On November 4, 1839, John Frost, one of the leaders of the Chartist movement, led thousands of working class marchers through South Wales to push for political reform. When they arrived at the Westgate Hotel in the town of Newport, they encountered an armed militia. A bloody battle ensued.
The Last Rising
surveys this last of the Chartist insurrections, from its origins to its aftermath, and analyzes the profound impact of armed insurrection on the social and political climate of this period. It considers the response of the government and propertied classes—from the special commission that condemned three of the Chartist leaders to death, to the new interest in paternalism and the political concessions that were designed to prevent its recurrence. The book also includes a discussion of contemporary scholarship that regards the rising as one of the most important turning points in Welsh and British social history.