The Black Dwarf
Details
The Black Dwarf was a London newspaper and comment sheet, published by T J Wooler from January 1817 until 1824. It was a major target for the government, which brought charges of libel against Wooler for pieces in the paper of 12 February and 2 April 1817. In both cases, Wooler sought to claim that the statements for which he was being prosecuted for libel were in fact true, and therefore not a libel; and the prosecution sought to insist that something could be true, but still be a libel. Understandably, juries were not wholly impressed. Wooler was acquitted by the jury on the second offence and the improprieties in the manner of the declaration of the verdict in the first case rendered it unsafe. He was prosecuted again for his part in a mass meeting held at Birmingham on 12 July 1819 (an important precursor to the Peterloo Meeting) and tried the following year, when he was sentenced to fifteen months in prison. Despite his imprisonment, Wooler managed to keep the paper in production, thanks in part to his fellow publisher Richard Carlile. The paper was a part of the resurgence of the post-war radicalism of 1816 to 1820, and to the government's attempts to crack down on popular protest. Wooler led the campaign against the use of Special Juries in London, and the Black Dwarf was framed with a black border in mourning for the death of trial by jury until the Special Jury List was reformed in 1817.
Wooler depended heavily on the moral and financial support of veteran reformer Major John Cartwright, who had been advocating annual parliaments and universal manhood suffrage since the 1770s, but who became a more active campaigner in the last years of the war, initiating the spread of Hampden Clubs throughout the country in 1816. When Cartwright died in 1824, Wooler was unable to carry on publishing.
The Trials of the Black Dwarf have been dramatized by the Loft Theatre Company, devised and directed by David Fletcher (see also Queen Caroline). A recording of the production is available above in an mp3 file..
Wooler depended heavily on the moral and financial support of veteran reformer Major John Cartwright, who had been advocating annual parliaments and universal manhood suffrage since the 1770s, but who became a more active campaigner in the last years of the war, initiating the spread of Hampden Clubs throughout the country in 1816. When Cartwright died in 1824, Wooler was unable to carry on publishing.
The Trials of the Black Dwarf have been dramatized by the Loft Theatre Company, devised and directed by David Fletcher (see also Queen Caroline). A recording of the production is available above in an mp3 file..