Liberty or death!

July 24, 2018 11:58 PM

Trailer for Peterloo a Mike Leigh film dramatising the infamous 'Peterloo Massacre' of 1819 where 15 people were killed and hundreds injured when cavalry charged a crowd that had gathered in Manchester to hear speeches on political reform.

The bloody clash that changed Britain
Delving deeper into the Peterloo massacre
In the wake of Peterloo: the Manchester Guardian prospectus, 1821
Peterloo massacre: hundreds attend anniversary memorial in Manchester

The Peterloo Massacre (British Library - Discovering Literature: Romantics and Victorians)
Why the Peterloo massacre matters to Manchester
The Peterloo Massacre (Political Protest Documentary) | Timeline

The Peterloo Memorial Campaign

Mr Turner

posted by fearfulsymmetry (12 comments total)

Maxine Peake Reads Shelley's Masque of Anarchy for Peterloo Massacre Memorial.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:25 AM on July 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

The original plaque ... sure is something.
posted by dumbland at 2:52 AM on July 25, 2018 [11 favorites]

Please let it be Christopher Plummer as Wellington... again.
posted by No Robots at 5:16 AM on July 25, 2018

From the British Library article:

According to local magistrates, however, the crowd was not peaceful but had violent, revolutionary intentions. To them, the organised marching, banners and music were more like those of a military regiment, and the practices on local moors like those of an army drilling its recruits. They therefore planned to arrest Henry Hunt and the other speakers at the meeting, and decided to send in armed forces – the only way they felt they could safely get through the large crowd.

Why does this feel so familiar. A government feeling threatened by its people when they mobilize/protest/agitate for civil rights. Hmm, the more things change...
posted by Fizz at 5:41 AM on July 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

From the Guardian link near the top:

Female reform societies had also recently sprung up across the north-west, calling for votes for women. They had already been subjected to ridicule, depicted by cartoonists such as George Cruickshank as sluts and whores, abandoning their families to meddle in things they had no business to think about. That was why the women dressed in white on this day – to symbolise purity of character and motive. It was also why the cavalry would single them out for attack: if they wanted the same rights as men, they could face the same treatment.

I almost always love Mike Leigh's work, and have been bingeing this year on the ones I haven't seen yet (Abigail's Party was quite the revelation). Hadn't heard about this film, but am very excited to see it now. Thanks, fearfulsymmetry.
posted by mediareport at 5:49 AM on July 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

I first heard about it last year when they were filming in Lincoln. Been looking forward to it ever since.

They totally missed this out when I learned history at school, funny that.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:40 AM on July 25, 2018

Rise like lions.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:49 AM on July 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

fearfulsymmetry, when were you at school? It was definitely covered in our history lessons in the early 1980s.
posted by Major Clanger at 9:22 AM on July 25, 2018

I was at school in the 80s barely 25 miles from where this happened, and it never came up in history lessons. Obviously each school has a degree of control over its curriculum, but we did a lot about the industrial revolution and Peterloo was never mentioned.
posted by YoungStencil at 1:14 PM on July 25, 2018

Huh. Didn't realize this event led to the founding of the Guardian. Is this one of those things Morrissey thought Manchester had to answer for?
posted by Kitty Stardust at 2:31 PM on July 25, 2018

Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war.
And if then the tyrants dare,
Let them ride among you there;
Slash, and stab, and maim and hew;
What they like, that let them do.
With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay,
Till their rage has died away:
Then they will return with shame,
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek:
Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many—they are few!
posted by doctornemo at 3:45 PM on July 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

Shelley's response is always stupendous.

As I lay asleep in Italy
There came a voice from over the Sea,
And with great power it forth led me
To walk in the visions of Poesy.

I met Murder on the way -
He had a mask like Castlereagh -
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:

All were fat; and well they might
Be in admirable plight,
For one by one, and two by two,
He tossed them human hearts to chew
Which from his wide cloak he drew.

Next cam Fraud, and he had on,
Like Eldon, an ermined gown;
His big tears, for he wept well,
Turned to mill-stones as they fell.
posted by doctornemo at 3:47 PM on July 25, 2018 [1 favorite]