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The Life of Thomas Cooper, Written by Himself
1872 · 400 pages
The Life of Thomas Cooper, Written by Himself
by Thomas Cooper
About the text. In the free scan at least 1 word in 173 is garbled. We count it so you can judge the scan before you spend time in it. The full text is public domain and free — linked below.
On this page: a summary of The Life of Thomas Cooper, Written by Himself.
Thomas Cooper rose from a shoemaker's bench in Leicester to become a leading Chartist agitator, was convicted of sedition in 1843, and wrote his verse epic in a Stafford jail. In prison and after he cast off his faith and spent years as a popular freethinking lecturer, until in 1856 he stood up at London's Hall of Science and publicly declared himself a Christian again. He gave the next thirty years to defending the faith he had attacked. This is his own full-length account, long counted among the finest memoirs of a self-taught Victorian working man.
The changed life
From imprisoned Chartist and platform skeptic to a Christian lecturer who spent his last decades defending the faith.
Summary
The Life of Thomas Cooper, Written by Himself (1872) is the full-length autobiography of a self-taught working man who became one of Victorian England's most vivid public figures. Cooper rose from a shoemaker's bench in Leicester to lead Chartist agitation, was convicted of sedition, and composed his verse epic in a Stafford jail — and the book carries all of that with the energy of a man who lived it.
It is also a conversion narrative. In prison and after, Cooper cast off his Christian faith and spent years as a popular freethinking lecturer, until in the mid-1850s he stood up in public and declared himself a Christian again. He gave the following decades to lecturing on the evidences of Christianity, defending the faith he had once attacked from the same platforms.
Long counted among the finest memoirs of a self-educated Victorian working man, the book joins political history, self-improvement, doubt, and return in a single sweep. It is Cooper's own account, told at length and in his own voice.
Who was Thomas Cooper?
Thomas Cooper (1805–1892) was an English Chartist leader, self-taught poet, and lecturer who came up from poverty and manual trades to a life of writing and public speaking. He is remembered for his part in the Chartist movement, for the imprisonment that followed his agitation, and for the long narrative poem he wrote while jailed.
For a period after his imprisonment Cooper became a well-known skeptic lecturer before returning to Christianity mid-career. He spent his remaining decades lecturing on the evidences of the faith, and his autobiography is the chief firsthand record of both the political life and the spiritual reversal.
Which edition of The Life of Thomas Cooper, Written by Himself is this?
Our public-domain edition presents Cooper's text in a clean, readable modern format with clear type, and we link to a free source as well.
Common questions
- Who was Thomas Cooper?
- He was a nineteenth-century English Chartist leader, self-taught poet, and lecturer who rose from a shoemaker's bench, was imprisoned for sedition, and later became a popular freethinking lecturer before returning to Christianity.
- Did Thomas Cooper really convert back to Christianity?
- Yes. After years as a well-known skeptic lecturer he publicly declared himself a Christian again in the mid-1850s and spent his remaining decades lecturing on the evidences of Christianity. His autobiography tells the story in his own words.
A note on the text. The Life of Thomas Cooper, Written by Himself is in the public domain. The text below is free to read at the source we link. The original text is also available free here.
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Related reading
The case he argued
The Bridge of History over the Gulf of Time
Thomas Cooper · 1871
The apologetic Cooper took round the same lecture halls after he changed sides — the historical argument that occupied the last thirty years of his life.
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