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ALL COLLECTIONS
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- AHMED IQBAL ULLAH RACE RELATIONS COLLECTION
- BRETHREN COLLECTION
- DANTE COLLECTION
- EARLY PRINTING COLLECTION
- ELIZABETH GASKELL COLLECTION
- GENIZAH COLLECTION
- GUARDIAN COLLECTION
- HEBRAICA COLLECTION
- LIBRARY PUBLICATIONS COLLECTION
- MAPS COLLECTION
- MARY HAMILTON PAPERS
- MEDIEVAL COLLECTION
- METHODIST COLLECTION
- NASHRIYAH: DIGITAL IRANIAN HISTORY آرش…
- NON-CONFORMIST COLLECTION
- PAPYRI COLLECTION
- PETERLOO COLLECTION
- PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION
- RYLANDS COLLECTION
- THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY
- UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER HISTORY & HERITAGE
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On the 16 August 1819 around 80,000 men, women and children gathered to hear the charismatic orator Henry Hunt speak about the pressing need for democratic and social reform. They had filed into St Peters Field from across Manchester and its satellite villages and towns. Some had walked many miles to attend.
In 1819, despite its size and importance, Manchester did not have an MP and only a small number of wealthy male inhabitants were eligible to vote. Rapid industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth had catapulted Manchester from a sleepy town to the shock city of the industrial revolution. Conditions were squalid and wages low. Many working people felt that if they had the vote their voices would be heard and their sufferings remedied.
The Manchester Observer was England's leading radical newspaper at the time of the Peterloo meeting and played a central role. For a detailed description of The Manchester Observer see article by Robert Poole accessed here