Peterloo Massacre Peterloo Massacre The Peterloo Massacre occurred at St Peter's Field, Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment, exacerbated by the introduction of the first of the Corn Laws. By the beginning of 1819, the pressure generated by poor economic conditions, coupled with the relative lack of suffrage in Northern England, had enhanced the appeal of political radicalism. In response, the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating
Peterloo Massacre a seditious libel. Percy Bysshe Shelley was in Italy and did not hear of the massacre until 5 September. His poem, "The Masque of Anarchy", subtitled "Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester" was sent for publication in the radical periodical "The Examiner" but because of restrictions on the radical press, was not published until 1832, ten years after the poet's death. The immediate effect of Peterloo was a crackdown on reform. The government instructed the police and courts to go after the journalists, presses and publication of the "Manchester Observer." Wroe was arrested and charged with producing