tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/peterloo-61220/articlesPeterloo – The Conversation2019-08-16T14:30:28Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1204452019-08-16T14:30:28Z2019-08-16T14:30:28ZPeterloo and Amritsar – 100 years apart but united in the bloody history of Britain’s empire<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288337/original/file-20190816-192215-32ryra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f5/d8/b6/f5d8b609badf5b7eee2e584d08c291c7.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64690394">Published by J.Evans and Sons, 42 Long Lane West, Smithfield.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At St Peter’s Field in Manchester, England on Monday August 16 1819, an estimated 18 men, women and a child were massacred by British cavalry <a href="https://wiganlanebooks.co.uk/books/local-history/the-casualties-of-peterloo-by-michael-bush/">and up to 500 were wounded</a>. “Peterloo” has come to play an important role in working-class, radical and reformist history in Britain – as well as in the history of democracy. </p>
<p>In contrast to Peterloo, there has been little commemoration of the 1919 <a href="https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9780300200355">Amritsar Massacre</a> in Britain – which saw up to 600 men, women and children <a href="https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9780300200355">murdered by the British Indian Army</a> – and another 1,500 to 1,800 wounded. </p>
<p>That Amritsar’s centenary has not received a similar level of attention as Peterloo is unfortunate as to better appreciate British history and understand the country today, it is important to look at the sociopolitical and economic systems that allowed such harms to happen. In this instance, systems that were responsible for producing both Peterloo and the Amritsar Massacre 100 years apart. </p>
<h2>The importance of Peterloo</h2>
<p>The estimated 60,000 people who gathered in Manchester on that day 200 years ago did so to demand parliamentary reform, including the enfranchisement of working-class men – which was regarded as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Peterloo-Massacre">extremely threatening by British elites</a>.</p>
<p>The massacre itself <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/knowledgecentre/arts/history/peterloo/">has been described as</a> “one of the most significant events in modern British history”. And historian Robert Poole has also referred to Peterloo as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-229X.2006.00366.x">Britain’s “Tiananmen Square”</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/peterloo-massacre-how-womens-bravery-helped-change-british-politics-forever-121900">Peterloo massacre: how women’s bravery helped change British politics forever</a>
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<p>As such, the massacre has largely been viewed as a unique event in Britain’s story. But this perspective forms part of a “little island” approach to British history – and ignores what happened in the quarter of the planet that Britain colonised. </p>
<p>For much like Peterloo, the 15,000-20,000 crowd that gathered in <a href="https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9780300200355">Jallianwalla Bagh</a> – an area of land enclosed by high walls – in Amritsar were there to listen to speeches on April 13 1919. These were speeches against the Rowlatt Act – the colonial regime’s attempt to maintain the extraordinary powers it had assumed in India during the First World War.</p>
<p>Most were unaware of General Reginald Dyer’s proclamation earlier that day prohibiting political gatherings. And upon hearing news of the gathering, the general raced over and ordered his troops to fire on the peaceful crowd gathered there – <a href="https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9780300200355">which they continued to do for the next ten minutes</a>. </p>
<p>Hundreds of men, women and children were <a href="https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9780300200355">murdered</a> – and many more were badly wounded. Dyer’s aim was to produce a “sufficient moral effect” to <a href="https://archive.org/details/ape9901.0001.001.umich.edu/page/III">quell dissent against British rule in India</a>. The brutal act followed events in the preceding century ranging from the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/indian_rebellion_01.shtml">Indian Revolt of 1857</a> to the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zZDvBP0ZbnYC&pg=PA212&lpg=PA212&dq=Kuka+outbreak+of+1872&source=bl&ots=mLrHs0yn71&sig=ACfU3U2Z7ZaCipknJDiBr8olNmKyAsusrg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjCrcSMnofkAhXfSBUIHW8VAFkQ6AEwD3oECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=Kuka%20outbreak%20of%201872&f=false">Kuka outbreak of 1872</a> – both of which saw violence perpetrated by the British in India.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288339/original/file-20190816-192262-10b87gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288339/original/file-20190816-192262-10b87gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288339/original/file-20190816-192262-10b87gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288339/original/file-20190816-192262-10b87gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288339/original/file-20190816-192262-10b87gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288339/original/file-20190816-192262-10b87gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288339/original/file-20190816-192262-10b87gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bullet Marks at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre sit in Amritsar, Punjab.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">pankajmallik/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Despite the horrific bloodletting of the Amritsar Massacre, the wide range of commentary and debate about it at the time and the fact that – like Peterloo – 2019 marks an important anniversary there has been little remembrance <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/12/britain-amritsar-massacre-centenary-1919-india">of it in Britain</a>. A notable exception is the exhibition “Jallianwala Bagh 1919: Punjab under Siege”, at the <a href="https://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/upcomingexhibitions/jallianwalabagh/">Manchester Museum</a>. </p>
<p>When the Amritsar Massacre does attract attention, <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2019-02-19/debates/6F489A36-E564-4AB5-ABE5-70F259DFBAA3/AmritsarMassacreCentenary%20Feb%2019">the primary focus</a> is on <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2019-04-09/debates/A5FB9CDE-F333-46BB-9336-5F9C9500726B/JallianwalaBaghMassacre">whether or not Britain should apologise for it</a>. But such an apology would only serve to exonerate empire by reducing imperial violence to an act committed by one man. The Amritsar Massacre was not, as such demands for an apology suggest, either an exceptional nor aberrant aspect of <a href="https://archive.cartoons.ac.uk/GetMultimedia.ashx?db=Catalog&type=default&fname=LSE6183.jpg">British colonial rule</a> –- as critics at the time were well aware.</p>
<h2>A new understanding</h2>
<p>There are many reasons, of course, that the UK commemorates and remembers Peterloo less so events such as the Amritsar Massacre. One is the need to purge problematic aspects of a national history. Peterloo has been incorporated into the national history as an example of the country’s rocky but ultimately triumphal march to democracy, but no such claim can be made for the Amritsar Massacre. Yet incorporating events such as the Amritsar Massacre, as well as the wider history of empire, into British history is vital for understanding modern Britain. The UK must begin constructing a national history that includes the reality of its imperial past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120445/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deana Heath does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Peterloo massacre was one of the worst atrocities committed on British soil, but across the empire there were many such acts.Deana Heath, Senior Lecturer in Indian and Colonial History, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1219002019-08-15T17:58:24Z2019-08-15T17:58:24ZPeterloo massacre: how women’s bravery helped change British politics forever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288148/original/file-20190815-136180-17z59nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Print of the Peterloo Massacre published by Richard Carlile in 1819.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/6045102539">Flickr/ManchesterArchives</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>St. Peter’s Fields in Manchester: the <a href="http://www.peterloomassacre.org/history.html">year is 1819</a>, and a crowd of around 60,000 peaceful pro-democracy and antipoverty protesters have gathered to hear radical speaker <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Hunt">Henry Hunt</a> call for parliamentary reform. What should have been a peaceful appeal, ends with an estimated <a href="https://wiganlanebooks.co.uk/books/local-history/the-casualties-of-peterloo-by-michael-bush/">18 dead and hundreds injured</a>. </p>
<p>This was a time in Britain’s history when most people didn’t have the vote and many regarded the parliamentary system – which was based on <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/getting_vote.htm">property ownership and heavily weighted towards the south of England</a> – as unrepresentative and unfair. Factory workers had very few rights and most of them worked in appalling conditions. </p>
<p>As Hunt began his speech, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-45563005">the order was given</a> for him to be arrested. After he had given himself up and again urged the crowd to order, the volunteer Manchester Yeomanry Cavalry attacked the platform, the flags, and those around with sabres, while special constables weighed in with truncheons. A charge into the panicking crowd by the 15th Hussars completed the rout. </p>
<p>As well as an attack on the working classes, Peterloo was also an episode of violence against women. According to the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Casualties-Peterloo-Professor-Michael-Bush/dp/1859361250">historian Michael Bush</a>, women formed perhaps one in eight of the crowd, but more than a quarter of those injured. They were not only twice as likely as men to be injured, but also more likely to be injured by truncheons and sabres. </p>
<p>This was no accident, for female reformers formed part of the guard for the flags and banners on the platform, which were attacked and seized by the Manchester Yeomanry cavalry as soon as Henry Hunt had been arrested. But how did the women come to be in such an exposed position and why were they attacked without quarter? </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288144/original/file-20190815-136208-12od21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The hostile ‘Belle Alliance’ cartoon of female reformers (July 1819) by George Cruikshank.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/join_in/using_digital_images/using_digital_images.aspx?asset_id=177501001&objectId=1648229&partId=1">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p><a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/protest-democracy-1818-1820/female-reformers/">The female reform societies</a> of Lancashire were a novelty, formed in the summer of 1819 in the weeks before the great Manchester meeting of August 16. They were not asking for votes for women, but they were claiming the vote for families, and a say in how that vote was cast. In an address which was to have been presented on the platform at Peterloo, The Manchester Female Reformers declared that “as wives, mothers, daughters, in their social, domestic, moral capacities, they come forward in support of the sacred cause of liberty”. </p>
<p>They were there supporting their husbands, fathers and sons in the struggle for a radical reform of parliament. They took care to be feminine, but not what we would call feminists, yet they stretched the boundaries of femininity to breaking point and, in the eyes of government loyalists, renounced their right to special treatment. </p>
<p>More provocative still, parties of female reformers on reforming platforms presented flags and caps of liberty to the male reform leaders. The cap of liberty had been the symbol of revolution in France, but on the Manchester Reformers’ flag it was carried by the figure of Britannia, as shown on English coinage until the 1790s.</p>
<p>This ceremony took the patriotic ritual of women presenting colours to military regiments and adapted it to radical ends. The Manchester Female Reformers planned to proclaim: </p>
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<p>May our flag never be unfurled but in the cause of peace and reform, and then may a female’s curse pursue the coward who deserts the standard.</p>
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<p>At previous meetings, the authorities had been unable to capture the radical colours and had suffered some humiliating rebuffs. The volunteer Yeomanry at Manchester were determined to reverse these defeats. When he heard the women would be on the platform again at Manchester, the Bolton magistrate and spymaster Colonel Fletcher wrote privately that such meetings “ought to be suppressed, even though in such suppression, a vigour beyond the strict letter of the law may be used in so doing”. With Fletcher looking on, this was exactly what happened at Peterloo. </p>
<h2>‘Women beaten to the ground by truncheons’</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-369224">Mary Fildes</a>, president of the Manchester Female Reformers, <a href="https://spartacus-educational.com/PRfields.htm">is depicted in prints</a> waving a radical flag from the front of the platform as the troops attack. She guarded her flag until the last minute, then jumped from the platform, catching her white dress on a nail and being cut by a sabre as she struggled to get free. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1183&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1183&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288158/original/file-20190815-136203-1096zjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1183&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cropped version of ‘Britons strike home’ (August 1819) by George Cruikshank.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/join_in/using_digital_images/using_digital_images.aspx?asset_id=62823001&objectId=1503463&partId=1">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>As she ran, she was beaten to the ground by a special constable who seized her embroidered handkerchief-flag, and then dodged another sabre blow and escaped into hiding for the next fortnight – although badly wounded she survived and continued to campaign for the vote.</p>
<p>Others were arrested in her stead and detained for days without trial in wretched conditions. One of them, <a href="https://phm.org.uk/blogposts/the-women-of-peterloo/">Elizabeth Gaunt</a>, suffered a miscarriage afterwards – her unborn child is listed as one of the victims of Peterloo on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49333004">the new memorial in Manchester</a>. </p>
<p>George Cruikshank’s <a href="https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-peterloo-massacre">famous graphic images</a> of troops attacking defenceless women and children formed the enduring image of Peterloo in the public mind. After this propaganda disaster, next time round, in 1832, the government dared not risk sending in troops against unarmed crowds of reformers gathered in cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. The House of Lords backed down at the third time of asking and the <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/houseofcommons/reformacts/overview/reformact1832/">Great Reform Act</a> was passed.</p>
<p>Behind Britain’s famous long history of gradual reform lay the shock of Peterloo. And behind the granting of the franchise to more men lay the bravery of women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Poole is affiliated with the Peterloo Memorial Campaign <a href="http://www.peterloomassacre.org">www.peterloomassacre.org</a> </span></em></p>As well as an attack on the working classes, Peterloo was also an episode of violence against women.Robert Poole, Professor of History, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1143292019-03-27T14:43:12Z2019-03-27T14:43:12ZPeople’s Vote march: when it comes to crowds, history shows it’s not all about size<p>The recent People’s Vote march demanding another say on Brexit in London has re-opened the debate about attendance figures which surfaces every time there is a mass protest. The argument hinges on a correlation between magnitude and success – protesters <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47678763">claim a million people marched</a> while others have sought to <a href="https://fullfact.org/europe/peoples-vote-march-count/">discredit such claims</a>. But my ongoing research into 19th-century crowds who demanded electoral and social reform suggests that attendance figures play a much smaller part in the impact of mass protest than the impression of the power they symbolise.</p>
<p>During a crisis over British political reform in 1831-32, a series of meetings were held at Newhall Hill, a disused sandstone quarry in Birmingham. At stake was a conversation about extending the right to vote and the entitlement of industrial cities to return MPs to Westminster. </p>
<p>Birmingham was part of the constituency of Warwickshire where just 400 men were entitled vote. An alliance between an empowered working class and an aspirational middle class came together to lobby for radical change. The Birmingham Political Union, led by politically astute banker Thomas Attwood spearheaded the Newhall Hill meetings – the first of which, <a href="http://calmview.birmingham.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=AX%2f309%2fVol.10%2f64660&pos=4">held on October 3, 1831</a> to “Petition the Lords to Pass the Reform Bill”, claimed an attendance of 80,000.</p>
<p>At Westminster, the traditional party dichotomy between Whigs and Tories at the time was exacerbated by internal party divisions about whether and how to achieve reform. The situation was not dissimilar to today’s constitutional crisis over Brexit, though there were undeniable differences. In 1832, for example, the impasse was between the Lords and the Commons, rather than between the government and parliament. At one point, during what’s been called the “May Days” crisis of 1832, King William IV accepted the resignation of the prime minister, Charles Grey, in favour of the Tory Duke of Wellington only to reappoint him two days later without an election even taking place.</p>
<p>Newhall Hill attendance was <a href="http://calmview.birmingham.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=AX%2f309%2fVol.10%2f64665&pos=9%20%20%20%20http://calmview.birmingham.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=AX%2f309%2fVol.10%2f64661&pos=1">reported</a> as 100,000 on May 10 and an implausible 150,000 on May 7. A final meeting on May 16 to celebrate Grey’s reinstatement was said to have drawn <a href="http://calmview.birmingham.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=AX%2f309%2fVol.10%2f64663&pos=6">50,000</a>. Then, as now, these figures were challenged, with <a href="https://openlibrary.org/works/OL97971W/James_Mill_and_the_art_of_revolution">magistrates suggesting</a> a maximum capacity of 30,000. My ongoing PhD research roughly corroborates this at nearer 40,000.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266073/original/file-20190327-139374-1mdn0n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266073/original/file-20190327-139374-1mdn0n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266073/original/file-20190327-139374-1mdn0n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266073/original/file-20190327-139374-1mdn0n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266073/original/file-20190327-139374-1mdn0n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266073/original/file-20190327-139374-1mdn0n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266073/original/file-20190327-139374-1mdn0n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A meeting of the Birmingham Political Union during May 1832 at Newhall Hill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_May#/media/File:Benjamin_Haydon_-_Meeting_of_the_Birmingham_Political_Union.jpg">Benjamin Haydon via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>But regardless of figures, the Newhall Hill meetings were perceived to be persuasive demonstrations of power. They were acknowledged by Grey as having been influential during the reform crisis, and historian E P Thompson <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Aoapz_ry-BkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=making+of+the+english+working+class&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjH4vyhm6LhAhVMVRUIHd3ZA8gQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=immense%20assemblages&f=false">attributed</a> the “triumph” of the 1832 Reform Bill at least in part to the “well-ordered proceedings, extended organisation, and immense assemblages of people” in Birmingham. </p>
<p>But the victory was a Pyrrhic one. Although Attwood was subsequently returned to parliament as one of two MPs for the newly created Birmingham constituency, the Reform Act failed to deliver the vote to the ordinary working man as only those with property could vote. Further acts of parliament in 1867 and 1884 gradually extended the franchise until finally <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-study-the-right-to-vote/the-right-to-vote/birmingham-and-the-equal-franchise/1928-equal-franchise-act/">in 1928</a>, all men and women over 21 had the vote. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-brexit-brought-britains-constitution-to-the-brink-114239">How Brexit brought Britain's constitution to the brink</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Power of anticipation</h2>
<p>At other times during the struggle for electoral reform the power of the crowd was paramount. It’s been 200 years since the Peterloo massacre, as depicted in Mike Leigh’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4614612/">recent film</a>. Again, the reported figures for the crowd were contentious and <a href="https://www.academia.edu/29592399/An_examination_of_the_crowd_size_at_the_Peterloo_Massacre_QRS_Essay">my ongoing research</a> suggests that attendance may have been 35,000 rather than the 60,000 recorded. This means the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hL4zAAAACAAJ&dq=michael+bush,+the+casualties+of+peterloo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjM69z1pKLhAhWCsXEKHZT0DCgQ6AEIKDAA">654 recorded injuries and 17 deaths</a> represent a higher percentage of the total than previously thought. But the fact that the country is still talking about Peterloo 200 years later demonstrates the extent of penetration of the political power it signified.</p>
<p>The anticipation of a large crowd can be just as powerful as the aftermath. The Great Chartist Meeting at Kennington Common on April 10, 1848 was expected to be such a serious threat that the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4swKO3M8iO8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=chase+chartism+a+new+history&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwis1v_apaLhAhXwShUIHYZnA2kQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=solent&f=false">Royal Family was evacuated to the Isle of Wight</a>. London was subjected to a military lockdown with 8,000 troops billeted to defend key buildings with provisions laid-in for a ten-day siege. There were 4,000 police on hand to defend the bridges and 80,000 special constables were enlisted. </p>
<p>This show of force may have been the reason why the attendance didn’t meet expectations which by my calculation didn’t exceed 25,000, meaning the Chartists were seriously outnumbered. But they managed to convince the state that their arguments had a seriously potent reach. Although most of them didn’t live to see their objectives realised, within 80 years all but one of their <a href="http://www.chartistancestors.co.uk/six-points/">six points</a> had been achieved.</p>
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<p>Today, as in the 19th century, the vote is not the only way ordinary people engage with national decisions and hold leaders to account. Marching collectively in shows of power such as the People’s Vote march continues a long tradition of orderly mass protest asserting legitimate demands via the power of political persuasion. But focusing on whether attendance reached one million is missing the point. Just as in the 19th century, modern political crowds are demanding to have their voices heard by the legislature.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Dave Steele does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lessons from the British 19th century protests over electoral reform about the significance of crowd sizes.Dr Dave Steele, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1054152018-10-22T13:34:41Z2018-10-22T13:34:41ZMike Leigh’s Peterloo: a worthy film that’s long on detail and short on drama<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241607/original/file-20181022-105767-oyf2bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sill from Peterloo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cornerstone Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Labour MP Chris Williamson certainly seems to have enjoyed Mike Leigh’s new film Peterloo, which recreates the 1819 massacre in St Peter’s Field in Manchester. Williamson, the <a href="https://www.totalpolitics.com/articles/diary/chris-williamson-gets-talked-future-labour-leader-nec-results-land">Corbynite member for Derby North</a> quoted in his enthusiastic tweet the Shelley poem, <a href="https://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/Classic%20Poems/Shelley/the_mask_of_anarchy.htm">The Mask of Anarchy</a>. Shelley wrote it to commemorate the massacre during which 15 people were killed and an estimated 700 injured when armed yeomanry attacked 60,000 peaceful pro-democracy and anti-poverty protesters.</p>
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<p>Williamson is a keen supporter of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party – one that celebrates proletarian struggle and solidarity, even when it has sometimes led to conflict. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, infamously described the violent student protests of 2010 as “<a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/politics/parties/labour/uncovered-john-mcdonnell-praises-2010-riots/">the best of our movement</a>”. So it was always likely that Peterloo, a film about the bloody suppression of a popular demonstration would find favour on the left.</p>
<p>But when Leigh announced in April 2015 he was making a film about Peterloo, Corbyn was an obscure backbench MP fighting to retain his seat in that year’s general election campaign. The 2015 contest saw voters elect the first majority Conservative government in more than 20 years, with a mandate to continue to implement austerity measures. Leigh’s film has been released in a transformed context – having come <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/general-election-2017-38466">close to winning the 2017 election</a> with his promise to end austerity, Corbyn is widely believed to have reset the political agenda. And his mantra, “the many not the few” is clearly inspired by Shelley’s poem.</p>
<p>Leigh himself is reserved about what message should be derived from his film – at the Manchester premiere <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-manchester-45897596/peterloo-massacre-movie-s-manchester-premiere">on October 17</a> he confined himself to vaguely noting that the film is: “Relevant to so much that is going on.”</p>
<h2>Forgotten massacre?</h2>
<p>It is striking how marginal a place Peterloo plays in popular accounts of Britain’s democratisation. The film <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/17/the-peterloo-massacre-and-history-lessons-that-echo-through-the-ages">sparked a debate</a> about whether – and how – the massacre should be included in school history curricula. Meanwhile there is little evidence, beyond a small red plaque, to remind visitors to St Peter’s Square that they are on the site of the massacre.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241611/original/file-20181022-105779-ip91mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241611/original/file-20181022-105779-ip91mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241611/original/file-20181022-105779-ip91mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241611/original/file-20181022-105779-ip91mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241611/original/file-20181022-105779-ip91mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241611/original/file-20181022-105779-ip91mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241611/original/file-20181022-105779-ip91mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241611/original/file-20181022-105779-ip91mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A new red plaque replaced the old blue memorial in 2007 and is more explicit about events of August 1819.</span>
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</figure>
<p>Before its release some critics on the right of the political spectrum expressed fears that Leigh’s Peterloo would be a left-wing “<a href="https://unherd.com/2018/09/peterloo-disgrace-little-democracy/">fake history</a>”. But few historians could criticise the film for inaccuracy: as a period drama its attention to surface detail is scrupulous. And substantively it presents a sober version of the past – Leigh reproduces (at some length) some of the key speeches of the time. This unfortunately makes the film feel longer that even its 154 minutes. Explanation of background issues such as <em>Habeas Corpus</em> and the Corn Laws is especially laboured. There are also too many characters – as Leigh squeezes as much historical detail as possible into the film. It feels hard to care too much about any of them. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the almost complete absence of a soundtrack is presumably meant to contribute to the film’s seriousness – but unfortunately it only further undermines the film’s its impact as a drama.</p>
<h2>Political subtext</h2>
<p>Leigh does use his film to express a point of view but it is hardly controversial. He depicts an unfair society, one in which the Duke of Wellington receives government largesse for winning the Battle of Waterloo – while a soldier who fought under his command is shown as being rewarded with PTSD, unemployment and finally a yeoman’s sword in the belly for protesting about his fate. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241601/original/file-20181022-105751-hsme8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241601/original/file-20181022-105751-hsme8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241601/original/file-20181022-105751-hsme8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241601/original/file-20181022-105751-hsme8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241601/original/file-20181022-105751-hsme8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241601/original/file-20181022-105751-hsme8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241601/original/file-20181022-105751-hsme8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241601/original/file-20181022-105751-hsme8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Massacre of Peterloo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">George Cruickshank</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Leigh makes it hard not to feel contempt for those Manchester magistrates and government ministers whose careless and callous disregard for the humanity of people calling for reform led to the Massacre. But few historians would say he got that call wrong – society in the years after Waterloo was hardly an egalitarian Utopia. </p>
<p>Even so, Leigh’s film shows the massacre as a cock up rather than a conscious act. The crowd did not hear the reading of the Riot Act which meant they did not know they had to disperse. But, that said, he certainly doesn’t spare the audience the full horror of the cavalry charge which concludes the film.</p>
<p>If Leigh treats the past with perhaps too much respect to make a compelling drama, others have been less scrupulous. Fearing Corbynites would use the film to further their attack on capitalism, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-6092853/DOMINIC-SANDBROOK-says-attempts-blame-Peterloo-Massacre-capitalism-twisted-history.html">Dominic Sandbrook</a>, the Daily Mail’s favourite historian, even doubted Peterloo could be described as a “massacre”. </p>
<p>Meanwhile <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/read-jeremy-corbyn-speech-full-13311639">Corbyn’s speech</a> at the Labour Party conference in September made great play on the associations of his movement with the legacy of the event, noting that it was an uncaring Tory government that sent in the troops. </p>
<p>Perhaps some Corbynites really do imagine Theresa May as a modern-day Lord Liverpool and her government as uncaring and oppressive as his. But someone should tell <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/06/13/how-britain-voted-2017-general-election/">the 44% of working-class voters</a> who backed the Conservatives in 2017 despite Corbyn’s call to end austerity. Such voters will decide whether Labour will win the next election or not, and they appear not to be much moved by the romance of proletarian struggle be it in the past or present.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105415/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Fielding is a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p>As a left-wing rallying cry, this account of the 1819 massacre in Manchester fails to rouse the inner revolutionary.Steven Fielding, Professor of Political History, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.