Much Ado about Peterloo
Through public scorn,—mud from a muddy spring;
Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know,
But leechlike to their fainting country cling
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow.
A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field
-from England in 1819 by Percy Shelley Bysshe
In the fall of 1819, Percy Shelley wrote two poems in response to the news of the Peterloo Massacre. Although faraway, living in Livorno, Italy with his wife Mary, he was deeply affected by the event. He wrote the shorter sonnet, England in 1819, and the longer ballad, The Masque of Anarchy, which showed his solidarity with the radical reformers of his home country. Shelley shared these with the publisher of the weekly periodical, The Examiner, however those poems were far too radical to publish at the time with concerns running high about being accused of seditious libel.
This is where Britain had found itself in 1819, a working class desperate for reform and a government both paranoid and unrelenting. The majority of people felt keenly the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution and took on the heaviest burden in times of economic hardship while the privileged few protected their way of life, assets, and their power with impunity. In this milieu of accelerated change, ideas in print were cheaply circulated echoing the Enlightenment ideas of liberty and the rights of man that had fed the revolutions of American and France, sharing progressive views of Romantic thinkers and writers that added emotional experiences to empiricism, and spreading the rousing dissent of radical activists. ​​​
Section of a political cartoon entitled Political Balance, likely by George Cruikshank and published by T. Tegg
Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the British economy had struggled. In an effort to protect the interests of wealthy landowners, Tory Prime Minister Lord Liverpool passed the Corn Laws in 1815, which imposed high tariffs on what would have been cheap imported grain. With a number of poor harvests occurring in the years to come and wages falling, these laws contributed to widespread hardship. Protests and riots had occurred previously, including Luddites who took their displeasure out on the looms and frames that were displacing them only to have their protest violently put down by soldiers. One such protest, an 1812 machine-breaking spree, led to the execution of 14 men. ​​
​The sentiment that led to the Peterloo Massacre was different from the shock of technological change that drove the Luddites. Among the demands of the protestors were universal male suffrage and repeal of the Corn Laws. Men were only granted the right to vote based on conditions of property ownership, and that constituted only fifteen percent of all adult males. While there existed organized groups of female reformers, they generally did not call for women’s suffrage. Instead, they often asked for a family vote to be exercised by men in the interest of their families.
In 1816, two demonstrations occurred at Spa Fields, London. The first meeting on November 16 drew a crowd of about 10,000 people and was mostly peaceful. This however was never meant to be the main event. The organizers had a larger plot in mind that would have them leading a mob to seize the Tower of London and the Bank of England. However, little did they know that a government spy had been embedded within their little cadre. On December 2, the next gathering was allowed to go ahead even though the government knew of the organizers' intentions. Why? The government knew that tensions were boiling, and they lived in fear of the threat of republicanism. They had wanted to suspend habeas corpus for some time, but needed a good reason, and this would be it. On that day, the conspirators went ahead with their plot, but in reality, what ensued was no more than a disorganized riot poorly led by the organizers, some of whom were drunk. Three of the organizers were charged with treason, and the government happily had justification to suspend habeas corpus. The government could now detain people without charges in defiance of the rights granted by the Magna Carta and the Constitution, and the press, which was integral to the reform movement, was left on very shaky ground.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Section of a political cartoon entitled Liberty suspended! With the Bulwark of the Constitution, by George Cruikshank
Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt, who spoke at the first Spa Fields meeting, was the most renowned speaker of the reform movement. Almost two years later, at St. Peter’s Fields in Manchester, he would draw an even larger crowd. On August 16, 1819, some 60,000 men, women, and children came out to once again show the government the urgency for economic relief and more equitable political representation. There had already been about a dozen mass reform meetings that year, and this meeting, in the northern ‘Capital of Cotton’, was to be the climax.
Families came out in their best Sunday dress armed only with hand-woven flags and banners carrying messages of hope. However peaceful and respectable the assembly may have been, the sheer size of the crowd was unacceptable to the town magistrates. They first sent in the newly-formed Manchester Yeomanry voluntary cavalry, composed of middle-class tradesmen and shopkeepers, to arrest the speakers. Their clumsy and violent foray into the crowd led to chaos and panic ensued. The magistrates now sent in the 15th Hussars, professional soldiers with members who had been present at the Battle of Waterloo, to disperse the crowd. Likewise, there were those among the crowd of demonstrators who had also been present at Waterloo, and at least one would lose his life on this day. ​​​​​​​​​​​
Political cartoon entitled Engraving of A view of St. Peters Place’ Manchester, 1819, by John Slack
The exact number of casualties is unknown, but it is believed that approximately 14-17 people were killed and 400-700 people were injured. People from all levels of society were appalled. So, obviously, change came about quickly afterwards, right? Not exactly. The Six Acts followed in order to squash further attempts at radical reform. One of the acts prohibited groups of 50 or more from meeting. The Corn Laws were not repealed until 1846, while universal suffrage for men continued to be out of reach for decades longer. The government relented in the late 19th century, expanding the vote to some other groups of men, but it was not until 1918 that all men (and women over 30) were given suffrage. ​​
Sources:
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Boughton, John. "Peterloo Massacre." St. James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide, edited by Neil Schlager, vol. 2, St. James Press, 2004, pp. 117-121. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3408900235/GVRL?u=txshracd2598&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=3d76b5d9. Accessed 25 Jan. 2025.
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