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The lead up to our own census reminds me of the release of the 1911 census data in the UK. It's available online - so great.
The 1911 census was the one the suffragists and suffragettes wanted to boycott - no vote, no census!
The census boycott was an easy one for people to join in on, they didn't have o risk imprisonment. I've just been reading about the suffragette movement and thinking how strange life must have been in London in the 1910s (and also how completely the neo-terrorism of it has been blanked out of the historical record).
Things that were happening - the suffragettes were told to 'be patient' by the PM and then went into all out war. It was not a good idea to say this to a woman who had been campaigning for the vote since the 1870s.
There were mass marches attended by thousands and when this didn't work a campaign of violence which by luck did not include any deaths. There were window breakings (but no one seriously injured by the flying glass), fire bombings of postal boxes (which caused injuries to several mailmen), and a lot of arson attacks. One of these lead to prosecution when a housekeeper heard them enter and came downstairs - they had thought the house was empty so it was only because the woman woke up that they avoided accidentally killing her.
There were strings of arson attacks, including burning down Lloyd George. There were a lot of acid attacks, mostly burning 'Votes for women' into the grass at male-only locations like golf courses. After Rockeby's Venus at the National Gallery was slashed women were not allowed to enter some museums and art galleries. Women were not allowed to attend political meetings.
There were literally hundreds of women in jail, many undertaking hunger strikes. The Cat and Mouse Act was regarded, even by opponents of women's suffrage, as a particularly nasty piece of legislation as it was designed to prevent women from dying while in jail so as to not embarrass the Government.
The leaders of the WPSU were forced into exile and there were escapees from the Cat and Mouse Act who were literally on the run. The Government used servaillance photos of notorious suffragettes, taken covertly and circulated to authorities as a security measure (the first time this was done in the UK).
So, basically, it must have seemed like London was under siege (or the suffragettes were). It's interesting that this is not really remembered while other terrorist campaigns (like the Irish movement in the 1970s and 80s) are acknowledged as such. (Another note of similarity: like the Irish, the women were on hunger strike because they demanded that they be recognised as political prisoners).
The 1911 census was the one the suffragists and suffragettes wanted to boycott - no vote, no census!
The census boycott was an easy one for people to join in on, they didn't have o risk imprisonment. I've just been reading about the suffragette movement and thinking how strange life must have been in London in the 1910s (and also how completely the neo-terrorism of it has been blanked out of the historical record).
Things that were happening - the suffragettes were told to 'be patient' by the PM and then went into all out war. It was not a good idea to say this to a woman who had been campaigning for the vote since the 1870s.
There were mass marches attended by thousands and when this didn't work a campaign of violence which by luck did not include any deaths. There were window breakings (but no one seriously injured by the flying glass), fire bombings of postal boxes (which caused injuries to several mailmen), and a lot of arson attacks. One of these lead to prosecution when a housekeeper heard them enter and came downstairs - they had thought the house was empty so it was only because the woman woke up that they avoided accidentally killing her.
There were strings of arson attacks, including burning down Lloyd George. There were a lot of acid attacks, mostly burning 'Votes for women' into the grass at male-only locations like golf courses. After Rockeby's Venus at the National Gallery was slashed women were not allowed to enter some museums and art galleries. Women were not allowed to attend political meetings.
There were literally hundreds of women in jail, many undertaking hunger strikes. The Cat and Mouse Act was regarded, even by opponents of women's suffrage, as a particularly nasty piece of legislation as it was designed to prevent women from dying while in jail so as to not embarrass the Government.
The leaders of the WPSU were forced into exile and there were escapees from the Cat and Mouse Act who were literally on the run. The Government used servaillance photos of notorious suffragettes, taken covertly and circulated to authorities as a security measure (the first time this was done in the UK).
So, basically, it must have seemed like London was under siege (or the suffragettes were). It's interesting that this is not really remembered while other terrorist campaigns (like the Irish movement in the 1970s and 80s) are acknowledged as such. (Another note of similarity: like the Irish, the women were on hunger strike because they demanded that they be recognised as political prisoners).
