Marian Evans (1841–1843): Coventry

Abstract

Marian Evans moved to the outskirts of Coventry at the start of the hungry forties. There were some hopeful political signs. In 1843, after O’Connell was imprisoned, and then released by the Lords, agitation for the repeal of the union of Ireland subsided. Peel’s free trade budget of 1842 laid the basis for future prosperity. Some developments bore directly upon Warwickshire. In 1841, a Committee was set up to investigate the plight of the handloom weavers. In 1842, Ashley’s Women and Children in the Mines Bill was passed, and Chadwick inquired into the sanitary condition of the labouring population. Yet moves to improve the lot of the poor were accompanied by the rebellion of the poor against their fate. The first half of 1842 also saw the second climax of Chartist unrest at a time of grave economic depression. The . movement was changing its base, however, away from the Midlands. By the time the second National Chartist Convention met in London on 12 April 1842, the movement had become centred on Manchester. The Chartist petition was rejected on 2 May 1842 and the following August saw the outbreak of the Plug Strikes.

Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.¹