Back to the End Of The Georgians calendar
There were two areas where the ordinary people protested during these times. Firstly, a group of textile workers, fearing that the skills they had learned had been a waste of time, went round destroying the new machines in the factories; machines that were taking their jobs. These people were called Luddites. Their dispute lasted from about 1811 until 1816 when they were put down by government forces. Eventually “machine breaking” became a capital crime which meant anyone caught doing it could be hung.
Then, in August 1819, a large group of people were holding a peaceful gathering in St Peter's Field in Manchester, protesting about Parliamentary reform. The voting system for MPs was ridiculous. The whole of Lancashire had 2 MP's, so did Cheshire. The only people who could vote were adult, male landowners who owned land from which they collected a minimum amount of rent. There were some really stupid examples of how wrong it all was. Old Sarum in Wiltshire had 2 MPs; there was one voter. Dunwich in Suffolk had 2 MPs yet most of the village had fallen into the sea. It meant that over one million people in the industrial north west were represented by just 2 MPs. People began to demand reform.
The people in St Peter's Field, and it is estimated there may have been as many as 100,000, were waiting to hear from a man called Henry Hunt when the Manchester Yeomanry, a local force of volunteer soldiers, tried to break up the crowd on the order of local magistrates. Between 10 and 20 people were killed and hundreds more injured. The event became known as the Peterloo Massacre, copying the word Waterloo from the great battle four years before. It took another 13 years before anything really happened by way of reform but this tragedy allowed those campaigning to make their point even more.
Forward to 1820AD
