The Anti-Persecution Union was an organisation established by the

freethinkers Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...

George Jacob Holyoake George Jacob Holyoake (13 April 1817 – 22 January 1906) was an English secularist, co-operator and newspaper editor. He coined the terms secularism in 1851 and "jingoism" in 1878. He edited a secularist paper, the ''Reasoner'', from 1846 to J ...

and Emma Martin in 1842, to aid in defending individuals accused of blasphemy and blasphemous libel. Its object was "to assert and maintain the right of free discussion, and to protect and defend the victims of intolerance and bigotry".

Formation and purpose

Described as a "militant freethought league", the Union came on the heels of a number of prosecutions for blasphemy. As such, its efforts were "defensive as well as propagandistic". Following the prosecution of

Charles Southwell Charles Southwell (1814 – 7 August 1860) was a radical English journalist, freethinker and colonial advocate. Early life Charles Southwell was born in London, the youngest of 33 children in a poor family. His father, William, was a piano ma ...

, and building on the "Committee for the Protection of Mr. Southwell" established for him,

The Oracle of Reason ''The Oracle of Reason, or Philosophy Vindicated'' was the first avowedly atheistic periodical to be published in Britain. It was founded by Charles Southwell, William Chilton and John Field in 1841, and lasted until 1843. Several of its editors ...

encouraged its readers to assist in the formation of a Union:

whose great and glorious objects shall be to abolish all law or legal practice which shackles expression of opinion, and to protect and indemnify all, or whatever persuasion, whether Jew, Christian, Infidel, Atheist, or other denomination in danger of similar tyrannies.

David Nash has noted that, despite the inclusion of all denominations and none, the Union was "clearly aimed at freethinkers". By the Union's first meeting, at the radical John Street Institution on

Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road t ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, the prosecutions of Southwell, Holyoake, and George and Harriet Adams were discussed. The meeting's first resolution, moved by Emma Martin, expressed "strong disapprobation of all legal interference with the free expression of opinion" and "emphatically deprecate the recent prosecutions for the alleged crime of blasphemy, as unjust and impolitic." Martin's own atheism was infamous, causing division and disapproval among many of her own

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

associates. It was, Barbara Taylor has suggested, in part her anger at this absence of support that she and Holyoake formed the Union. The Union published its activities in ''The Oracle of Reason'' (1841-43) and ''The Movement'' ''and'' ''Anti-Persecution Gazette'' (1843-45). For four months it circulated ''The Monthly Circular of the Anti-Persecution Union'', edited by Holyoake. Reports of the trials of Holyoake, Matilda Roalfe, Thomas Finlay, and Thomas Paterson were also published on the Union's behalf by

Henry Hetherington Henry Hetherington (June 1792 – 24 August 1849) was an English printer, bookseller, publisher and newspaper proprietor who campaigned for social justice, a free press, universal suffrage and religious freethought. Together with his close asso ...

and Paterson.

Other groups

A Scottish Anti-Persecution Union was also established, responding to prosecutions in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. An appeal in ''The Oracle of Reason'' stated that the Union was:

made up of individual professors of almost every kind of opinion - political, religious, and irreligious... ndformed for the sole purpose of setting free the tongue and the press; therefore, all who are persecuted for expressing, or otherwise publishing their opinions, will have a legitimate claim to its support.

In February 1844, a Leicester Committee of the Anti-Persecution Union was formed. Its first secretary, William Henry Holyoak, had received permission the previous year, as reported in ''The Movement.'' Multiple members of the Leicester Committee were later part of the Leicester Secular Society, the world's oldest, founded in 1851.{{Cite web, title=About Leicester Secular Society, url=http://www.leicestersecularsociety.org.uk/aboutus.php, access-date=2020-09-23, website=www.leicestersecularsociety.org.uk

Formation and purpose

Other groups

References

Further reading