Page 52 - All About History - Issue 180-19
P. 52
l egacy of Peterloo
dR ShiRin hiRSCh words, with the genuine threat of imprisonment means that many of these objects from the reform
movement have now been lost or destroyed.
hanging over radicals in this period. It was only
Researcher at the People’s in 1832, after Shelley’s death, that the poem was
history museum and first published. Out of the ashes of Peterloo and What do you feel Peterloo can teach us
lecturer at manchester following the Great Reform Act of 1832 a new about modern protest?
metropolitan University working class movement emerged with the The protestors who met at St Peter’s Field
Chartists and they would continue the struggle powerfully represented the real communities of
The Disrupt? Peterloo and Protest for voting rights that had been violently repressed Manchester and its surrounding towns and villages.
exhibition at People’s History Museum at Peterloo. There were many women on the demonstration,
(PHM) is putting the Peterloo Massacre and they often led their sections into the march.
at the heart of a conversation about Did the crackdown have a lasting effect Women were critical to the reform movement yet,
protest and collective action. Why was on the memory of Peterloo? just as now, they were mocked and targeted as they
that important? Ordinary people continued to keep the memory stepped out of their role as wives and mothers.
At People’s History Museum (PHM) we wanted to of Peterloo alive. There were a huge number of Peterloo teaches us that the campaign for women’s
remember the Peterloo Massacre as a critical event protestors, around 60,000, who had witnessed rights did not simply begin with the suffragettes.
in modern Britain. But we also wanted to connect the massacre and they refused to forget. In our But the Peterloo Massacre also tells us that rights
Peterloo with the present and future of protest collections and galleries at PHM, and now on we have today, like the vote, were never simply
and collective action – rather than just a history show in our exhibition Disrupt? Peterloo and given to us by enlightened governments. Instead,
lesson we wanted to think about how Peterloo Protest, we hold many of these commemorative these rights were campaigned for by ordinary
influenced and inspired a much longer history of artefacts: handkerchiefs, jugs, flags and medals all people, sometimes in dangerous circumstances
protest and resistance. made to continue the memory of Peterloo. But the amidst the brutality of the British government.
repression that followed the massacre certainly
Did Peterloo set the stage for further
protests for voting rights in the years Disrupt? Peterloo and Protest is running at
that followed? “PeTerloo Teaches us ThaT The PHM until 23 February 2020 with artefacts
brought together for the
In the years following the massacre the
government cracked down on protest. When Percy camPaign for women’s righTs first time. The museum
Bysshe Shelley heard of the massacre, he penned is open seven days a
week, entry is free
the poem The Masque Of Anarchy, powerfully did noT simPly begin wiTh with a suggested
indicting those who were responsible. Yet Shelley donation of £5
could not find a publisher brave enough to print his The suffrageTTes”
Thanks to Manchester being at the heart
of the economic transformation of Britain
it was also a hotbed of energised citizens
looking to make their voices heard
Henry Hunt was a popular
orator for the cause of
parliamentary reform. He
was arrested at Peterloo
and jailed for two years
