Catalogue Number
NMLH.1996.36
Object Name
Handkerchief
Title
A REPRESENTATION OF THE MANCHESTER REFORM MEETING DISPERSED BY THE CIVIL AND MILITARY POWER AUG.16th 1819
Place
Manchester; St. Peter's Field; Lancashire; England; UK
People
'Orator' Henry Hunt; Bamford, Samuel
Events
Peterloo Massacre
Description
In 1819 blood ran in the streets of Manchester. Sixty thousand had gathered in the city centre to demand the vote and fearing revolution the authorities ordered the arrest of Henry 'the orator' Hunt who the crowd had come to hear. With little to protect themselves, eighteen were killed as the Yeoman hacked at and rode over the defenceless crowd. The event became known as the Peterloo massacre.
Hundreds of these handkerchiefs were produced following Peterloo. They would have been carried by radical supporters and perhaps sold to raise money for those injured.
The three phrases repeated around the margin of the textile have echoed down the ages in one form or another; 'Universal Suffrage', 'Annual Parliaments' and 'Election By Ballot'. There is another more obscure phrase, 'Major Cartwright's Bill'. Major John Cartwright was a prominent radical of the day demanding reform of parliament and the extension of the vote.
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