Chartist 'Monster Rally' at Kennington Park presents petition to Parliament
- When
- 1848
- Where
- Kennington Common; Parliament of the United Kingdom
- Episodes
- 2
On 10 April 1848, a Chartist mass meeting occurred at Kennington Common in London. Feargus O'Connor, elected MP for Nottingham in 1847, organized the gathering. The event involved presenting a petition with six million signatures to Parliament. O'Connor accepted police restrictions preventing a mass march from the meeting site.
Episodes
- Presentation of the Petition
A new Chartist petition with six million signatures was presented to Parliament in April 1848, following the mass meeting.
- Mass Meeting at Kennington Common
Feargus O'Connor organized a Chartist mass meeting on Kennington Common, London, in 1848, reflecting his strategy for monster meetings.
Background and detail
Background. Feargus O'Connor was an Irish Chartist leader and advocate of the Land Plan. His newspaper, the Northern Star, was widely read among workers. In 1847, O'Connor was elected MP for Nottingham. His thinking behind the organization of monster meetings and mass petitions was central to the movement's strategy during this period.
Event Details. The meeting took place on 10 April 1848 at Kennington Common, which later became Kennington Park. O'Connor organized the event. A new Chartist petition with six million signatures was presented to Parliament. O'Connor accepted a police declaration that Chartists could not march en masse with their petition from the mass meeting.
Participants. Feargus O'Connor was the primary organizer and leader of the meeting. He was an Irish Chartist leader and MP for Nottingham. The event was part of his broader strategy involving monster meetings and mass petitions, leveraging his appeal to win the confidence of crowds.
People involved
- Feargus O'Connor · Organizer and Leader
- William Cuffay · Organiser of the 10 April 1848 mass meeting; Black Briton and leader of the London Chartists
Sources
- Feargus O'Connor Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-05
- Kennington Park Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-05
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.