The idea of extending the vote to women was still in its infancy. The coroner's inquest found that he had died from natural causes. [53], At about noon, several hundred special constables were led onto the field. It was unveiled on 10 December 2007 by the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Glynn Evans. He beckoned me, and I went to him. Over one and a half thousand men were lined up against the ordinary folk who had come to hear Mr. Hunt speak. The Manchester Relief Committee, a body set up to provide relief for the victims of Peterloo, gave the number of injured as 420, while Radical sources listed 500. A reasonably reliable count of the numbers on the various marches indicates a total of around 20,000 who came in from outside Manchester, but the number who attended informally from Manchester and Salford is much harder to estimate. After saluting the watching magistrates, the yeomanry pushed into the crowd. Some disability campaigners described the memorial as 'vile' and calling for it to be demolished, a stance which in turn caused offence by appearing to dismiss the experiences of the many disabled victims of Peterloo. Manchester had a population of 400,000 and no MP to represent its concerns. For the film about the massacre, see, A coloured print of the Peterloo Massacre published by. By entering your details, you are agreeing to HistoryExtra terms and conditions. Some might say that was because history has traditionally concentrated on the battles and victories of royalty and the elite, rather than the working classes. Constituencies could also be bought and sold, meaning wealthy industrialists or old aristocrats could buy political influence. These came at the rate of one per generation in 1832, 1867, 1884, and 1918, when universal manhood suffrage and partial female suffrage was achieved. As a centre of the textile trade, its weavers and spinners struggled to put bread on the table. The fact that there were hundreds of children at the gathering meant nothing to the authorities. [10][11], In the winter of 1816–17 massed reform petitions were rejected by the House of Commons, the largest of them from Manchester with over 30,000 signatures. As the cavalry pushed towards the speakers' stand they became stuck in the crowd, and in panic started to hack about them with their sabres. Cheshire Magistrates' chairman William Hulton then summoned the 15th Hussars to disperse the crowd. Working-class people held large meetings to protest against the political system. [120] Other musical commemorations include "Ned Ludd Part 5" on British folk rock group Steeleye Span's 2006 album Bloody Men, and Rochdale rock band Tractor's suite of five songs written and recorded in 1973, later included on their 1992 release Worst Enemies. Manchester, by contrast, had a large and ever-expanding population, yet sent no one to London. Importantly, this was a peaceful gathering to hear the orator Henry Hunt. In the early 19th century, parliamentary elections were fraught with corruption and elitism – it was far from democratic. Available for everyone, funded by readers, Manchester crowds hear why march that ended in 18 deaths still has relevance in modern Britain. Here, BBC History Revealed explores the events that led to the Peterloo Massacre…. [60] Andrews, the Chief Constable, instructed Birley that he had an arrest warrant which he needed assistance to execute. Our best wishes for a productive day. Sky HISTORY is partnering with Ancestry, the world's leading resource for online family history. [3] Nationally the so-called rotten boroughs had a hugely disproportionate influence on the membership of the Parliament of the United Kingdom compared to the size of their populations: Old Sarum in Wiltshire, with one voter, elected two MPs,[4] as did Dunwich in Suffolk, which by the early 19th century had almost completely disappeared into the sea. 200 years ago, a crowd of people seeking political change became victims of a massacre. The event was first labelled the "Peterloo massacre" by the radical Manchester Observer newspaper in a bitterly ironic reference to the bloody Battle of Waterloo which had taken place four years earlier. Last modified on Sun 18 Aug 2019 16.46 BST. Read more: Historic battlefields across Britain. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. One such meeting happened in Manchester at St Peter’s Fields in August 1819.. [103] Throughout the nineteenth century, the memory of Peterloo was a political rallying point for both radicals and liberals to attack the tories and demand further reforms of parliament. Contemporaries estimated it from 30,000 to as many as 150,000; modern estimates have been 50,000–80,000. The founder of the Manchester Observer and a prominent figure in the Union, Joseph Johnson, described the city in a letter: ‘Nothing but ruin and starvation stare one in the face, the state of this district is truly dreadful, and I believe nothing but the greatest exertions can prevent an insurrection. [94][95], One direct consequence of Peterloo was the foundation of the Manchester Guardian newspaper in 1821, by the Little Circle group of non-conformist Manchester businessmen headed by John Edward Taylor, a witness to the massacre. "[66] The 15th Hussars formed themselves into a line stretching across the eastern end of St Peter's Field, and charged into the crowd. The official website for BBC History Magazine, BBC History Revealed and BBC World Histories Magazine, In Manchester in August 1819, a peaceful protest quickly turned into bloody chaos. When he had initially learned that the meeting was scheduled for 2 August he wrote to the Home Office stating that he hoped the Manchester magistrates would show firmness on the day: I will be prepared to go there, and will have in that neighbourhood, that is within an easy day's march, 8 squadron of cavalry, 18 companies of infantry and the guns. [113][115] [53] The memorial has meanwhile become widely appreciated and visited, and the Peterloo Memorial Campaign site states that it is 'Proud to have campaigned for a respectful, informative and permanent Peterloo Memorial at the heart of Manchester'. [25], The exact number of those killed and injured at Peterloo has never been established with certainty, for there was no official count or inquiry and many injured people fled to safety without reporting their injuries or seeking treatment. [85] He also wrote pamphlets entitled "The Peterloo Massacre: A Faithful Narrative of the Events". I hope therefore the civil authorities will not be deterred from doing their duty. This, the authorities argued, was why the Riot Act had to be read; it was why Hunt and the other speakers had to be arrested and it was the reason why the crowd needed to be dispersed quickly. "[96], Events such as the Pentrich rising, the March of the Blanketeers and the Spa Fields meeting, all serve to indicate the breadth, diversity and widespread geographical scale of the demand for economic and political reform at the time. The ringleaders were detained for several months without charge under the emergency powers then in force which suspended habeas corpus, the right to be either charged or released. Crowds of men, women and children were easy pickings for battle-hardened troops on horseback. [8] In January 1819, a crowd of about 10,000 gathered at St Peter's Fields to hear the radical orator Henry Hunt and called on the Prince Regent to choose ministers who would repeal the Corn Laws. Made of green silk embossed with gold lettering, one side of the banner is inscribed "Liberty and Fraternity" and the other "Unity and Strength. [104][105], The Free Trade Hall, home of the Anti-Corn Law League, was built partly as a "cenotaph raised on the shades of the victims" of Peterloo, but one which acknowledged only the reformers' demand for the repeal of the corn laws and not for the vote. In 2007, the City Council replaced the blue plaque with a red plaque with less euphemistic wording, explicitly referring to "a peaceful rally" being "attacked by armed cavalry" and mentioning "15 deaths and over 600 injuries". It also engaged with the social and economic problems caused by the Napoleonic wars. The slave trade was abolished across the British Empire in 1833. Chartist demands included universal suffrage for men and payment for MPs, to enable those of modest means to take part in politics. Hunt had barely begun to speak before the yeomanry were ordered into the field to facilitate his arrest. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 there was an acute economic slump, accompanied by chronic unemployment and harvest failure, and exacerbated by the Corn Laws, which kept the price of bread high. [14], By the beginning of 1819 pressure generated by poor economic conditions was at its peak and had enhanced the appeal of political radicalism among the cotton loom weavers of south Lancashire. A civil case on behalf of a weaver wounded at Peterloo was brought against four members of the Manchester Yeomanry, Captain Birley, Captain Withington, Trumpeter Meagher, and Private Oliver, at Lancaster Assizes, on 4 April 1822. [67] At first the crowd had some difficulty in dispersing, as the main exit route into Peter Street was blocked by the 88th Regiment of Foot, standing with bayonets fixed. His job was to remove anything that might be used as a weapon, and he duly had "about a quarter of a load" of stones carted away. Shelley’s manuscript of ‘The Mask of Anarchy’, 1819, inspired by the Peterloo Massacre. [7] The prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that it would "zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty … warmly advocate the cause of Reform … endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy and … support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, all serviceable measures. The assembly was intended by its organisers and participants to be a peaceful meeting; Henry Hunt had exhorted everyone attending to come "armed with no other weapon but that of a self-approving conscience",[47] and many were wearing their "Sunday best" clothes. Alongside Hunt on the speakers' stand were John Knight, a cotton manufacturer and reformer, Joseph Johnson, the organiser of the meeting, John Thacker Saxton, managing editor of the Manchester Observer, the publisher Richard Carlile, and George Swift, reformer and shoemaker. In 1819, Lancashire was represented by two county members of parliament (MPs) and a further twelve borough members sitting for the towns of Clitheroe, Newton, Wigan, Lancaster, Liverpool, and Preston, with a total of 17,000 voters in a county population of nearly a million. How Did Louis Braille’s Tactile Writing System Revolutionise the Lives of the Blind? Disabled and suffering from almost daily fits following her injuries, the premature birth of her child after 7 months of pregnancy resulted in her death.