Stevie‘s review of Peterloo: Witnesses to a Massacre by Robert Poole (Author), Eva Schlunke (Editor), Polyp (Illustrator)
Historical Graphic Novel published by New Internationalist 12 Jun 19
The Peterloo Massacre was a pivotal moment in British political history, particularly with regard to the rights of people to assemble peacefully and to have a say in their parliamentary representation, but it is taught rather erratically in schools. This book is part of a widespread effort to address that imbalance. Drawing on extensive research, to be published more expansively in Robert Poole’s upcoming academic work, Peterloo: the English Uprising, this is a richly illustrated work, in which most of the text is taken directly from transcribed eyewitness accounts.
The story opens with some background to the situation in Manchester and the neighbouring town of Salford, neither of which had direct representation in parliament despite their expanding populations and growing industrial wealth and importance, Britain as a whole, where some areas returned almost as many MPs as they had eligible voters, although calls for change were growing, and worldwide where geological and political upheavals were having a direct effect on food supplies and the levels of political unrest at home. Those in power fear revolution and assassination, while those at the opposite end of the social spectrum fear unemployment, poverty and starvation. In the middle are agitators like skilled worker Samuel Bamford, gentleman farmer Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt, and the publishers of the Manchester Observer, radical newspaper.
Hunt has already visited Manchester at the beginning of 1819 and is invited back to speak again in August at the same place, St Peter’s Field. However, the authorities fear that this time the assembled crowds will be much less peaceful than they were the first time, especially since spies have reported that men had been seen drilling in preparation – actually part of an attempt at arranging crowd control. When the size of the crowd gathered to hear Hunt speak is observed to be even larger than expected, the local magistrates resort to military force as a means of breaking up the meeting. This results in at least 15 deaths of men, women and children – some of them not even part of the assembly – and injury to hundreds of others.
Although Hunt, Bamford and the Manchester Observer writers had been arrested, news of the events quickly spreads to London, and the name Perterloo is coined as a parody on the Battle of Waterloo, some of whose veterans are reported to have been amongst those assembled at St Peter’s Field, and to have been just as liable to injury and death as all the others.
I loved the sheer volume of detail in this book, not to mention the amount of work that had been put into researching each piece of text and every illustration. I am very glad to have sponsored its production via Kickstarter and hope it finds a far wider audience following its official release.
Grade: A
Summary:
The explosive tale of Peterloo, told through the voices of those who were there. This is a vivid, original and historically accurate ‘comic book’ visual account of the 1819 Manchester massacre, to be published as part of the 200th anniversary commemorations. More than 15 people died and 600 were severely wounded by sabre-wielding troops at a peaceful pro-democracy rally.
The entire narrative is drawn exclusively from the direct testimony of the time (letters, memoirs, journalist’s accounts, spies’ reports, courtroom evidence…) carefully woven together by rich, vivid, graphic-novel style illustrations created by professional cartoonist, illustrator and graphic novelist Polyp.
This a vital record of working-class history by Manchester-based authors and artists who have been central in reviving the long-suppressed memory of this shocking and world-changing event.
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