Since the 1815 Napoleonic wars, town and village labourers struggled with life in Britain. Bad harvests and high food prices left them starving, but they were most disgruntled because workingclass men were not represented in Parliament. The growth of industrial towns continued and there were radical riots in 1816 and 1817. And again in 1819, a year of industrial depression and very high food prices. But only 5% of adults were allowed to vote across Britain. Manchester, industrial heart of the cotton trade with 200,000 people, had no member of parliament.
Post-war, increasing numbers of disenfranchised workers in industrialising areas became involved in the movement for reform. Under the influence of farmer-campaigner Henry Orator Hunt and journalist William Cobbett, they began to campaign for universal male suffrage. They argued that extending the vote to working men would lead to better use of public money, fairer taxes and an end to trade restrictions which damaged industry & caused unemployment.
I read Jacquelin Riding’s excellent work on the Manchester Massacre of August 1819, but I wasn’t sure what the “British peoples’ time-honoured liberties” were and how the story of the Peterloo massacre was a "defining moment in the history of British democracy".
In Aug 1819, c75,000 people gathered at St Peter's Fields Manchester, the peak of the peaceful political rallies. The people attended from Manchester itself, from Liverpool or adjoining counties. Despite the cause’s seriousness, there was a party atmosphere as groups of people dressed in their Sunday best marched towards Manchester. The procession was accompanied by bands playing music and dancing. No one was armed and behaviour was peaceful. They heard speeches, by the charismatic Hunt etc, protesting against working conditions and demanding parliamentary reform.
Britons Strike Home!
I read Jacquelin Riding’s excellent work on the Manchester Massacre of August 1819, but I wasn’t sure what the “British peoples’ time-honoured liberties” were and how the story of the Peterloo massacre was a "defining moment in the history of British democracy".
In Aug 1819, c75,000 people gathered at St Peter's Fields Manchester, the peak of the peaceful political rallies. The people attended from Manchester itself, from Liverpool or adjoining counties. Despite the cause’s seriousness, there was a party atmosphere as groups of people dressed in their Sunday best marched towards Manchester. The procession was accompanied by bands playing music and dancing. No one was armed and behaviour was peaceful. They heard speeches, by the charismatic Hunt etc, protesting against working conditions and demanding parliamentary reform.
Britons Strike Home!
Illustration by George Cruikshank, 1819.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.
The nervous magistrates were alarmed by the size & mood of the crowd, believing the crowd had revolutionary intentions. To them, the organised marching, banners and music were more like those of an army troop drilling its recruits. They ordered the Manchester Yeomanry, a force of volunteer soldiers, to be ready. Henry Hunt had spoken only a few sentences when he saw the mounted Manchester Yeomanry galloping into the crowd.
The people panicked as the soldiers charged and were crushed. As the mood grew angrier, the local magistrates ordered the reading of the Riot Act. When this failed to calm things down, the yeomanry were ordered to charge. The volunteer soldiers used sabres on the crowd, so survivors hid themselves in a Quaker Meeting House, alongside the field.
Then the chairman of the magistrates ordered 600 Hussars and the Cheshire Volunteers to clear the fields with 6-pounder guns; in 10 minutes only the corpses remained. c500 people were injured and c20 killed, including many women. Hunt and the other leaders were arrested, tried and convicted, Hunt being prisoned for two years.
The names of the injured were printed, along with details of their wounds, so that sympathisers could donate charity. But these lists probably underestimated the real numbers; many were afraid to risk further official reprisals. The 1819 Manchester massacre was compared to the 1815 Battle of Waterloo and was named after that earlier tragedy. Although there was no such city, the name “Peterloo” came to symbolise Tory tyrannical response to reformers.
The Massacre of Peterloo! or a Specimen of English Liberty by JL Marks.
The Guardian
There was great public sympathy for the plight of the protesters. Times Newspaper account caused a wide-spread outrage that united reformers with the radical supporters of universal suffrage. A HUGE petition with signatures was raised, stating the petitioners’ belief that the Aug meeting had been peaceful, until the arrival of the soldiers.
Mass meetings for parliamentary reform and for the repeal of the Corn Laws were planned in Stockport and Manchester in 1819. There were meetings all over the N.E counties where 50,000 miners marched into Newcastle from nearby districts. In Oct & Nov, workers across the country stocked weapons to defend themselves, then gathered in Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Wigan, Bolton and Blackburn.
Yet the Government sanctioned the magistrates’ and yeomanry actions, and the quick passing of the repressive 6 Acts in Dec 1819:
1. Training Prevention
2. Seizure of Arms
3. Seditious Meetings
These 3 bills were designed to prevent intimidation and violence.
4. Blasphemous and Seditious Libels
5. Newspaper Stamp Duties
These 2 bills were intended to curb press agitation, a legal but nasty crackdown on the public and press freedom.
6. Misdemeanours Bill restricted the right of appeal of those charged with such offences, giving the government powers to deal harshly with even slight expressions of discontent. The government did not intend to give in to radical demands for parliamentary reform as was made very clear by the Prince Regent at the opening of Parliament in Nov 1819.
Ironically, the attempt to silence government critics encouraged journalists to develop inventive new ways of conveying the reform message. Writers and journalists summed up the reformers’ grievances with very popular works, reflecting both the anger over Peterloo and the cleverness of satire.
What was the impact of the massacre in the short and longer term? Habeas Corpus was revived early in 1818 and the Seditious Meetings Act lapsed in July. However economic distress returned in late 1818 and radicalism revived in 1819, reaching its peak in the Peterloo Massacre. Some radicals considered plans for a rising in London in Oct 1817, and in Feb 1818 plotted to assassinate members of the government. The rest of the radical group mollified their tactics and continued their mission in association with Henry Hunt, making significant progress in Lancashire.
The use of violence re Peterloo was officially endorsed by the authorities. So the leading Whigs were unanimous in their denunciation of brutality, but how closely should they have involved the party in a radical protest movement? At a Yorkshire county meeting in Oct, the county adopted the resolutions that Whig Earl Fitzwilliam drafted: the right to public assembly and condemnation of unlawful interference with it. This spurred further Whig meetings in 9 other counties but they failed. The dismissal of Fitzwilliam as Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire in Oct angered all Whigs and their leader encouraged attendance for a robust parliamentary campaign. The Tory government’s reaction DID strengthen Whig belief in essential parliamentary reform.
Peterloo had highlighted the tenuous nature of authority in industrialising Britain and led, in the 1820s, to a fundamental review on maintaining law and order. Nonetheless in Apr 1822, a case was brought against members of the Manchester Yeomanry in Lancaster. Because the court ruled that their actions had been justified in dispersing an illegal gathering, they were all acquitted.
The people panicked as the soldiers charged and were crushed. As the mood grew angrier, the local magistrates ordered the reading of the Riot Act. When this failed to calm things down, the yeomanry were ordered to charge. The volunteer soldiers used sabres on the crowd, so survivors hid themselves in a Quaker Meeting House, alongside the field.
Then the chairman of the magistrates ordered 600 Hussars and the Cheshire Volunteers to clear the fields with 6-pounder guns; in 10 minutes only the corpses remained. c500 people were injured and c20 killed, including many women. Hunt and the other leaders were arrested, tried and convicted, Hunt being prisoned for two years.
The names of the injured were printed, along with details of their wounds, so that sympathisers could donate charity. But these lists probably underestimated the real numbers; many were afraid to risk further official reprisals. The 1819 Manchester massacre was compared to the 1815 Battle of Waterloo and was named after that earlier tragedy. Although there was no such city, the name “Peterloo” came to symbolise Tory tyrannical response to reformers.
The Massacre of Peterloo! or a Specimen of English Liberty by JL Marks.
The Guardian
There was great public sympathy for the plight of the protesters. Times Newspaper account caused a wide-spread outrage that united reformers with the radical supporters of universal suffrage. A HUGE petition with signatures was raised, stating the petitioners’ belief that the Aug meeting had been peaceful, until the arrival of the soldiers.
Mass meetings for parliamentary reform and for the repeal of the Corn Laws were planned in Stockport and Manchester in 1819. There were meetings all over the N.E counties where 50,000 miners marched into Newcastle from nearby districts. In Oct & Nov, workers across the country stocked weapons to defend themselves, then gathered in Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Wigan, Bolton and Blackburn.
Yet the Government sanctioned the magistrates’ and yeomanry actions, and the quick passing of the repressive 6 Acts in Dec 1819:
1. Training Prevention
2. Seizure of Arms
3. Seditious Meetings
These 3 bills were designed to prevent intimidation and violence.
4. Blasphemous and Seditious Libels
5. Newspaper Stamp Duties
These 2 bills were intended to curb press agitation, a legal but nasty crackdown on the public and press freedom.
6. Misdemeanours Bill restricted the right of appeal of those charged with such offences, giving the government powers to deal harshly with even slight expressions of discontent. The government did not intend to give in to radical demands for parliamentary reform as was made very clear by the Prince Regent at the opening of Parliament in Nov 1819.
Ironically, the attempt to silence government critics encouraged journalists to develop inventive new ways of conveying the reform message. Writers and journalists summed up the reformers’ grievances with very popular works, reflecting both the anger over Peterloo and the cleverness of satire.
What was the impact of the massacre in the short and longer term? Habeas Corpus was revived early in 1818 and the Seditious Meetings Act lapsed in July. However economic distress returned in late 1818 and radicalism revived in 1819, reaching its peak in the Peterloo Massacre. Some radicals considered plans for a rising in London in Oct 1817, and in Feb 1818 plotted to assassinate members of the government. The rest of the radical group mollified their tactics and continued their mission in association with Henry Hunt, making significant progress in Lancashire.
The use of violence re Peterloo was officially endorsed by the authorities. So the leading Whigs were unanimous in their denunciation of brutality, but how closely should they have involved the party in a radical protest movement? At a Yorkshire county meeting in Oct, the county adopted the resolutions that Whig Earl Fitzwilliam drafted: the right to public assembly and condemnation of unlawful interference with it. This spurred further Whig meetings in 9 other counties but they failed. The dismissal of Fitzwilliam as Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire in Oct angered all Whigs and their leader encouraged attendance for a robust parliamentary campaign. The Tory government’s reaction DID strengthen Whig belief in essential parliamentary reform.
Peterloo had highlighted the tenuous nature of authority in industrialising Britain and led, in the 1820s, to a fundamental review on maintaining law and order. Nonetheless in Apr 1822, a case was brought against members of the Manchester Yeomanry in Lancaster. Because the court ruled that their actions had been justified in dispersing an illegal gathering, they were all acquitted.
Peterloo remained a key moment in Britain’s suffrage history. So it was more obvious than ever that the government could only counter dissent with repression. This eventually led to the Great Reform Act of 1832, in which 67 new constituencies were created, including two for Manchester. The male vote was modestly extended.
White metal medal 1819, struck after the event.
Front: yeomanry riding into the crowd, one man holding up a cap of liberty on a pole.
Reverse: The wicked have drawn out the sword/They have cut down/The poor and needy/And such as be of/Upright conversation (Psalms)
Looking at History was wonderful. Historians acknowledged that Peterloo was hugely influential in ordinary people winning the right to vote and led to the rise of the Chartist Movement and thence the Trade Unions. To examine Peterloo’s continuing significance is for democracy today, look no further than Syria and Turkmenistan and perhaps, eventually, Hongkong.
The Peterloo Bicentenary will be in Manchester in Aug 2019 till Feb 2020.
Front: yeomanry riding into the crowd, one man holding up a cap of liberty on a pole.
Reverse: The wicked have drawn out the sword/They have cut down/The poor and needy/And such as be of/Upright conversation (Psalms)
Looking at History was wonderful. Historians acknowledged that Peterloo was hugely influential in ordinary people winning the right to vote and led to the rise of the Chartist Movement and thence the Trade Unions. To examine Peterloo’s continuing significance is for democracy today, look no further than Syria and Turkmenistan and perhaps, eventually, Hongkong.
The Peterloo Bicentenary will be in Manchester in Aug 2019 till Feb 2020.