Francis Place
Francis Place ( born November 3, 1771 in London, † January 1, 1854 in London) was a radical English social reformer and Chartist.
Life
Francis Place grew up in poor and not so happy relationships. His father, originally a baker by profession, was a drunk and a gambler. He served as a constable in the notorious Marshalsea prison in Southwark in London, which was commonly known as Schuldergefängnis, including by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) stories.
When Francis was 9 years old, his father opened a tavern, but brought very quickly the family through his gambling addiction in trouble again. His father never spoke to the children. Languages the children at her father, this was palpable. In contrast, Francis 's mother was described as neat, warm and friendly and helpful.
Francis attended at the age of 4 years, the school, however, was only developed in the last 2 years of his 10 -year-old school interest in the course content. He was interested in books, was in school for " Head Boy" and was used for a small fee to give lessons other students. On the road he learned his lessons and became the leader in street fighting among the children in the neighborhood.
At the age of 15, he took an apprenticeship with a breeches - maker ( German: breeches maker), which he gave up after 4 years because of disagreements with his training masters. After some difficulties in obtaining employment, a tailor and breeches maker finally discovered his talent for business and imputed to him 15 people in his company.
On 3 March 1791 he was now 20 years old, he married Elizabeth Chadd with which he got in 1792 the first child.
1793 decided the breeches -maker to strike for higher wages. The strike fund was well stocked and easy to find Francis Place among the leaders of the strike. When the strike after almost 2 months collapsed, he was among those who were on the black list and found no more job. His first child died of smallpox at the same time and he sank with his wife in abject poverty.
After a brief job as secretary of the Breeches - Maker Union in 1794, and many small jobs for customers on his own account, he eventually opened in 1799 with a partner, a tailor's workshop and employed around 1800 already 32 Schneider and 4 breeches -maker. After stress with his partner, he ran the business from April 1801 in the Charing Cross on its own. Business was so good that he could be 16 years later at the age of 46 years, the company to his eldest son.
Work
Even in the times of his deepest poverty, viewed Place formed on. He read Greek and Roman history, dealt with geography, anatomy, science and art.
He came in contact with the ideas of Adam Smith (1723-1790), moral philosopher and scientist people, John Locke (1632-1704), philosopher, David Hume (1711-1776), philosopher, economist and historian, and the book The Age of Reason with Thomas Paine, politician and revolutionary.
In June 1794, Place a member of the London Corresponding Society founded in 1792, a moderately radical society, weekly discussions held with their distributed over London branches of the French Revolution ( 1789-1799 ) was close to and become politically active for a parliamentary reform in the Kingdom of Great Britain began, in the working class should be represented accordingly.
1807, after King George III. Parliament had resolved to place dedicated in Westminster Reform Committee to Sir Francis Burdett as a candidate for Westminster and advocate of parliamentary reform in the House of Commons to get.
In 1810 he took over the presidency of the 12 - member jury in court. As a court case against a hated by the people, a member of the House of Brunswick, the process is not quickly came to the conclusion, Place was accused to have been paid by the court. He stepped back and withdrew for a while from public life and politics. He studied instead again with more education and organized together with Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838), an English teacher, inexpensive primary education, where it lacked considerably. Place hoping to education, the situation of the working class to be able to improve and to eradicate drunkenness, bad morals and manners, as well as problems caused by overpopulation.
Although he was the father of 15 children, he was deeply concerned about the population explosion in Britain and wrote his only work: " The Principles of Population ," in which he, inter alia, to pronounced for strict birth control and contraception. The public was shocked and his image sank.
Place supported the radical politicians in the House and dealt 1822-1824 with the Combination Act of 1799, a law that for the purpose of demand of higher wages or shorter working hours and thus virtually prohibited the gathering of workers form unions. Places brilliant work-up of data, his unwavering support and its good cooperation with Joseph Hume (1777-1855), politician and member of the House, it was due to that the law was finally made in 1825.
After this victory, he devoted his strength of parliamentary reform and played a major role in the public agitation. 1832 was also the old Act of Parliament, by passing the Reform Act 1832.
In 1836 he participated in the founding of the London Working Men 's Association and in the formulation of " Peopl 's charter", which led to the political reform movement of the Chartists.
After 1840 he became involved in the campaign against the Corn Laws (cereals Act), which held up the price of grain, to the benefit of landowners and to the detriment of the poor.
From 1841 it was quiet around him. His health was not at its best and a stroke in 1844 confined him to his bed. Francis Place died on the night of the year on January 1, 1854 in Hammersmith, London in the house of his two daughters.
Works
- Francis Place, Illustrations and Proofs of the Principles of Population, 1822 -. Critical and Textual Notes by Norman E.Himes. (1930 ), G.Allen & Unwin, London, 1967. (Reprint )
Swell
All sources in English
- Margaret Cole, Makers of the Labour Movement, Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1948.
- An Overview of Francis Place 's Life, 1771-1854 - A Web of English History
- Francis Place - Spartacus Educational
- Briton
- Social reformer
- Born in 1771
- Died in 1854
- Man