19. Backlash

The furious backlash against the “poisonous” Oracle and its sale in atheist emporiums is shown to have repercussions for the Owenite movement. The proliferating blasphemy print shops in London—and we look at the one in the “filthy low” Holywell Street, behind the Strand, advertising “atheism for the million”—particularly frightened family patriarchs, who saw this unclean knowledge threatening “the purity of the daughters of our land”. The number of women lecturing on the circuit, typified by Emma Martin, only exacerbated the threat. Plain clothes police start raiding socialist halls, searching their libraries. Saull now switched to lecturing on primeval archaeology, focusing on the rise of Britons from aboriginal stock, a shocking idea for many.