats. At a time when the vote was restricted to a privileged few, they demonstrated an irrepressible verve in demanding more. This is a bold and necessary rewriting of British radical history. Cox dismantles the myth that feminism began with middle-class suffragists to reveal how working-class women forged a radical politics that defied the gender and social conventions of their age. Lady Insurrectionists restores these women to their rightful place at the heart of the fight for mass democracy and the People’s Charter. It details a legacy that continues to shape struggles for justice today.

Judy Cox is a former teacher and the author, most recently, of Rebellious Daughters of History. Her other books are William Blake: The Scourge of Tyrants and The Women’s Revolution: Russia 1905–1917. She has a history PhD from the University of Leeds and lives in Haworth, West Yorkshire.

Preface Chapter One, The ‘Hen Chartists’ take Flight ‘The Apostle of Progress’ Frances Wright Chapter Two, Radical Foremothers ‘White Slavery’ and the Radical Poetics of Mary Hutton Chapter Three, Insurrection, 1839: ‘The Time of War’ ‘Bid the outraged world, be free!’: Making Common Cause with Elizabeth Pease and Anne Knight Chapter Four, General Strike, 1842: ‘Every woman ought to be a politician’ The ‘Red-Hot Radical’ Eliza Cook Chapter Five, Revolution, 1848: ‘Breaking the chains of women’ Irish Nationalism, Chartism and the ‘Lady Insurrectionist’ Sarah Theobald Chapter Six, Resistance, 1850s: ‘The strong-minded women of the party’ Chartism and Communism in the life of Helen Macfarlane Chapter Seven, Suffrage, 1866: ‘Dangerous, go-ahead, revolutionary women’ The Many Faces of Eliza Lynn Linton Chapter Eight, Chartist Afterlives: ‘Thanks to my mother’ The Political Journeys of Sarah Parker Remond Further Reading Bibliography Acknowledgements Index