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@M_H_Taylor on voter suppression in 19thC Britain: 'At the general election of 1826, pro-slavery Tories paid special attention to the constituency of Weymouth, where voter intimidation was their chosen weapon against the candidacy of [abolitionist] Thomas Fowell Buxton...' /1
'The only polling booth in Weymouth had been placed in the furthest corner of the town hall and, on the first day of polling, a raucous mob stationed itself between the door and the booth. This Tory barricade was so effective that only six votes were cast that day'. /2
'On the second day of polling, the town hall now guarded by the local cavalry, the Tory hordes scaled the walls of nearby houses, clambering onto the roof of the building then garrisoned in the hall through its windows. Special constables were sworn in...' /3
'but "on two successive days, the mob broke all their staves to pieces, and drove them out". Buxton was horrified, regretting that the election is carried on with the utmost violence"'. He still came top of the poll by 69 votes. /4
From Michael Taylor's @HistParl paper, 'The West India Interest and Colonial Slavery in Parliament, 1823-33'.
