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Scottish Archives for Schools > Index of resources > Leaving it all behind > Unit 2 - Belief > Source 3a > Unit 2, Source 3a - Background text |
Unit 2, Source 3a - Background information |
Secularism
Secular Societies formed in Britain in the early 1850s. They were most successful in industrial areas such as Newcastle, Liverpool, Sheffield and Glasgow. George Holyoake, a schoolteacher in Sheffield and editor of the secular journal, Oracle of Reason, visited Scotland in 1853 with Robert le Blond, a London businessman and fellow freethinker, to spread the ideas behind Secularism. Charles Bradlaugh, who became leader of the Secular Society in Sheffield in 1866, was elected MP for Northampton in 1880. He was not able to take his seat fully in Parliament until January 1886 having been removed from the house on various occasions because of his views on Christianity and other issues.
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