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  1. Home
  2. The Peterloo Massacre

The Peterloo Massacre

On 16 August 1819, cavalry brutally dispersed a crowd of 60,000 protestors at St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, leaving at least 18 people dead and more than 600 injured. The event, known as the Peterloo Massacre, became became a landmark moment in the struggle for democracy

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Michael Wood at BBC History Magazine's History Weekend in Chester (Photo byVictoria Tetley / VJT Photography)
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Michael Wood on the Peterloo photograph

The Peterloo Massacre of 16 August 1819 was the bloodiest political event of the 19th century on English soil. Troops under the authority of the Lancashire and Cheshire magistrates attacked and dispersed a rally of some 50,000 reformers on St Peter’s Field, Manchester. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)
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Peterloo: the English uprising

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Peterloo: the story of a massacre

18 August 1819: British soldiers charging the crowd at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, during a meeting called in support of political reform. (Photo by Spencer Arnold Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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A “more shocking” massacre? How we might have overestimated the Peterloo crowds

Cavalry charge into a crowd of protesters at St Peter's Field, Manchester, as depicted in an 1819 engraving. What followed was the worst violence ever to occur at a political meeting in Britain. (Picture by Alamy)
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The Peterloo Massacre: what did it achieve?

The Peterloo Massacre
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The Peterloo Massacre: how a peaceful protest turned into bloody chaos

Mike Leigh at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in 2014. (Photo by dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo)
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“Peterloo felt relevant, given all the crazy and chaotic things that are happening now”: 5 minutes with Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in 2014. (Photo by dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo)
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Mike Leigh on Peterloo

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18th August 1819: 'The Massacre of Peterloo or Britons Strike Home', by George Cruikshank (Photo by Spencer Arnold/Getty Images)
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The Peterloo Massacre

As many as 15 people may have been killed, and a further 500 badly injured, during the 1819 riot in Manchester that came to be known as the 'Peterloo' Massacre. (Rischgitz/Getty Images)
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16 August 1819: Militia massacres protesters at ‘Peterloo’

Panic ensues in this depiction of the Peterloo Massacre, published in 1819. (The art archive/Getty Images)
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Why were there so few casualties at Peterloo?

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