Northern Star (chartist newspaper)
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The Northern Star was a chartist newspaper published in the United Kingdom between 1837 and 1852.
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[edit] Foundation
Feargus O'Connor, the Leeds representative of the London Working Men's Association (LWMA) decided to establish a weekly newspaper in Yorkshire representing his radical views in 1837. He chose the name "Northern Star" in tribute to the newspaper of the Society of United Irishmen which was suppressed by the military in Belfast in 1797. Meetings were held in Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Hull, resulting in £690 being raised for the foundation of the Northern Star, which was first published on 18 November 1837.
[edit] The Newspaper
The newspaper paid a stamp duty of 4d., despite O'Connor's protests that the tax restricted free speech. The Northern Star reported on chartist meetings throughout Britain and its' letters page was host to lively debates on parliamentary reform. The paper led a campaign in support of skilled workers who suffered economically due to the introduction of new technology (notably the handloom weavers). By September 1838 it had a circulation of 10,000, and by summer 1839 this had increased to 50,000, allowing O'Connor to make a personal profit of £13,000 by the end of the year.
O'Connor used the paper to suggest militancy and the use of violence to achieve reform, in contrast to the arguments of William Lovett and Henry Hetherington. This stance resulted in O'Connor being imprisoned for 18 months in March 1840 for publishing seditious libels, but the Northern Star continued to sell well, outstripping the 6,000 copies a week sold of Lovett's The Charter with a circulation of 48,000.
In 1845 O'Connor used the Northern Star to launch his Land Plan, and became so inolved in the scheme that he appointed George Julian Harney in his place as editor of the paper. Harney increasingly used the paper to advocate his socialist philosophy, publishing articles by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. O'Connor dissaproved, accusing Harney and his supporters of being "Socialists first and Chartists second". In 1848 O'Connor forced Harney to resign and resumed editing the Northern Star.
Sales of the paper declined as the interest in the Chartist movement fell, with weekly circulation being only 1,200 by the end of 1851. O'Connor was losing interest in the campaign and sold the Northern Star to Harney in April 1852, who merged it with the Friend of the people to form the Star of Freedom. However, this paper survived only until December of the same year.
[edit] References
[edit] Links
The complete run of the Northern Star is available at the NCSE
