Considering how political identity intertwines with craft, ethnicity, gender, and class, this study explores the development and decline of Chartism between 1830 and 1860 through the perspective of plebeian intellectuals and activists in Ashton-under-Lyne and other militant localities of Greater Manchester and Lancashire. Challenging the approach of Patrick Joyce, Gareth Stedman-Jones, and James Vernon, this account questions myths and memories and provides a cultural and sociological view of the period.