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Legal Tyranny: Conscientious Objection in the Three Towns 1853-1914 Interactive exhibition and talks
Devonport Guildhall
Ker Street
Devonport
Plymouth
Devon
PL1 4EL
Ker Street
Devonport
Plymouth
Devon
PL1 4EL
Prices
Free admission
About us
As part of the 2018 Plymouth History Festival, come and visit this free interactive exhibition curated by staff and students from the University of Plymouth's School of Law, Criminology and Government and listen to public talks on the theme of social policy initiatives, state intervention and personal choice.Displays will explore aspects of the festival themes particularly enlightenment, scientific thought and public health.
This historical case study will focus on local reactions in the Three Towns to laws compelling parents to have their infants vaccinated against smallpox before the age of six months. If you were poor the health implications of vaccination could be dangerous and even fatal.
Participants and audiences will be invited to consider the personal moral choices they would make when presented with real life historic dilemmas about their family's health and wellbeing and the effect their decisions would have on both themselves and their communities.
Questions to consider include:
What would it take to make you resist the law?
Would you be a conscientious objector? If so, why?
Would you be willing to be imprisoned for your principles?
Those who objected to having their children vaccinated created a group of people known as 'conscientious objectors'.
The presentation will explain how the concept of 'conscientious objection' later came to be associated with the Great War and the Military Act 1916. It will also highlight some of the powerful modern echoes with the contemporary resistance from some parents to the MMR vaccine.
The exhibition is open from Monday - Saturday, 09:00 - 15:00.
The talk 'Objecting In Conscience - from Victorian Vaccination to Military Service, a historical exploration of Plymouth's part in the state's failure to persuade' is on Thursday 10 May in the Mayor's Parlour at Devonport Guildhall. Visit the University webpage for details.
The talk coincides with International Conscientious Objectors Day on 15 May, which aims to raise awareness of those who, for moral or religious reasons, refuse to participate in armed conflict. The day was first established by the International Conscientious Objectors' Meeting (ICOM) in 1985.
Image credit: Illustrated Police News 2 October 1886 courtesy (c) British Library Board
