Henry Vincent

Henry Vincent (born 10 May 1813) was active in the formation in Britain of early Working Men's Associations, a popular Chartist leader, brilliant and gifted public orator, prospective but ultimately unsuccessful Victorian MP, and later an anti-slavery campaigner.

Early life

Henry Vincent was born in High Holborn, to a father who was a goldsmith. However, what must have been a formative experience for the young Henry Vincent came when he saw his father's business fail, a decline which prompted the family relocating to Kingston upon Hull.

By 1828 Henry was a young apprentice boy in the growing printing trade. Once his apprenticeship was completed he moved to London to pursue his printing career. At this time he was very interested in the views of Tom Paine and especially Paine's views on universal suffrage (which included votes for women, of course) and state welfare benefits.

Political awakening

By the year of 1833 Henry Vincent was in London working as a printer but also deepening his political activities and knowledge. In 1836 he joined the recently formed London Working Men's Association and just the next year he was already recognised as one of the best young orators promoting universal suffrage and workers rights.

By 1837 Henry Vincent accompanied John Cleave on a summer speaking tour in the industrial north of England and they helped establish with local activists Working Men's Associations in Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield.

Responsibility & resistance

In 1838 Henry Vincent was given responsibility for promoting universal suffrage and welfare benefits and Working Men's Associations in industrial South Wales and the West Country of England from Cornwall up to Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

During this time the message of votes for all, improvement of working conditions, adequate wages and the right to meet to improve conditions for all was meeting stiff resistance from the The Establishment, gentry and employers and industrialists and in Devizes Vincent was knocked unconscious.

Oratorial Virtuosity & Appearance

Vincent was naturally able to convince working men and women from many walks of life to see the obvious benefits of his message and was an accomplished public orator, passionate but logical and a clear, concise speaker with energy and drive, as well as vision. It was said of him that he was 'much below the middle size. His person however was extremely graceful, and he appeared on the platform to much advantage. With a fine, mellow flexible voice, a florid complexion and , excepting in intervals of passion, a most winning expression, he had only to present himself in order to win all hearts over to his side'.

Furthermore, 'his attitude was perhaps the most easy and graceful of any popular orator of the time. For fluency of speech he rivalled all his contemporaries, few of whom were anxious to stand beside him on the platform. His rare powers of imitation irresitably drew peals of laughter from the gravest audience. His versatility, which enabled him to change from grave to gay and vice versa and to assume a dozen various characters in almost as many minutes, was one of the secrets of his success. With the fair sex his slight handsome figure, the merry twinkle of his eye, his incomparable mimicry, his passionate bursts of enthusiasm, the rich music of his voice, and above all, his appeals for the elevation of woman rendered him a universal favourite and the Democrats of both sexes regarded him as the young Demosthenes of English Democracy'. So eulogised RC Gammage in his account of 'The History of The Chartist Movement' in 1859.

Target of the Authorities

The authorities were focusing on him seeking to obstruct and deny him the opportunity to speak out. The worry for the authorities was a worker's Revolution with violence, damage to property and they particularly opposed anyone putting forth the idea of 'physical force' to achieve workers rights.

Henry Vincent did not deny that unless progress was made some Chartists were advocating the use of physical force to achieve their aims and vent their resentment and fury.

Government spies were trailing Vincent seeking evidence to arrest him and convict him at a time when transportation to Australia or death by hanging were some of the punishments for sirring up social unrest against the government, political leaders, the gentry, landowning class, aristocracy and employers and industrialists.

Gaol

In May 1839 Vincent was arrested and imprisoned at Monmouth gaol for making inflammatory remarks. He was eventually tried at Monmouth on August 2nd 1838 and sentenced to one years imprisonment.

Once incarcerated he was denied writing materials and only permitted some basic religious tomes to read from in his cell.

The workers had followed his arrest and trial closely and it was in part at least the arrest of this prominent and popular chartist leader that gave rise to the Newport Rising in South Wales 1839.

Release, rearrest & gaol again

After the frustration of his year long prison sentence Vincent was released only to find himself again under scrutiny for 'using seditious language' and re-arrested again immediately.

Back in court he conducted his own defence, but was of course found guilty and again sentenced to one years imprisonment.

In prison he was at least now permitted visits from amongst others, Francis Place, who was allowed to teach Vincent French, Political ecomomy and history.

Release, marriage & a new publication

Upon his release from prison in January 1841 Vincent made plans to marry Lucy, the daughter of John Cleave, editor of the Working Man's Friend. The newly married couple took up residence in Bath, amongst close fiends and supporters and began the publication of The National Vindicator.

Modified stance & message

Vincent was immediately back on the road, making up for lost time and promulgating the chartist message throughout the country, though this time he was shrewd enough to take a stance with the 'moral force' chartists under William Lovett rather than the 'physical force chartists' and spoke using less inflammatory language, focusing on improving education and moral improvement for the working classes. He now joined groups linked with the more readily popular Temperance movement and helped form teetotal political societies. Many of the leading industrailists were themselves, or their wives, already promoting teetotalism and Temperance and decrying the terrible social evils of drink.

However there was a new kind of price to pay for moderating his stance. Previously close allies within the chartist movement such as Feargus O'Connor now fell out with Vincent, disagreeing over the watering down of the physical force message and the distraction of the non-central Temperance message.

In 1842 Vincent was playing his part in the setting up of the Complete Suffrage Union. Although still a member of the National Charter Association, Vincent was no longer the envied spirited orator and firm ally of the inner circle of the most prominent and influential chartists, some of his old friendships and bonds now in tatters.

Attempted political career

The National Vindicator ceased publication in 1842 and Vincent focused more on lectures, on wider subjects than chartism. He stood as an Independent Radical for election to a seat in Ipswich in 1842 and then later in 1847, along with Tavistock in 1843 and Kilmarnock in 1844, Plymouth in 1846, and finally York in 1848 and 1852. All unsuccessfully.

Later career

Despite these significant and consistent setbacks Vincent continued to hold and develop his views and was invited to speak on long tours of America in 1866, 1867 and again in 1875 and 1876. Anti-slavery was his focus at this stage.

His wider travels stimulated his interest in world politics and working conditions. In 1876 he was active in opposing atrocities that had taken place in Bulgaria.

Death & legacy

He died in 1878, at the tail end of the year and in the midst of a cold winter, on December 29 and is buried at Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington. He isn't remembered today as one of the more famous Chartists, but was without doubt a sincere advocate, a gifted speaker and a man ahead of his time - who but for the social obstacles of his age would surely have been able to achieve even greater significance in a true meritocracy and to have been an even greater servant of the people.

External links

* [http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/contents_page.jsp?t_id=Vincent Profile of Henry Vincent at Vision of Britain, and his account of his agitating work in 1839]

* [http://richardjohnbr.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!CE8351513DFB560!351.entry History Zone; Chartist Lives - Henry Vincent]