Left-Wing and the 'Other' History: The Peterloo Massacre

As of writing, it has just been two-hundred years since one of the most important events in radical British history: the Peterloo Massacre. Four years after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo a crowd of 60,000 met at a political meeting in St. Peter's Field in Manchester to campaign for political suffrage - what happened was that the crowd was stormed by the British military. Later called 'Peterloo' it became an integral sticking point in British working-class history, and two-hundred years later it remains an important part of British history. 

Before Peterloo

Jacobin imagery

Britain was going through great change before the mass meeting in St. Peter's Field. Since the eighteenth-century there had been protests and debates about reforming parliament. As late as 1831 the voting population was restricted to wealthy, property owning men which amounted to around 200,000 people. Constituencies varied in size, and resulted in overtly corrupt systems where Yorkshire, with a population of 20,000, had the same representation in parliament as Rutland with a population of 1,000. Most famously, there were the 'rotten boroughs' where insanely small constituencies had greater representation than some of the larger cities, including Manchester - Gatton had a population of just 6 but had two MPs. These debates became popular during the American Revolution, but exploded after the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789. When Britain declared war on Revolutionary France in 1793 there were fears that revolutionary fervour would spread to Britain. Habeas corpus was suspended, and the Treasonable Practices Act and Seditious Meetings Act were passed restricting organisational attempts for both reformist and radical groups. Many were forced underground and a thriving radical culture emerged - symbols of the French Revolution were used to signify allegiance, most notable a Jacobin red cap on a 'liberty tree'. The ideas of Thomas Paine, especially The Rights of Man (1791), were heavily censored for advocating republicanism and individual liberty - Paine was trialled in absentia for 'seditious libel' against Edmund Burke. Even after republicanism gave way to empire under Napoleon, and the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 at Waterloo these restrictions continued.

From 1800 to 1815 plots and protests occurred which made the established classes fearful. In 1799 Irish rebels rose up, alongside a failed French invasion, to bring about an independent Ireland, and in 1802 Colonel Edward Despard was executed for supposedly being involved with a plot to assassinate the king. In 1812 it became hysterical when prime minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated; despite the assassin, John Bellingham, assassinated Perceval for having his compensation being rejected it made politicians fearful of a Jacobin plot. Beginning during the Napoleonic Wars, and especially after Napoleon's defeat, economic issues fed into political issues. The rise of industrialisation, which you can read about here, meant that machines began replacing people in the emerging factory system. During the war this was less of an issue, war needed increased textile production and men were needed for the military so jobs were plentiful, but this changed after. The end of the war caused an economic crash, wages dropped from 15 shillings in 1803 to just 4 in 1817, and mechanisation meant that there were fewer jobs creating mass unemployment. Food prices rose for two reasons: the first, in 1815 Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted causing a 'Year without Summer' wiping out crops in Europe, and second, the controversial Corn Laws prevented the importation of food from continental Europe and the Americas to protect British grain. When people were impoverished and hungry they also begin to see how they are politically oppressed. The 'Luddites' began smashing mills in northern England, and in 1817 5,000 weavers aimed to march from Manchester to London to petition the Prince Regent to repeal the repressive laws and to help impoverished textile workers. Particularly violent protests, such as the Luddites, encouraged fearful politicians to send the military to 'restore order'; thousands were sent to Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. 

Politics and Activism

Henry Hunt

Politics took many forms in the immediate few years after Waterloo. The most common were the secret societies, like the Hampden Club, and the mass printing of radical papers, such as the Political Register. These groups and papers intended to organise masses of working-class people in order to co-ordinate peaceful campaigns. The shadow of the French Revolution loomed large over the heads of those campaigning for change, and although there were violent protests and societies, the oppressive state laws meant that the hint of violence would encourage state repression. The Blanketeers were the ones organising the march from Manchester, and their leaders were arrested for apparent sedition after accusations that they would enforce democracy 'sword in hand'. More than often the government encouraged agents provocateurs to provoke sedition and violence to give an excuse to arrest protest leaders - this happened with the Blanketeers. A common form of protest was the mass meeting with famous orators giving speeches. These mass protests were meant to attract huge crowds to awe authorities, and the papers were integral to attracting people to these protests. Papers were read by more people who bought it as people shared papers or read it out loud. One of the most noted orators was Henry Hunt, literally nicknamed the 'Orator', whose fiery speeches enchanted crowds.

What were people campaigning for? There were two main points: the Corn Laws and universal male suffrage. These issues were not viewed by radicals as being two separate issues, they were instead viewed as intertwined. The working-classes were oppressed economically, thanks to the Corn Laws, and politically, for the lack of representation. Across the country there were Patriotic Union Societies, of which the Manchester Patriotic Union Societies was one of the largest, aimed to generate support for universal male suffrage. Women were integral to this movement. Mary File helped form the Manchester Female Patriotic Union which became a driving force in Manchester's campaign for universal male suffrage. It has been questioned why figures like Mary File did not campaign for women's suffrage as well. Jacqueline Riding has argued that thanks to gender ideas in the early-1800s politics were seen, even among radical women, as a male domain, but universal male suffrage was seen as representing the family. If the husband had the vote it was seen as giving the entire family the vote.

The Peterloo Massacre

A large meeting was planned in Manchester to take place in August to encourage support for universal male suffrage. Among some of the speakers planned to talk were Henry Hunt and, showing the more radical nature of the meeting, Mary File. Quoting R.J. White the mass meeting intended at St. Peter's Field 'was the culmination of many years of political education...the point at which Parliamentary Reform came of age as a popular programme'. Through advertisements through papers including The Manchester Observer attracted over 60,000 people making it the largest political gathering in Britain to that time. Local businesses were worried about 60,000 radicals gathering to Manchester considering the city's population was around double that normally. However, as argued by White 'They were peaceable, they were orderly, and they knew what they wanted'. Hunt himself was well-known for refusing to appear at meetings where violence had the slimmest of chances of breaking out. The large presence of women and children at the meeting shows both their political engagement, and how violence was not viewed to be possible; it was seen as an acceptable meeting place for families. Even reporters from the conservative Times newspaper attended. However, trouble was in the air thanks to the presence of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry supported by the Hussars. Clive Emsley has argued that the presence of the Yeomanry was tantamount to class warfare with them being millowners, or the sons of millowners, only being trained for a month. Naturally, these wealthy and middle-class members of the Yeomanry were opposed to the demands of the radicals. That is if the radicals could actually speak. As soon as Hunt got on stage to speak the crowd erupted into cheers making the armed forces fearful.

The Yeomanry attempted to arrest Hunt and the other speakers, but the crowd linked arms to prevent the mounted militia from seizing the speakers. They panicked and the Peterloo Massacre began. A myth originated that it was just the Yeomanry which attacked the crowd, but in reality the Hussars also attacked the protesters. Lieutenant Jolliffe of the Hussars later wrote 'nine out of ten of the sabre wounds were caused by the Hussars...however, the far greater amount of injuries were from the pressure of the routed multitude'. Wanting to get quickly to the speakers the Yeomanry and Hussars used their sabres against the crowd, or alternatively rode over protesters; as the speakers were dressed in white they stood out against the crowd. Between sabre slashes, horses, and panicking crowds hundreds were injured. Quoting Samuel Banford, one of those later imprisoned for his involvement in organising the mass meeting:

The cavalry were in confusion: they evidently could not, with all the weight of man and horse, penetrate that compact mass of human beings and their sabres were plied to hew a way through naked held-up hands and defenceless heads; and then chopped limbs and wound-gaping skulls were seen; and groans and cries were mingled with the din of that horrid confusion.

Many females appeared as the crowd opened; and striplings or mere youths also were found. Their cries were piteous and heart-rending, and would, one might have supposed, have disarmed any human resentment: but here their appeals were in vain.

In ten minutes from the commencement of the havoc the field was an open and almost deserted space. The sun looked down through sultry and motionless air. The curtains and blinds of the windows within view were all closed.

We do not exactly know how many casualties the cavalry charge caused because those injured were often too scared to seek medical care in case that would show that they attended the meeting. Those officially recorded as being injured are at 654 persons, of which 168 were women. There were 18 confirmed deaths, although, as mentioned earlier, there may be much more as people feared to say they were part of the meeting. Among the deaths were four women - Mary Heys was a mother, disabled, and heavily pregnant, and she died thanks to the premature birth of her child caused by the attack. The youngest death, and also the first, was two-year old William Fildes who was killed when his mother was struck by a trooper. The most famous death was that of John Lees, a veteran of Waterloo who was sabred by a trooper.

Aftermath

The events at St. Peter's Field shook British society. The leading radicals in Manchester were arrested, but this did not limit radical demands. Henry Hunt read out Thomas Paine at his trial for seditious libel as court cases were published in verbatim, so now people could widely access a censored radical work. An embarrassed establishment tried to limit a potential backlash for the trooper attack, such as passing the 'Six Acts' which tried to prevent future uprisings, or limit the spread of radical ideas by gagging the press and their authors. This did not prevent the press naming the events of the day as the 'Peterloo Massacre' - just four years after Waterloo people argued that it was a 'domestic battle'. Quoting White, 'the Radical cause was to make grateful use of cheap engravings which depicted ferociously-whiskered cavalrymen prancing with flashing swords above heaps of prostrate men and women'. The images of Peterloo were spread around Britain, and typical in British political campaigning commemorative items, like badges, were produced to spread the word. Famous poet, and husband of Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote a poem to honour those killed:

I met Murder on the way—
He had a mask like Castlereagh—
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:
All were fat; and well they might
Be in admirable plight,
For one by one, and two by two,
He tossed them human hearts to chew
Which from his wide cloak he drew.

Making matters worse for the ruling Tory establishment Peterloo was criticised by even conservative forces in the country, including Lieutenant Jolliffe and The Times, which emboldened the opposing liberal Whigs to also start campaigning. Meanwhile, anger over Peterloo became a lesson for the armed rebellions which would take over the next year. In 1820 uprisings were planned, or defeated, in Yorkshire and Glasgow, and the 'Cato Street Plot' was discovered - a plot to kill the prime minister and cabinet. Radical demands continued regardless. To honour Peterloo the Manchester Guardian was founded to offer a radical or liberal voice, since then it has evolved into the centre-left Guardian. Debates and riots over suffrage continued until the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832, although it would take until 1918 for universal suffrage to fully be implemented. Manchester quickly elected radical and Anti-Corn Law politicians to parliament, Peterloo remained a key part of Manchester's memory.

Legacy

As argued by R.L. White, 'It marked the point of final conversion of provincial England to the doctrine of "First Things First"...the people were to stand with ever greater fortitude behind the great movement'. When social change was needed great movements inspired by Peterloo continued throughout British history. The Chartist movement, which also campaigned for universal male suffrage, was directly inspired by the actions of the Manchester Patriotic Union, and Henry Hunt was an influential early Chartist. Manchester has remained one of the key areas of working-class radicalism even up to this day - Friedrich Engels lived in Manchester for most of his life partially for this reason. From the Radical War to the Anti-Iraq War protests, how Britain protests and how the state reacts can be traced to Peterloo.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-R.J. White, Waterloo to Peterloo, (London: 1963)

-M.L. Bush, The Casualties of Peterloo, (Lancaster: 2005)

-Michael Demson and Regina Hewitt, (eds.), Commemorating Peterloo: Violence, Resilience and Claim-making during the Romantic Era, (Edinburgh: 2019)

-'The Peterloo Massacre', In Our Time, BBC, (15/12/2005)

-Robert Poole, '"By the Law or the Sword": Peterloo Revisited', History, 91:302, 254-276

-'E15: The Peterloo Massacre with Mike Leigh', Working-Class History, (16/01/2019)

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