Marginalization of atheism in Victorian Britain: The trials of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh

Nickolas G. Conrad

Atheists and freethinkers in nineteenth century Victorian Britain were imprisoned and oppressed. This thesis will seek to illuminate how and why atheists were marginalized in society by examining the persecution of atheists and the collective values in Victorian culture. The premise is that the values of Victorian society were inseparable from religious belief and that the Victorian political, social, and intellectual culture created a normative structure that pushed disbelievers to the margins. Victorian religious culture was maintained by several factors. First, it was maintained by the use of the blasphemy laws that were often used against the leaders of the Freethought movement. Second, religion permeated private life and personal morality, causing atheism to seem immoral. Third, education incorporated religion as part of its teachings, normalizing its predominance. Through these factors atheism was marginalized by law, claims of immorality, and lack of public space. Atheists resisted these factors by appealing to freedom of speech, religious toleration, legal rights, and moral persuasion. The Victorian collective religious culture will be more closely examined in the trial the Queen v. Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant. In this trial the prosecution argues that Bradlaugh and Besant were corrupting the masses by publishing Fruits of Philosophy, a pamphlet advocating contraception and population controls. By providing rational argument for the need of poor people to limit their family size, atheists challenged conventional morality and religious notions of the body, further secularizing the body and private life. Charles Bradlaugh's election as a Member of Parliament was blocked because he sought an alternative to the religious oriented Parliamentary oath when first swearing in to the House. His case represents the different side to the same coin. As an elite, his critics thought he would poison society by his degenerate beliefs and delegitimize the religious identity of Parliament, the highest institution in Britain. Bradlaugh's successful entrance was a victory for religious toleration and a further advancement of secularism. The goal of making these arguments is to shed light on the marginalization of atheism as a wide-ranging cultural phenomenon in Britain.

Marginalization of atheism in Victorian Britain: The trials of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh

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