{{Short description|British periodical}} {{other uses|Northern Star (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = The Northern Star | school = | logo = | logo_size = | logo_alt = | image = Northern Star front page.jpg | image_size = 300px | image_alt = | caption = Front page of ''The Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser'', 1837 | motto = | type = Weekly newspaper | format = broadsheet (41 x 59 cm) | owner = Feargus O'Connor | founder = Feargus O'Connor | publisher = | president = | editor = | chief_editor = | deputy_editor = | associate_editor = | managing_editor = | general_manager = | news_editor = | staff_writers = | founded = 18 November 1837 | political_position = Chartist | language = English | ceased_publication = 1852 | headquarters = Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK | circulation = 80,000 (in 1839) | circulation_date = | readership = | sister_newspapers = | ISSN = | oclc = | RNI = | free = [http://www.ncse.ac.uk/headnotes/nss.html Nineteenth Century Serials Edition] | publishing_country = United Kingdom | publishing_city = Leeds }}
''The '''Northern Star''' and Leeds General Advertiser'' was a chartist newspaper published in Britain between 1837 and 1852, and best known for advancing the reform issues articulated by proprietor Feargus O'Connor.
==Foundation== Feargus O'Connor, a former Irish MP forging a career in English radical politics, decided to establish a weekly newspaper in 1837. He based it in Yorkshire, one of the heartlands of the campaigns for an extension of the Factory Acts and against the controversial Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. He chose the name ''Northern Star'' in tribute to the newspaper of the Society of United Irishmen which was suppressed by the military in Belfast in 1797. Meetings were held in Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Hull; share capital was also raised from supporters in Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham and Rochdale. £690 was raised for the foundation of the ''Northern Star'', which was first published on 22 November 1837.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/northern-star-and-leeds-general-advertiser|via= British Newspaper Archive|title=British Newspaper Archive|access-date=2020-07-13}}</ref>
==The newspaper== thumb|left|An engraving of O'Connor published in the ''Northern Star'' in 1837 The newspaper paid a stamp duty of 4d., despite O'Connor's protests that the tax restricted free speech. The ''Northern Star'' reported on chartist meetings throughout Britain and its letters page was host to lively debates on parliamentary reform. The paper led a campaign in support of the working class who suffered economically due to the introduction of new technology and falling wages (notably the handloom weavers). By September 1838 it had a circulation of 10,000, and by summer 1839 this had increased to 50,000, allowing O'Connor to make a personal profit of £13,000 by the end of the year. By the end of 1839, it had the second largest circulation of any British newspaper.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Boyce, Curran and Wingate|title=Newspaper History: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day|date=1978|publisher=Constable|location=London|page=62}}</ref> The demand was so great within the first four months of operation that a new two horse power steam printing engine was bought to cope with the demand<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Papers for the people : a study of the Chartist Press|date=2005|publisher=Merlin Press|others=Allen, Joan, 1952-, Ashton, Owen R.|isbn=0-85036-545-7|location=London|oclc=60794666}}</ref>
O'Connor used the paper to help propagate the essence of the movement, to achieve reform and the ideas of The People's Charter. O'Connor was imprisoned for 18 months in March 1840 for publishing 'seditious libels' in the paper's columns, yet in truth this was an attempt to imprison the leader of the Chartists and hence deflate the movement. The ''Northern Star'' continued to sell well, however, outstripping the 6,000 copies a week sold by Robert Hartwell's ''The Charter'' with a circulation of 48,000. Whilst in prison, O'Connor also used the paper as his means of communication with the Chartists.
From its start, ''Northern Star'' was a lively and innovative newspaper. It quickly abandoned the standard practice of devoting the front page to advertisements (O'Connor's weekly letter was prominent in the columns that took their place). Unusually for a provincial paper, each issue was published in various editions (sometimes as many of eight) tailored to different regions of the country.<ref>Mussell, Jim, "Headnotes: Northern Star", Nineteenth-century Serials Edition (NCSE) http://www.ncse.ac.uk/headnotes/nss.html</ref> O'Connor presented copies of engraved portraits of Chartist heroes to regular readers, effectively pioneering newspaper "give aways".<ref name=":0" /> The ''Star's'' poetry column not only printed the work of radical heroes such as Shelley and Shakespeare but hundreds of contributions by the paper's working-class readers.<ref>Chase, Malcolm, ''Chartism: A New History'' (2007), p. 119.</ref><ref>Mike Sanders’ ''The Poetry of Chartism'', published in 2009, is a complete record of the poetry published in the ''Northern Star''.</ref> Much of the credit for the astonishing success of the ''Northern Star'' is due to its publisher and general manager, Joshua Hobson, and the founding editor, William Hill, who was also a minister of the Swedenborgian New Jerusalem Church.
In 1845 O'Connor used the ''Northern Star'' to help launch the ''Chartist Land Plan'' (the National Land Company). The same year George Julian Harney replaced William Hill as editor of the paper. Harney increasingly used the paper to advocate his internationalist outlook, for example publishing articles by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. O'Connor disapproved, accusing Harney and his supporters of being "Socialists first and Chartists second". The relationship between the two men was often tense, but as Harney told Engels: 'I must do O'C. the justice to say that he never interferes with what I write in the paper nor does he know what I write until he sees the paper'.<ref>Letter to Engels, 30 March 1846, quoted in E. Royle, ''Chartism'' (1996), p. 121.</ref> It was not until May 1850 that Harney finally resigned as editor of the paper, to concentrate on his other journalistic interests.
Sales of the paper declined as the interest in the Chartist movement fell, with weekly circulation being only 1,200 by the end of 1851. O'Connor was losing interest in the campaign and sold the ''Northern Star'' to Harney in April 1852, who merged it with the ''Friend of the people'' to form the ''Star of Freedom''. The latter appeared in a smaller format to ''Northern Star'' and to avoid the Stamp Duty printed no news. It survived only until December of the same year.
===Names=== *''Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser'', November 1837 – November 1844 *''Northern Star and National Trades' Journal'',<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Max Morris |title=Chartism and the British Working-Class Movement |journal=Science & Society |date=1948 |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=400–417 |jstor=40399912 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40399912 |access-date=21 July 2021}}</ref> November 1844 – March 1852 *''Star and National Trades Journal'', 20 March 1852 – 17 April 1852 *''Star of Freedom'', 24 April 1852 – 27 November 1852
==Literary references== In ''Mary Barton'' (published in 1848), Elizabeth Gaskell describes a Sunday afternoon, in which Mary's father John “sat smoking his pipe by the fire, while he read an old ‘Northern Star’, borrowed from a neighbouring public-house”.<ref>Chapter 8.</ref>
Charles Kingsley's 1850 novel, ''Alton Locke'', includes a radical newspaper, the ''Weekly Warwhoop'', owned by a Feargus O’Flynn, intended as representations of O’Connor and the ''Northern Star''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.enotes.com/topics/alton-locke/critical-essays|website= www.enotes.com|title=Notes to Alton Locke|access-date=2020-07-13}}</ref>
== Blue plaque == thumb|Northern Star blue plaque On 30 November 2024, a blue plaque was unveiled by Leeds Civic Trust.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=EditorMC |date=2024-09-08 |title=A blue plaque for the Chartist Northern Star |url=https://sslh.org.uk/2024/09/08/a-blue-plaque-for-the-chartist-northern-star/ |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=Society for the Study of Labour History |language=en}}</ref> The unveiling was part of wider commemoration of the historian Malcolm Chase.<ref name=":1" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *Allen, Joan and Ashton, Owen R. ''Papers for the People: A Study of the Chartist Press'' (2005) *Chase, Malcolm. ''Chartism: A New History'' (2007) * Epstein, James. "Feargus O’Connor and the Northern Star", ''International Review of Social History'' 21 (1976) [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?output=instlink&q=info:j8-r1HsHYUsJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=1,27&scillfp=3545391844462412679&oi=lle online] *Royle, Edward. ''Chartism'' (3rd end, 1996) * Sanders, Mike. "'A Jackass Load of Poetry': The Northern Star's Poetry Column 1838–1852," ''Victorian Periodicals Review,'' Volume 39, Number 1, Spring 2006, pp. 46–66 *Thompson, Dorothy (1984) ''The Chartists: popular politics in the Industrial Revolution,'' Pantheon Books. p. 37 *Mussell, Jim/ "Headnotes: Northern Star", Nineteenth-century Serials Edition (NCSE) http://www.ncse.ac.uk/headnotes/nss.html
==External links== *The complete run of the ''Northern Star'' is available at the [http://www.ncse.ac.uk Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (NCSE)] *[http://www.ncse.ac.uk/headnotes/nss.html ''Northern Star (1837–1852)''] (NCSE) *http://www.spartacus-educational.com/CHnorthern.htm. *[https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/newport-rising/1839-newp-ris/ferg-oc-1840/ Feargus O'Connor & The Chartists - UK Parliament Living Heritage]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Northern Star (Chartist Newspaper)}} Category:Chartist newspapers Category:Defunct weekly newspapers Category:Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom Category:Newspapers established in 1837 Category:Publications disestablished in 1852 Category:1837 establishments in the United Kingdom