Peterloo Massacre

Print of the Peterloo Massacre published by Richard Carlile

Peterloo Massacre of August 16, 1819 was the result of a cavalry charge into the crowd at a public meeting at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, England. It is also called the Manchester Massacre or sometimes the Battle of Peterloo. Eleven people were killed and over 500, including many women and children, were injured.

Background

The meeting had been organised by the Manchester Patriotic Union Society, a political group that agitated for radical parliamentary reform and the repeal of the corn laws. They had invited a number of speakers, including Richard Carlile, John Cartwright and Henry Hunt, to a public meeting.

Local magistrates, under William Hulton, were concerned that the meeting would end in a riot or, worse, a rebellion. They arranged for a substantial number of regular soldiers to be on hand. The troops included 600 men of the 15th Hussars; several hundred infantrymen; a Royal Horse Artillery unit with two six-pounder (2.7 kg) guns; 400 men of the Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry; 400 special constables; and 120 cavalry of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, relatively inexperienced militia recruited from among shopkeepers and tradesmen.

A considerable crowd from all around the county of Lancashire had gathered for the meeting; contemporary estimates varied from 30,000 up to 150,000; modern estimates are around 60,000 or 80,000. People expected a peaceful meeting and many were wearing their Sunday clothes. Some carried banners with texts like "No Corn Laws", "Annual Parliaments", "Universal suffrage" and "Vote By Ballot." The main speakers did not arrive until after 1:00 p.m., and Hunt was invited to speak first at 1:20 p.m..

Attack

At around 1:31 p.m. the magistrates observing the meeting decided to stop it. When the reading of the Riot Act did not help, they gave orders to Captain Joseph Nadin, Deputy Constable of Manchester, to arrest the leaders. Nadin requested military aid and magistrates sent for the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry.

Sixty Yeomanry cavalrymen, possibly drunk, entered the field under their leader Captain Hugh Birley[1], brandishing their cavalry sabres and charging towards the cart that served as the speakers' stand. When some demonstrators tried to stop them by linking their hands, they began to attack them with their sabres. When the cavalry reached the cart, they arrested Hunt, Joseph Johnson and a number of others, including some journalists.

The Yeomanry then began to strike down the flags and banners of the crowd with their sabres. Outside the field William Hulton perceived the crowd's actions as an assault and ordered Lieutenant Colonel Guy L'Estrange of the Hussars into the field at 1:50 p.m., ostensibly to save the Yeomanry. Within ten minutes the Hussars had cleared the field and also pacified the Yeomanry.

Aftermath

Eleven people were killed, including a woman, a child another woman was carrying, and a peace officer. About 500 were injured, 113 of them women, many of whom were trampled by horses. One man had his nose severed, and others were bleeding from numerous sabre cuts. Many of those present, including local masters, employers and owners were horrified by the carnage.

The events immediately found their way into the press. James Wroe of the Manchester Observer coined the phrase "Peterloo Massacre" to describe the event (in ironic reference to Waterloo). Sympathetic Richard Carlile avoided arrest and published the story in his Sherwin's Political Register. Both Wroe and Carlile were later imprisoned for publishing the story. British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote the poems "England in 1819" and "The Masque of Anarchy" in the immediate aftermath of the massacre.

The government supported the action of the army and magistrates, and the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, congratulated them. By the end of the year, the government had introduced legislation, later known as the Six Acts, to suppress radical meetings and publications. The widespread public anger at the massacre swelled the support of the reform movement from which the Chartists would eventually emerge.

The maximum sentence under the Riot Act would have been the death penalty. However, Henry Hunt was sentenced to 30 months in Ilchester Jail. Others received a year each or were acquitted. Hunt was later released on bail.

No public inquiry was allowed until 1820. The first Parliamentary Reform Act began in 1832.

Popular culture

The British composer Sir Malcolm Arnold wrote the Peterloo Overture in 1968. Performed the following year in commemoration of the massacre's 150th anniversary, the work was commissioned by the Trades Union Congress.

The British newspaper the Guardian G2 published its front cover with an artist interpretation of the Peterloo Massacre and published an article titled 'Lest We Forget' in which the historian Tristram Hunt writes about several incidents of British history, including the Peterloo Massacre noting its relevance to the Labour Party conference being held on part of St Peter's Fields.

The thirteenth of the Sharpe television films, Sharpe's Justice, is loosely based on the Peterloo Massacre. The scriptwriters moved the date and setting to Yorkshire in 1814.

References

• Marlow, Joyce, The Peterloo massacre, London : Rapp & Whiting, (1969), ISBN 0-85391-122-3

See also

• Radicalism (historical)
• Free Trade Hall — built near the site of the Massacre, on what is today Peter Street (formerly St. Peters Fields)
• Six Acts
• Cato Street Conspiracy

External links

• BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' radio broadcast about the Peterloo massacre
• UK Schoolnet information about the Peterloo massacre
• Eyewitness account of the massacre given by Samuel Bamford