Valley Chartists - the Pinkerton Connection
Alan Pinkerton
1819 -1884
Born in 1819 Alan Pinkerton was the son of a Glasgow policeman.
Trained as a cooper, by his late teens he had taken a keen interest in political reform and became
an active supporter of the newly formed Chartist organisation.
By the late 1830s the Chartists and their demands for reform were being viewed
with some nervousness by the authorities and Pinkerton, as a leading spokesman in Scotland,
found himself under some scrutiny.
In 1839, Pinkerton is said to have made the journey to South Wales where Chartism was
now a powerful force.
The imprisonment of Chartist leader Henry Vincent had enraged supporters
with many demanding direct action against the government.
November 1839 saw the ill-fated assault on the Westgate Hotel, Newport (see Chartists page) and Pinkerton
is believed to have been among the many thousands of Valley workers who marched on the town.
Following the suppression of the uprising, government forces were determined to hunt down and arrest the ring-leaders
and although Pinkerton's role in the affair was unclear, his connection with Chartism was well known and he found himself
in the role of a "wanted man".
In 1842 he married Joan Carfrae, also a Chartist sympathiser, and to escape the attention of the authorities
both emigrated to Canada in the same year, eventually moving to the U.S.A.
Pinkerton became deputy sheriff of Dundee, Illinois and his involvement in police affairs later led to the formation of a
detective agency, the exploits of which were to gain fame world-wide.
His abolitionist views were well known and during the American Civil War Pinkerton was appointed chief of the US Secret Service.
Ironically, during the 1870s his detective organisation was responsible for infiltrating and destroying the 'Molly Maguires' - a
secret society formed to aid Irish immigrant workers - similar to the 'Scotch Cattle' which had operated in the Welsh Valleys.
By a quirk of fate, Pinkerton the 'hunted' had become the 'hunter'.
