Who were the Chartists?
At first, the Chartist cause was advanced by an alliance of politically aware London artisans (skilled, usually self-employed craftsmen) in the London Working Men’s Association, Radical MPs and middle class supporters in the Birmingham Political Union. It rapidly gathered support from industrial workers in the North of England, Wales and Scotland. By the 1840s, it had largely lost its middle class support and become a working class political movement.
