{{Short description|English suffragette and socialist}} {{Use British English|date=February 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Hannah Mitchell | image = Hannah_Mitchell_suffragette_and_socialist.jpg | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1872|02|11}} | birth_place = Hope Woodlands, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1956|10|22|1872|02|11}} | death_place = Manchester, England | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = Suffragette, councillor | education = | employer = | occupation = Dressmaker | political_party = Independent Labour Party | spouse = Gibbon Mitchell | children = 1 | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Hannah Mitchell''' (11 February 1872 – 22 October 1956) was an English suffragette and socialist.<ref name="Routledge, p. 317">Routledge, p. 317</ref> Born into a poor farming family in Derbyshire, Mitchell left home at a young age to work as a seamstress in Bolton, where she became involved in the socialist movement. She worked for many years in organisations related to socialism, women's suffrage and pacifism. After World War I she was elected to Manchester City Council and worked as a magistrate, before later working for Labour Party leader, Keir Hardie.
==Biography==
===Early life=== thumb|Her birthplace was at Alport Castles Farm Hannah Webster was born on 11 February 1872 to Benjamin and Ann Webster<ref name=":0">{{cite book|title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes|last=Atkinson|first=Diane|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2018|isbn=9781408844045|location=London|pages=26–28, 30, 51, 54, 551|oclc=1016848621}}</ref> in a farmhouse named after and just below Alport Castles<ref>[http://www.peaklandheritage.org.uk/index.asp?peakkey=00500221 Alport Castles] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029080921/http://www.peaklandheritage.org.uk/index.asp?peakkey=00500221 |date=29 October 2007 }}, Peakland Heritage. Retrieved 16 October 2015</ref> in Hope Woodlands, in the Derbyshire Peak District.<ref name="Purvis">Purvis</ref> The daughter of a farmer, she was the fourth of six children.<ref>Rosen, p. 39</ref> Her mother had a temper especially with her last three children, Hannah, Sarah and Benjamin.<ref name=":0" /> Webster was not permitted a formal education, although her father who was mild mannered<ref name=":0" /> taught her to read.<ref name="Purvis"/> Hannah stayed at home performing domestic duties with her mother, with whom she did not get on.<ref name="Rappaport, p.447">Rappaport, p.447</ref> She was expected to look after her father and brothers, which she resented.<ref>Rowbotham, p.91</ref>
Early on Mitchell became acutely aware of gender inequality in the domestic sphere. She also observed the seemingly inevitable early marriages of girls around her to "farm lads", to avoid having children out of wedlock, and was keen to avoid the same fate.<ref name="Stanley Holton, p. 94">Stanley Holton, p. 94</ref> She later said in her autobiography that her mother was a bad-tempered and violent woman who sometimes made her children sleep in the barn.<ref>Perkin, p.115</ref> When she was 13 she became an apprentice dressmaker, to earn extra money for her impoverished family.<ref name="Rosen, p.40">Rosen, p.40</ref> In Glossop, her mistress was an older crippled seamstress, Miss Brown. Mitchell wrote that her approach was a contrast to her mother and she gently taught "that work could also be a pleasure."<ref name=":0" />
At the age of 14, after an argument with her mother, she left home and went to live with her brother William and family in Glossop and at nineteen<ref name=":0" /> moved into Bolton, Lancashire, where she found work as a dressmaker 'earning ten shillings a week'<ref name=":0" /> and in domestic service.<ref name="Purvis"/><ref name="Rappaport, p.447"/>
===Marriage and socialism=== In Bolton, Mitchell started improving her education, originally hoping to become a teacher.<ref name="Stanley Holton, p. 94"/> One job she had was in the household of a schoolmaster, who allowed her to borrow his books.<ref>Stanley Holton, p. 95</ref> She became involved in the socialist movement and spoke up for shorter hours and a half-day off (paid) weekly for shop workers,<ref name=":0" /> and commented that the working conditions of women in the garment industry included not only poor pay and conditions, also required strict silence and fines "enforced by a thin-liped shrew of a woman."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes|last=Atkinson|first=Diane|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2018|isbn=9781408844045|location=London|pages=26–28|oclc=1016848621}} {{verify source |date=September 2019 |reason=This ref was deleted Special:Diff/904802561 by a bug in VisualEditor and later restored by a bot from the original cite located at Special:Permalink/904802335 cite #2 - verify the cite is accurate and delete this template. User:GreenC bot/Job 18}}</ref>
Mitchell also attended The Labour Church.<ref name="Purvis"/><ref name="Rappaport, p.447"/> She was particularly influenced by Robert Blatchford's newspaper ''The Clarion''.<ref name="Routledge, p. 317"/> At one meeting she attended, she heard Katharine Glasier speak.<ref name="Rowbotham, p.92">Rowbotham, p.92</ref>
In the house where she lodged, she met a tailor's cutter called Gibbon Mitchell,<ref name="Rosen, p.40"/> and both were known to Richard Pankhurst, supporting his interest in Kinder Scout area.<ref name=":0" /> Although she was cautious about marriage, from her observations of her family members, the young couple both longed for their own home.<ref name="Rosen, p.40"/> They married in Hayfield parish church in 1895, Hannah wearing a grey dress and matching velvet hat,<ref name=":0" /> and she gave birth to a son,<ref>Stanley Holton, p. 93</ref> Frank Gibbon Mitchell in 1896.<ref name=":0" /> Because of the difficulty of this birth and the reluctance to bring more children into poverty, Mitchell resolved to have no more.<ref>Rosen, p. 41</ref> She and her husband agreed to use birth control and had no further children.<ref name="Rappaport, p.447"/> As well as their son, the Mitchells also cared for an orphaned niece.<ref>Crawford, p. 416</ref>
She soon found herself disillusioned by marriage. Although her husband initially agreed to her requests for an equal division of labour in their household, she found that reality did not quite live up to this ideal. She continued to work as a seamstress to supplement Gibbon's meagre earnings, and found the rest of her time taken up with household chores.<ref>Rosen, p.41</ref> Like other women in the socialist movement, Mitchell struggled to convince male socialists of the importance of feminist issues.<ref name="Rowbotham, p.92"/>
The couple moved to Newhall, Derbyshire where socialists in this mining area co-funded a hall for meetings, and speakers often were accommodated with the Mitchells.<ref name=":0" /> In 1900 they moved to Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester, where Gibbon worked in the tailoring section of the Co-operative store.<ref name=":0" /> Mitchell herself began to speak publicly at meetings of the Independent Labour Party (ILP).<ref name="Purvis"/> She was appointed by the party as Poor Law Guardian for their town in 1904.<ref name=":0" />
=== Role in women's suffrage movement === Mitchell then joined, and worked as a part-time organiser for, Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).<ref name="Purvis"/> Although initially unsure about the 'property qualification' proposals expected to be acceptable, Mitchell wanted a truer equality for all male and female voters. But hearing Annie Kenney's talk at Stalybridge Market she noted that despite appearing charmed by the speaker, the majority would support getting votes for all men (Manhood Suffrage) and make the women wait even longer to be enfranchised.<ref name=":0" /> Mitchell also toured the country including the working class villages in Colne Valley making speeches, herself, and 'had no difficulty' including 'dealing with hecklers'<ref name=":0" /> as she campaigned for women's suffrage at by-elections.<ref name="Crawford, p. 417">Crawford, p. 417</ref>
In 1905, Mitchell joined Emmeline Pankhurst, Annie Kenney, Keir Hardie, Theresa Billington and Mrs Elmy at the prison gates when Christabel Pankhurst was released after a week of imprisonment for the first assault in the cause, spitting at a policeman.<ref name=":0" /> She was again with the 150 women who tried in October 1905, to enter the House of Commons, and only 20 were allowed in, including Mitchell. With Louie CulIen, Mitchell had hidden a 'Votes for Women" banner in her clothes. Mary Gawthorpe stood on a chair to make a speech after their leaders told them that Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman was not presenting a women's suffrage Bill, and was pulled down by police, the two banners were raised up but police tore them down into 'shreds'.<ref name=":0" /> She was shocked to see the rough treatment of Mrs Pankhurst and that the Members of Parliament quickly came to watch "most of them guffawing loudly'.<ref name=":0" /> Mitchell was then campaigning in Huddersfield by-election where 'Yorkshire women heard the call and followed us in hundreds'.<ref name=":0" /> Mitchell also was involved with the Liverpool branch started up by Alice Morrissey. In 1907 Mitchell suffered a nervous breakdown which her doctor put down to overwork and malnourishment.<ref name="Crawford, p. 417"/> While she was recovering, Charlotte Despard visited her and gave her money for food.<ref name="Crawford, p. 417"/> In her autobiography she mentioned the hurt that she felt when none of the Pankhursts contacted her during her recovery.<ref name="Purvis"/> In 1908 she left the WSPU, and joined Despard's new Women's Freedom League.<ref name="Purvis"/>
During the First World War, Mitchell supported the pacifist movement volunteering for organisations such as the ILP No Conscription Fellowship and the Women's International League.<ref name="Crawford, p. 417"/> In 1918 she started to work with the ILP again and in 1924 they nominated her as a member of Manchester City Council.<ref name="Routledge, p. 318">Routledge, p. 318</ref><ref name="Crawford, p. 417"/> She was elected and served until 1935.<ref name="Purvis"/> She became a magistrate in 1926, and served in that capacity for the next 20 years.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Purvis"/>
===Later life=== On 9 May 1939, Mitchell helped to organise a meeting of 40 ex-suffragettes in Manchester.<ref name="Purvis"/> Towards the end of the Second World War, she began work on her autobiography, which remained unpublished in her lifetime.<ref name="Purvis"/> After the war, she began writing for ''The Northern Voice'' and ''Manchester City News''.<ref name="Routledge, p. 318"/> In the last years of her life, Hannah lived in Newton Heath. There is a blue plaque on the house at 18 Ingham Street, Newton Heath dedicated to her, where she wrote her autobiography "The Hard Way Up".
Mitchell died on 22 October 1956 at home in Manchester.<ref name="Purvis"/> Her autobiography, ''The Hard Way Up, the Autobiography of Hannah Mitchell, Suffragette and Rebel'', was edited by her grandson and published in 1968.<ref name="Purvis"/> There is also a blue plaque dedicated to her on the wall of the house that she lived in with her family in Ashton-under-Lyne between 1900 and 1910.<ref>{{cite web | title = Blue Plaque – Hannah Maria Mitchell | publisher = Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council | url = http://www.tameside.gov.uk/blueplaque/hannahmitchell | accessdate =3 September 2009 }} </ref>
===Hannah Mitchell Foundation=== 2012 saw the formation of the Hannah Mitchell Foundation, a forum for the development of devolved government in the North of England. The name was chosen "in memory of an outstanding Northern socialist, feminist and co-operator who was proud of her working class roots and had a cultural as well as political vision."<ref>
{{cite web | title = The Hannah Mitchell Foundation | url = https://hannahmitchellfoundation.wordpress.com/ | accessdate =20 March 2023 }} </ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== *{{cite book | last = Crawford | first = Elizabeth | title = The women's suffrage movement: a reference guide, 1866-1928 | publisher = Routledge | date = 2001 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Wo89DfZ-T6AC | isbn = 0-415-23926-5}} *{{cite book | last = Perkin | first = Joan | title = Women and marriage in nineteenth-century England | publisher = Routledge | date = 1999 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xsQOAAAAQAAJ | isbn =0-415-00771-2 }} *{{cite ODNB | last = Purvis | first = June | authorlink = June Purvis | title = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | date = 2004 | url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50071 | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/50071 }} *{{cite book | last = Rappaport | first = Helen | authorlink = Helen Rappaport | title = Encyclopedia of women social reformers, Volume 2 | publisher = ABC-CLIO | date = 2001 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rpuSzowmIkgC | isbn =1-57607-101-4 }} *{{cite book | last = Rosen | first = Andrew | title = Rise up, women!: the militant campaign of the Women's Social and Political Union, 1903-1914 | publisher = Routledge | date = 1974 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qNU9AAAAIAAJ | isbn =0-7100-7934-6 }} *{{cite book | last = Routledge | title = A historical dictionary of British women | publisher = Routledge | date = 2003 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pDtEe4FKolUC | isbn = 1-85743-228-2}} *{{cite book | last = Rowbotham | first = Sheila | title = Hidden from history: 300 years of women's oppression and the fight against it | publisher = Pluto Press | date = 1977 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xnXJUO6IG80C | isbn =0-904383-56-3 }} *{{cite book | last = Stanley Holton | first = Sandra | title = Suffrage days: stories from the women's suffrage movement | publisher = Routledge | date = 1996 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pEXXGA2xYMYC | isbn =0-415-10942-6 }} {{Authority control}} <!-- Goes above DEFAULTSORT/Categories -->
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Hannah}} Category:1872 births Category:1956 deaths Category:English pacifists Category:English suffragists Category:People from High Peak, Derbyshire Category:English socialist feminists Category:People from Bolton Category:People from Newton Heath Category:Women's Social and Political Union