What the Chartists and Suffragettes Realised about Oracy

doi:10.1017/9781009440301.015

10 - What the Chartists and Suffragettes Realised about Oracy

from Part III - Oracy in History and in Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 September 2025

Tom F. Wright

Edited by

Tom F. Wright

Show author details

Tom F. Wright: Affiliation:
University of Sussex

Book contents

Get access

Summary

In this chapter, evidence from past social movements highlights oracy education’s role in empowering marginalized communities in 19th-century Britain. Critics argue that oracy education diverts attention from socio-economic issues, exerting coercive control over the powerless. However, grassroots oracy within movements like Chartism and Suffragettes challenges these notions. The struggle for articulacy, I show, underpinned the struggle for the vote. These examples underscore grassroots oracy’s historical significance and potential implications for contemporary policy debates.

Keywords

oracy grassroots oracy Chartism Suffragettes social movements democracy

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Oracy
The Politics of Speech Education
, pp. 129 - 151
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009440301.015 [Opens in a new window]
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Aldrich, R. (2004). Public or Private Education? Lessons From History. London: Routledge.CrossRef Google Scholar

Ashton, O. (1999). ‘Orators and oratory in the Chartist movement, 1840–1848’, in Ashton, O. (ed.), The Chartist Legacy. London: Merlin Press.Google Scholar

Atkinson, D. (2003). Rise Up Women! The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar

Austin, G. (1806). Chironomia: Or a Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery. London: Cadell and Davies.Google Scholar

Ballantyne, T. (1841). The Corn Law Repealer’s Handbook. London: Ballantyne.Google Scholar

Bamford, S. (1844). Passages in the Life of a Radical. London: Simpkin, Marshall.Google Scholar

Bevis, M. (2007). The Art of Eloquence: Byron, Dickens, Tennyson, Joyce. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Blanch, M. (1979). ‘Imperialism, nationalism and organized youth’, in Clarke, J. et. al. (eds.), Working Class Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Blight, D. W. (ed.) (1998). The Columbian Orator. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar

Cameron, R. (2016). ‘“A somber passion strengthens her voice”: The stage as public platform in British women’s suffrage drama’, Comparative Drama, 50, 293–316.CrossRef Google Scholar

Carlyle, T. (1839). Chartism. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar

Chase, M. (2007). Chartism: A New History. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar

Cockin, K. (2015). Ellen Terry, Spheres of Influence. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781315655772CrossRef Google Scholar

Conrad, B. (2011). Thomas Sheridan’s Career and Influence: An Actor in Earnest. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press.Google Scholar

Cooper, T. (1872). The Life of Cooper. London: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar

Cowman, K. (2007). Women of the Right Spirit: Paid Organisers of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), 1904–18. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar

Crawford, E. (2001). The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866–1928. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

de Bolla, P. (1989). The Discourse of the Sublime: Readings in History, Aesthetics and the Subject. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar

Dickens, C. (1854). ‘On Strike’, Household Worlds, 11 February 1854.Google Scholar

Disraeli, B. (1845). Sybil, or the Two Nations. London: Colburn.Google Scholar

Douglass, F. (1994 [1881]). ‘Life and times of Frederick Douglass’, in Autobiographies. New York: Library of America.Google Scholar

Eliot, G. (1866). Felix Holt, the Radical. London: Blackwood and Sons.Google Scholar

Fliegelman, J. (1993). Declaring Independence: Jefferson Natural Language and the Culture of Performance. Stanford: Stanford University Press.10.1515/9781503622074CrossRef Google Scholar

Gaskell, E. (1848). Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar

Gladstone, W. E. (1864). Borough Franchise Bill – Bill 32. Hansard HC, Vol. 175, 325, 11 May 1864.Google Scholar

Gladstone, W. E. (1866). Representation of the People Bill. Hansard HC, Vol. 182, 1133, 12 April 1866.Google Scholar

Gleadle, K. (2009). Borderline Citizens: Women, Gender and Political Culture in Britain 1815–1867. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Golby, J. and Purdue, A. W. (1999). The Civilization of the Crowd: Popular Culture in England 1750–1900, revised ed. Stroud: Sutton.Google Scholar

Goring, P. (2017). ‘The elocutionary movement in Britain’, in MacDonald, M. J. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 559–68.Google Scholar

Griffin, E. (2020). Bread Winner: An Intimate History of the Victorian Economy. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Harrison, B. and Hollis, P. (1979). Robert Lowery, Radical and Chartist. London: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar

Herald, [Dundee] (1842). ‘Debating’, 9 April.Google Scholar

Hewitt, M. (2002). ‘Aspects of platform culture in nineteenth-century Britain’, Nineteenth-Century Prose, 29(1), 1–32.Google Scholar

Hewitt, R. (2017). A Revolution of Feeling. London: Granta.Google Scholar

Holmes, R. (2020). Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born Rebel. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar

Holyoake, G. (1849). Rudiments of Public Speaking. London: Watson.Google Scholar

John, A. V. (1991). Our Mothers’ Land: Chapters in Welsh Women’s History, 1830–,1939. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar

Joyce, P. (1996). Democratic Subjects: The Self and the Social in Nineteenth Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Kenney, A. (1924). Memories of a Militant. London: E. Arnold.Google Scholar

Kent, S. K. (1999). Gender and Power in Britain 1640–1990. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar

Kimber, M. W. (2017). The Elocutionists: Women, Music and the Spoken Word. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.10.5406/illinois/9780252040719.001.0001CrossRef Google Scholar

Kingsley, C. (1850). Alton Locke, Taylor and Poet: An Autobiography. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar

Kingsley, C. (1884). ‘Diary entry of June 4 1848, quoted in “Prefatory Memoir”’, in Kingsley, C. (ed.), Novels, Volume 1. London: Macmillan and Co.Google Scholar

Leigh, M. (2017). Peterloo. UK: Film4/BFI.Google Scholar

Lovett, W. (1840). Chartism: A New Organisation of the People. London: J. Watson.Google Scholar

Marcus, J. (2003). Suffrage and the Pankhursts. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Martin, J. L. (2010). Popular political oratory and itinerant lecturing in Yorkshire and the North East in the age of Chartism, c. 1837–60. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of York.Google Scholar

McCormack, M. (2019). Citizenship and Gender in Britain 1688–1928. Oxford: Routledge.CrossRef Google Scholar

Miesel, J. S. (2001). Public Speech and the Culture of Public Life in the Age of Gladstone. New York: Columbia University Press.10.7312/meis12144CrossRef Google Scholar

Miller, N. C. (1974). ‘Communications: Major John Cartwright and the founding of the Hampden Club’, The Historical Journal, XVII(3), 615–19.Google Scholar

Mugglestone, L. (1998). Talking Proper: The Rise of Accent as Social Symbol. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Pethick-Lawrence, E. (1898). ‘Working girls clubs’, in Reason, W. (ed.), University and Social Settlements. London: Methuen.Google Scholar

Pethick-Lawrence, E. (1938). My Place in a Changing World. London: Victor Gollanz.Google Scholar

Pickering, P. (1986). ‘Class without words: Symbolic communication in the Chartist movement’, Past and Present, 112 (August).10.1093/past/112.1.144CrossRef Google Scholar

Pickering, P. (2009). ‘“Songs for the millions”: Chartist music and popular aural tradition’, Labour History Review, 74(1), 44–63.Google Scholar

Rose, J. (2001). The Intellectual Life of the British Working Class. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Rover, C. (1967). Women’s Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain 1866–1914. London: Routledge, pp. 4–5.10.3138/9781487575250CrossRef Google Scholar

Scrivener, M. (2001). Seditious Allegories: John Thelwall and Jacobin Writing. College Park: Penn State University Press.Google Scholar

Sheridan, T. (1756). British Education: Or, the Source of the Disorders of Great Britain. Dublin: R. and J. Dodsley.Google Scholar

Sheridan, T. (1780). A General Dictionary of the English Language. London: J. Dodsley.Google Scholar

Silver, H. (2012). English Education and the Radicals 1750–1850. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Smiles, S. (1868). Self-Help, with Illustrations of Character, Conduct and Perseverance. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Smith, A. (1954). The Birth of Modern Education: The Contribution of the Dissenting Academies 1660–1800. London: Longman.Google Scholar

Smith, D. (1933). My Revelation: An Autobiography. How a Working Woman Finds God. London: Houghton.Google Scholar

Smith, M. K. (1997). ‘Emmeline Pethick, Mary Neal and the development of work with young women’. The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education. https://infed.org/mobi/emmeline-pethick-mary-neal-and-the-development-of-work-with-young-women/.Google Scholar

Smith, M. K. (2013). ‘Maude Stanley, girls’ clubs and district visiting’. The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education. www.infed.org/mobi/maude-stanley-girls-clubs-and-district-visiting/.Google Scholar

Tagliamonte, S. (2014). Roots of English: Exploring the History of Dialects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Thackray, C. (2012) [1905] The World of an Insignificant Woman: The Life of Hilda Marjory Sharp. London: Sabrina Press.Google Scholar

Thompson, D. (2015). The Dignity of Chartism. London: Verso.Google Scholar

Thompson, E. P. (1968). The Making of the English Working Class. London: Pelican.Google Scholar

Thompson, F. M. L. (1988). The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain 1830–1900. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Traill, H. D. (ed.) (2010). Critical and Miscellaneous Essays III:The Works of Thomas Carlyle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Voice 21 (2019). Submission to Oracy APPG. https://voice21.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Voice-21-Submission-to-Oracy-APPG-Final-.pdf.Google Scholar

Vincent, D. (1989). Literacy and Popular Culture in England 1750–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511560880CrossRef Google Scholar

Wagner, C. (2022). Selected Political Writings of John Thelwall. Oxford: Routledge.Google Scholar

Walker, J. (1791). A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary. Robinson, G. G. J. and J., and T. Cadell.Google Scholar

Webster, N. (1789). Dissertations on the English Language. Boston, MA: Thomas and Co.Google Scholar

Wells, H. G. (1914). The Wife of Isaac Harman. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar

Wilkinson, A. (1965). ‘The concept of oracy’, English in Education, 2(A2).CrossRef Google Scholar

Williams, R. (1961). The Long Revolution. London: Chatto and Windus.CrossRef Google Scholar

Wilson, R. (1900). The Life and Times of Queen Victoria, volume II. London: Cassell and Company Limited.Google Scholar

Wollstonecraft, M. (1789). The Female Reader. London: J. Johnson.Google Scholar

Zimmerman, S. (2019). The Romantic Literary Lecture in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198833147.001.0001CrossRef Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AAA

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

The HTML of this chapter complies with version 2.2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), offering more comprehensive accessibility measures for a broad range of users and attains the highest (AAA) level of WCAG compliance, optimising the user experience by meeting the most extensive accessibility guidelines.

Content Navigation

Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.

Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.

Reading Order & Textual Equivalents

Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.

Short alternative textual descriptions
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.

Full alternative textual descriptions
You get more than just short alt text: you have comprehensive text equivalents, transcripts, captions, or audio descriptions for substantial non‐text content, which is especially helpful for complex visuals or multimedia.

Visual Accessibility

Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.

Use of high contrast between text and background colour
You benefit from high‐contrast text, which improves legibility if you have low vision or if you are reading in less‐than‐ideal lighting conditions.