The British Secular Union was a secularist organisation, founded in August 1877, primarily as a response to what its founders regarded as the "dictatorial" powers of Charles Bradlaugh as President of the National Secular Society .
6-601: The founding members were Kate Watts , Harriet Law , George William Foote and Josiah Grimson; George Holyoake had accepted the nomination of Vice President of the National Secular Society so only gave support for the formation. The group adopted the Secular Review as their official paper. The British Secular Union had broadly the same goals as the National Secular Society but distanced themselves from Bradlaugh's style, especially when it came to
12-579: A freethinking family. In 1870 she married Charles Watts (after the death of his first wife, Mary Ann), and their daughter Kate Eunice Watts was born in May 1875. She was a committed advocate of female education and emancipation. Her series of articles 'The Education and Position of Women' in the Secular Review in 1879 argued that women should have the freedom to earn their own living, live in equal terms with their husbands if they chose to marry, and live
18-580: A single life without fear of social opprobrium. She also wrote the pamphlet Christianity: Defective and Unnecessary . Watts rose to prominence for her opposition to then NSS President & Founder Charles Bradlaugh 's involvement in the Knowlton Trial , and was one of the founding members of the British Secular Union , the rival to Bradlaugh's NSS. In 1877 she wrote Reply to Mr Bradlaugh outlining her opposition, which centred on
24-536: The Knowlton Pamphlet , which advocated birth control. Even though Charles Watts owned the rights to the Knowlton pamphlet (and had no intention of publishing it), Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant broke with Watts and published the pamphlet anyway, subsequently facing prosecution. The issue of birth control was a contentious one within the secular movement. Bradlaugh managed to steer opinion away from
30-592: The Leicester Secular Society , joining the union. Kate Watts Eunice Kate Watts (nÊe Nowlan ; c. 1848 â 25 February 1924 ) was a British secularist and feminist writer and lecturer. She was one of the most prominent women active in the British freethought movement in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She was born in London to William and Eunice Nowlan,
36-535: The birth control element and instead made secularism a freedom of speech issue. Like other secular societies, the British Secular Union opened its membership to women. Aside from membership, women were also able to lecture and run for executive positions. While the British Secular Union did not have as many members as the NSS, it had strong regional representation with the largest regional secular group,
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