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Timeline of events
1795 Treasonable Practices Act 1795 Seditious Meetings Bill 1799-1800 Combination Acts 1815 Spa Fields Riots 1816 William Cobetts Letter to
the Luddites 1817 Habeas Corpus Act
Suspended 1817 March of the Blanketeers 1817 Pentridge Uprising 1819 Peterloo Massacre 1820 Cato Street Conspiracy 1830 General Election called on
the coronation of a new monarch
PETERLOO MASSACRE CARTOON DRAWN BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK IN 1819 AS BRITISH HISTORY ASSIGNMENT 5/11/15
The Peterloo Massacre of 1918
Social Unrest in Britain Overview 1815-1820 By Queena Lee
Leading Figures at Peterloo Henry Orator Hunt (left) and Joseph Johnson (Right) were the
leading figures at the Peterloo Massacre. Johnson was responsible for organizing the meeting and Hunt spoke at the event and was
subsequently arrested for his actions.
Map of Peterloo This map shows the extent of appeal for the Peterloo Massacre. Many came from all over North England to support the meeting.
On the 16th of August 1819 the huge open area around what's now St Peters Square, Manchester, played host to an outrage against over 60,000 peaceful pro-democracy and anti-poverty protesters; an event which became known as The Peterloo Massacre.
After a quiet year in 1818 due to an improvement in trade and the previous years good harvest, 1819 brought a huge slump in exports and a return to unemployment. Pressure was being generated by poor economic conditions, coupled with the relative lack of suffrage in Northern England. In response, the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating for parliamentary reform, organised a demonstration to be addressed by the well-known radical orator Henry Hunt (shown below).
About 60,000 men, women and children turned up to the meeting, and although many carried radical banners, they were not armed and there was no disorder or violence. The magistrates had allowed the meeting to begin with. However, there were troops standing by in case of trouble.
Shortly after the meeting began local magistrates called on the military authorities to arrest Hunt and several others while Hunt was delivering his speech. Cavalry charged into the crowd with swords drawn, and in the ensuing massacre, 11 people were killed and 400 people were injured. In fact 161 of those that were injured had sabre wounds. The massacre was given the name Peterloo in an ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier.
Hunt was released on bail but this soon sprouted protests from all over the country. The government, afraid that the country was on the verge of revolution passed the Six Gagging Acts that tightened up on restrictions on Radical activity.
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DRAWING OF THE EVENT
This drawing depicts the Spa Fields Riots. It shows the huge unrest that followed Hunts speech at the event.
March of the Blanketeers 1817
The Spa Fields Riots was public disorder arising out of mass meetings at Spa Fields, Islington, England on 15 November and 2 December 1816. Revolutionary Spenceans, who opposed the British government, had planned to encourage rioting and then seize control of the government by taking the Tower of London and the Bank of England. The main speaker at this event was also Henry Orator Hunt however the organisers of the meeting were more extremist than Hunt; they included Arthur Thistlewood and Thomas Preston. These men wanted the overall overthrow of the monarchy and planned a coup dtat.
The Spa Fields Riots of 1816
The Spenceans believed that the army was on the verge of mutiny and had hoped to excite the crowd. The main witness to the 'plotting' was a government spy, John Castle, who had infiltrated the Spenceans. His character and reliability were discredited at the trial of the first accused, James Watson. Watson was acquitted and the case against other the arrested men was dropped.
At the event, even before Hunt had begun to speak, a section of the crowd had rampaged through the streets of Islington and ransacked a gunsmiths shop. These men were consequently sentenced to death.
The Spa Fields meetings were one of the first cases of mass meetings in public. The Gagging Acts were passed in February and March 1817, and the Blanketeers march followed in the same month.
The Blanketeers or Blanket March was a demonstration organised in Manchester in March 1817. The intention was for the participants, who were mainly Lancashire weavers, to march to London and petition the Prince Regent over the desperate state of the textile industry in Lancashire, and to protest over the recent suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. Manchester, full of unemployed weavers was the centre of an impressive reform movement. About 600 men, mostly poor weavers walked in groups of ten with blankets on their backs, with each group carrying a petition asking the Prince Regent to help restore their unfortunate industry.
200 were arrested at Stockport and most of the remainder were chased away by armed cavalry at Macclesfield. Only one man was allowed through to present their petition but nothing came of this march except that 13 of the leaders (including William Benbow) were sent to prison.
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CATO STREET CONSPIRACY 1820 BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK
Arthur Thistlewood A leading figure in radical protest during the 19th Century. He played a part in the
Cato Street Conspiracy.
DRAWING OF THE EVENT
This drawing depicts Arthur Thistlewood killing Richard Smithers. It is a contemporary cartoon (drawn after the time of the event).
Cato Street Conspiracy 1820
The Cato Street Conspiracy was an attempt to murder all the British cabinet ministers and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool in 1820. The name comes from the meeting place near Edgware Road in London
Many would regard the Cato Street Conspiracy as one of the most extreme acts in the series of protests. The leaders, who included Arthur Thistlewood and James Ings were outraged by the latest government restrictions and conceived a plan to murder the cabinet at a dinner and parade their heads on pikes.
They also planned to attempt a coup dtat and capture the Tower of London, Bank of England and Mansion House.
However, government spies knew all about it and the conspirators were arrested at Cato Street (off Edgware Road) and the five leaders including Thistlewood were executed. Five others were transported to Australia.
Although this event was a failure in many peoples eyes, it seemed to justify the Six Gagging Acts that had been passed two months prior. Apart from an abortive attempt to start a general strike in Glasgow, the agitation died down towards the end of the 1820s as the economic situation began to improve.
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