Many working people were disappointed when they realised that the 1832 Reform Act did not give them the vote. This disappointment turned to anger when the reformed House of Commons passed the 1834 Poor Law.

In June 1836, William Lovett, Henry Hetherington, John Cleave and James Watson formed the London Working Men's Association (LMWA). Although it only ever had a few hundred members, the LMWA became a very influential organisation.

In 1838 the Working Men's Association published the People's Charter. In the charter it was claimed that Parliament only passed laws that benefited those people with the vote. The Chartists therefore argued that all males over the age of 21 should be granted the franchise (voting rights). To prevent people from being forced to vote in a particular way by employers or landlords, the Chartists also wanted secret ballots to be introduced.

Other parliamentary reforms demanded by the Chartists included: annual parliaments, equal numbers of people in each constituency, abolition of the property qualification for MPs, and payment of MPs.

The four main leaders of the Chartist movement had been involved in political campaigns for many years and had all experienced periods of imprisonment. However, they were all strongly opposed to using any methods that would result in violence and instead advocated what they called Moral Force.

Others such as John Frost, Joseph Rayner Stephens, Feargus O'Connor and James Bronterre O'Brien criticised the Moral Force campaign. O'Connor, the editor of the weekly paper, the Northern Star, began to make speeches where he spoke of being willing "to die for the cause" and promising to "lead people to death or glory".

In a speech in Manchester, Feargus O'Connor gave a date, September 29, 1839, for violent action if Parliament did not grant the six points of the charter. O'Connor's speeches outraged Lovett and Hetherington and he was excluded from the platform of a mass meeting organised by the London Working Men's Association.