Political reform in Victorian Britain – and why democracy is always a work in progress
I have now delivered three online lessons on Victorian history for two nine year old that I know as their parents endeavour to keep the kids occupied while schools are closed. This week, we covered the challenging issue of political reform. After all, there were key development in the Victorian era and it’s never too early to start bringing up good citizens.
So I talked about the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 when 18 people were killed and some 600 injured at a peaceful rally to demand extension of the franchise and representation of the cities. I showed the children a very short video about Peterloo, but last year there was a major film about the incident which you might like to track down. You can read my review of the feature film here.
We also talked about the three pieces of legislative reform at this time which reluctantly and partially extended the vote to more and more men (women had to wait until 1918 and 1928): the Great Reform Act of 1832, the Second Reform Act of 1867 and the Third Reform Act of 1884. The battle over the Great Reform Act – legislation which was fiercely resisted by the Tories – was the subject of a fascinating book which I’ve reviewed here.
I tried to emphasise two key points to my young friends:
- Democracy has come slowly and only after many struggles and campaigns, not least that of the Suffragists and the Suffragettes.
- Democracy is never a done deal, but has to be constantly defended. Look today at countries like Poland, Hungary and the United States,
Probably these were not easy messages for nine year olds to take on board but I hope that readers of blog will do so.