Towards Acceptance, 1843–67

Abstract

To a great extent both Owenism and Chartism were movements of the dispossessed and displaced manual workers, fighting a rearguard action against the onslaught of industrial change and capitalism. But throughout the period groups of workers had benefited from and adjusted to new circumstances. The printers (1, 2) and the engineers (3), for example, built up strong unions, which they used both to defend former positions and to gain advances. They were an ‘aristocracy of labour’ tentatively feeling their way towards ‘respectability’.