Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE AND CULTURE
- Introduction
- 1 The Chartist imaginary: ‘talking by turns of politics and poetry’
- 2 Chartist poetry and literary history
- 3 ‘A jackass load of poetry’: the Northern Star's poetry column 1838–1852
- 4 Insurrectionary sonnets: the ideological afterlife of the Newport uprising
- 5 ‘Merry England’: memory and nostalgia in the year of the mass strike
- 6 ‘The future-hastening storm’: Chartist poetry in 1848
- 7 Constellating Chartist poetry: Gerald Massey, Walter Benjamin and the uses of messianism
- Appendix A Three Chartist poems
- Appendix B Details of poetry published in the poetry column of the Northern Star
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Insurrectionary sonnets: the ideological afterlife of the Newport uprising
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE AND CULTURE
- Introduction
- 1 The Chartist imaginary: ‘talking by turns of politics and poetry’
- 2 Chartist poetry and literary history
- 3 ‘A jackass load of poetry’: the Northern Star's poetry column 1838–1852
- 4 Insurrectionary sonnets: the ideological afterlife of the Newport uprising
- 5 ‘Merry England’: memory and nostalgia in the year of the mass strike
- 6 ‘The future-hastening storm’: Chartist poetry in 1848
- 7 Constellating Chartist poetry: Gerald Massey, Walter Benjamin and the uses of messianism
- Appendix A Three Chartist poems
- Appendix B Details of poetry published in the poetry column of the Northern Star
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
There has recently been in this county an armed insurrection; there has been an attempt to take forcible possession of the town of Newport; there has been a conflict between the insurgents and the Queen's troops; there has been bloodshed; the loss of many lives. The intelligence of these outrages has caused alarm and dismay throughout the Kingdom.
The Attorney-General's Opening Address at the Monmouth Special CommissionOn the night of 3 November 1839, John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones (the leaders of South Wales Chartism) assembled a force of some 7,000 armed colliers and ironworkers. After a night march, this force arrived in Newport early the next morning where, following a short but fierce battle with a small detachment of regular troops in the Westgate Hotel, they were dispersed leaving at least twenty-four people dead and a further fifty wounded. In the aftermath of these events twenty-one men, including Frost, Williams and Jones, were charged with high treason before a Special Commission held in Monmouth.
Faced with uncertainties regarding both the exact sequence of events at Newport and the aims and intentions of the insurgents, historians have concentrated on tracing the origins of the Newport uprising, identifying the aims of the insurgents, establishing what happened at Newport and assessing the potential threat posed by this insurrection. Comparatively little attention has been given to what might be termed the ‘ideological afterlife’ of Newport within the Chartist movement and which is the main focus of this chapter.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Poetry of ChartismAesthetics, Politics, History, pp. 87 - 128Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009