Women at Peterloo

 

​​​​​​"a deep rooted abhorrence of tyranny...": Women at Peterloo

​In this article I want to look at the role that women played in the events of Peterloo.

1816
In October 1816  there was an open air-meeting In Manchester attended by a number from outside Manchester, including Failsworth. On 7 October  a meeting calling for parliamentary reform was held in Stockport  at which speakers asserted  that there had to be a change in government or no government at all.  Resolutions  were passed proposing that parliament be convened immediately to deal with the distress , that the sinecures and standing army be ended, and that parliament be reformed. The revived reform movement attracted a good deal of support amongst working people in the north of England   because of the growing economic distress in industrial towns.

1817
The government reacted swiftly to this imagined threat with its tried and tested  methods,  honed over three decades of repression; suspending Habeas Corpus until July and passing Acts which  banned public meetings of more than 50 persons. It also rallied its network of  supporters, as in the 1790s,  to  publicly  attack the emerging radical movement.

In Manchester on 13 January 1817 Loyalists  called a meeting “to consider the necessity of adopting additional measures for the maintenance of the public peace”. Speakers at the meeting  denounced  “the numerous meetings held both  publicly and secretly – the organized system of committees, delegates and missionaries”  which “afford strong manifestation of mediated disorder and tumult”. They  established the Association for the Protection  and Support of the Civil Authorities.

In Stockport the same day  Stockport radicals  held another meeting to protest at the Corn Laws and call for parliamentary reform. At the same time the radical  press  and radical  pamphlets were being sold in Stockport such  as Black Dwarf, Sherwin’s Political  Register, Hone’s Political Catechism and Political Litany.  Samuel Bamford said that the writings of Cobbett “were read on nearly every cottage in the manufacturing districts of South Lancashire”.

The Manchester authorities noted in February   that Reformers’ meetings   “are swelled much in numbers  from the moment  the Spinning Factories in the neighbourhood   leave off working  – a proof  that the discontent  is not confined to those  who are distressed, the circumstances of the Spinners  are comparatively  good. This body have of late contributed out of their funds assistance to the Reformers”.

On 3 March the  Manchester  reformers held  a public meeting at which they announced that they intended to march to London to present a petition to the Prince Regent. Marchers were to take a blanket to sleep on and hence it became known as the March of the Blanketeers.

On 10 March a group of several hundred marchers gathered at St Peter’s Fields  as did a  crowd of about 12,000, who were addressed by local reformers, including John Bagguley, a Manchester apprentice aged 18,  and Samuel Drummond, a Manchester reedmaker, aged 24.  They attacked the excessive spending of the government, high rents, the Corn Laws, the libel laws, the suspension of habeas corpus  and the Prince Regent’s ministers.

One local magistrate noted the presence of female radicals.

The women of the lower class seem to take a strong part against the preservation of good order and in the course of the morning of the 10th, it was very general and undisguised cry amongst them that the gentry had had the upper hand long enough and that their  turn has now come. 

Shortly after the  march had  set off  the magistrates  ordered  the arrest of the speakers, reading the Riot Act,  and using the King’s Dragoon Guards.to  clear the people from the  field. The marchers were pursued by troops and stopped at Stockport’s Lancashire Bridge where 48 were arrested. A number avoided arrest by wading across the Mersey.  Thousands came out to watch the proceedings.  Another 170 were arrested in the Market Place. Some struggled on towards Macclesfield but gave up.  Just one man from Stalybridge, Abel Coudwell, allegedly succeeded in getting to London and presenting his petition to the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth.

The authorities in Manchester followed up their operation by claiming that “a most daring and traitorous conspiracy “ had been discovered  and  on 28 March  arrested a number of reform leaders,   including  Samuel Bamford, John Knight  and Benbow at a meeting in Ardwick. For the time being the authorities had succeeded in disputing radical activity.

For the rest of 1817 there was little radical  activity in Manchester or Stockport Government  repression seems to have worked but it was only a pause, however,  and not an end.​

1818
On 3  January 1818 the Manchester Observer began publishing with offices at 18 Market Street. Its founders were John Knight, James Wroe and John Saxton. It helped fan the reviving radical movement and was soon selling in  4,000 copies each week. and circulated  well beyond  Manchester.  Henry Hunt called the Manchester Observer “the only newspaper in England that I know, fairly and honestly devoted to such reform as would give the people their whole rights”.

Throughout the spring reform meetings were held in Manchester and other towns.  Stockport radicals held a meeting on 13 April , chaired by Joseph Bertinshaw, the veteran radical  cobbler.  The meeting passed resolution in favour of annual parliaments, adult male suffrage, reform of taxation and the formation of reform societies.

At the end of July 1818 there were major strikes by spinners, powerloom weavers and handloom weavers for higher wages. This was opportunity for the reformers  to reach a larger audience.  Bagguley addressed a weavers meeting  before the strike and allegedly urged them to arm themselves in preparation got their confrontation with the masters.

On 1 September,  the first day of the weavers strike,  1,222 men and 355 women marched through Stockport with banners and music.  Some of them, joined a reform meeting which  lasted 5 hours and was addressed by Bagguley, Drummond and Johnston.  It dispersed peacefully. The speakers were arrested  and bail was set out the enormous sum of £2,000. Their trial did not take place until the following spring.

The following day Stockport weavers, “with many women”  amongst them,     according  to the Manchester Chronicle,marched to Manchester with music and large banners, including one which read “Seven Shillings in the Pound and No Less”. On 3 September weavers from Manchester came to Stockport and paraded through the streets. The following weavers from Manchester and Stockport went to Ashton to march there. Within days the strike was over with weavers accepting the masters offer, an increase of 10% each month until 35% was met.

In the autumn  the radical  movement in the town revived with veterans John Knight from Manchester and Joseph Mitchell from Liverpool giving support. In October the Stockport Union for the Promotion of Human Happiness was established which within months grew into  the most successful radical organisation the town had ever  known to this . Its objects were the traditional radical programme – universal manhood suffrage, annual parliaments and vote by secret ballot. G L  Bolsover, a Stockport surgeon and union member, wrote to Henry Hunt that the object was

…to obtain  a great and positive good, viz equal rights, equal laws, and equal justice; and our weapons being reason , discussion and persuasion, it follows that we shall obtain our object without either anarchy or confusion.

Women had already been attending radical meetings but not as speakers or even as voters. In his memoirs Sam Bamford claimed credit for a radical innovation in the summer of 1818 in the rights of women attending public gatherings.

At one of these meetings , which took place at Lydgate, in Saddleworth…..I, in the course of an address, insisted on the right, and the propriety also, of females who were present at such assemblages, voting by show of hand, for, or against the resolutions. This was a new idea; and the women, who attended numerously on that bleak ridge, were mightily pleased with it, – and the men being nothing dissentient, – when the resolution was put, the women held up their hands, amidst much laughter; and ever from that time females voted with the men at radical meetings. I was not then aware, that the new impulse thus given to political movement, would in a short time be applied to charitable and religious purposes. But it was so; our females voted at every subsequent meetings; it became the practice, – female political unions  were formed, with their chair-women, committees, and other officials…..

The radical newspaper  Black Dwarf devoted an editorial on  9 September to the “Rights of Women”  which begins by attacking  the so-called “Dandies”.

Some of the present race ashamed to wear a name to which they have no pretensions have adopted a new one. They are no longer Englishmen but “Dandies”! …Their gender is not yet ascertained, but as their principal ambition seems to be to look as pretty as women, it would be uncharitable to call them men.

He then goes on to consider women:

Their arguments are very forcible. They say that since the men abandoned  the cause of freedom, they will support it. They say freedom was a woman and therefore every woman ought to be free. Man, they say, has shamefully deserted his post  – and has no right to control woman; – since he has lost the power of defending himself …that woman can expect no protection from the cowards that cannot protect themselves! And they demand Universal Suffrage in its fullest extent.

1819
On 2 January  the Manchester Observer  called for a vigorous reform campaign. Henry Hunt was invited to speak in Manchester  for the first time.  He  addressed a crowd of at least 8,000 people at a meeting on St Peter's Fields. It was a colourful gathering with flags and banners and bands . He urged the assembly not  to waste time sending yet another petition to the House of Commons but draw up a Remonstrance to be  sent directly to the Prince Regent.   The meeting also approved a lengthy Declaration  which  set out the Radical  programme in detail.  This was unequivocal  in its view of  where  political power originated from, stating  “That  the only source of all legitimate power, is in the People, the whole People and nothing but the People That all governments, not immediately derived from and strictly accountable to the People, are usurpations, and ought to be resisted and destroyed."  It went on to declare that:

That every individuals, of mature age, and not incapacitated by crime or insanity, has a right to a vote for the election of a Representative in Parliament: and to refuse or with hold from any individuals the exercise of this just and lawful right, is to deprive him of all security for his life, liberty, and property, and reduce him to the abject condition of a slave; for a man cannot be said to be really free, or to enjoy either life, liberty or property, when  these  may, at any time, be taken from him, at the arbitrary will of another: and by laws that are made without his own consent.

The Declaration also called for annual parliaments and universal suffrage and defended the right of the people to possess arms to defend their liberties.  In its political programme – and even its language –  there are clear continuities with the views expressed by the Levellers at the Putney debates. Thomas Rainborough would have found little to disagree with.

The Black Dwarf reported that:

the order of the meeting met with no disturbance : although it would appear that some of the manufacturers were disposed  to do what they could to occasion tumult.  Some of them, it is said, actually locked their men in the manufacturies, lest they should attend the meeting! That this should  occur in England  is certainly , after all our boasting a melancholy circumstances; for its shews that our boasted liberty is bauble – our freedom a mere name, not worthy of our treasuring in sound. …Upon  such a subject  the wish the duty to attend was naturally felt by the  mechanics and artizans of Manchester. They posses a high degree of  political intelligence; and upon subjects of political economy, they know more in tenfold degree than the tyrants who oppress them

As the reform movement gathered momentum  women  stepped onto the public stage, setting up   Female Reform societies in Manchester, Stockport, Blackburn, Oldham and Royton.

Blackburn women  led the way,  setting up their society on 18 June.  On 5 July the Female Reformers  attended a very large outdoor  public meeting, chaired by John Knight This is  a report from Black Dwarf:

The Committee of the Blackburn Female Reform Society appeared at the entrance to the ground, and were desirous of approaching the hustings. – they were very neatly dressed for the occasion, and each wore a green favour in her bonnet and cap.  No sooner did our worthy Chairman perceive the anxiety of the ladies to make their way through the immense crowds, than her signified his wish that road might be opened for the accommodation of the Committee of the FeMale Reform Society; which was no sooner said, than the request was instantly complied with.  The ladies ascended the hustings amidst the reiterated acclamations of the people which continued for several minutes before the silence could be restored. The ladies then stepping forward toward the chairman; one of them, with becoming diffidence and respect, presented him with a most beautiful Cap of Liberty, made of scarlet silk or satin, lined with green, with a serpentine gold lace, terminating with a rich gold tassel.

No language can express the torrent of appreciation that spontaneously burst from the people “LIBERTY" or DEATH" was vociferated from every mouth – the tear of welcome sympathy seemed to trickle from every eye “God Bless the women", was uttered from every tongue; in fcat, imagination can only do justice to this interesting scene. 

Alice Kitchen made a short speech, a rare  example of  a woman  at this time speaking in public:

Will you Sir, accept this token of our respect to these brave men who are nobly struggling for liberty and life: by placing it at the head of your banner, you will confer a lasting obligation on the Female Reformers of Blackburn. We shall esteem  it as an additional  favour, if the address which I deliver into your hands,  be read to the Meeting: it embraces a faint  description of our woes and may apologise for our interference  in the politics  of our  country. Black Dwarf,  14 July 1819, pp.455- 456.

Alice’s speech was greeted with  very great applause. John Knight then read the address which  began:

The members of the Blackburn Female Reformers, beg leave,  with the greatest diffidence and respect, to render into your hands the emblem that has ever been held scared , in the most enlightened ages of our history and particularly to our ancestors , who contributed much to the fame of our beloved country. In presenting this Cap of liberty, which we trust no ruffian banditti will be allowed to wrest from your hands but with the forfeiture of your existence, we hope it will not be deemed presumptious to offer  a faint sketch  of the misery and sufferings we are doomed to endure; and which we are thoroughly convinced, arise  from the misrule of a profligate system of government.

The women said that they came forward  determined to instill  into the minds of their children:

 a deep rooted abhorrence of tyranny, come in what shape it may, whether under the mask of civil and religious government, and particularly of the present borough-mongering and Jesuitical system which ahs brought the best artisans, manufacturers, and labourers of this vast community, to a state of wretchedness and misery  and driven them to the very verge of beggary and ruin. 

They stated that their homes

which once bore ample testimony, of our industry and cleanliness, and were once fit for the reception of a prince, are  now,  alas!,  robbed for all their ornaments, and our beds, that once afforded us cleanliness, health and sweet repose , are now  torn away from the us by the relentless hand of the unfeeling tax-gatherer, to satisfy the greatest monsters of cruelty, the borough-mongering tyrants…..But above all , behold our innocent wretched children! Sweet emblems of our mutual love!  how appalling are their cries for bread! We are daily cut to the heart to see them greedily devour the coarse food that some would scarcely give to their swine “

The women finished by addressing themselves directly  to men:

We the Female Reformers of Blackburn, therefore  earnestly entreat you and every man in England, in the most solemn manner, to come forward and join the general union, that by a determined and constitutional resistance to our oppressors, the people  may obtain annual parliaments, universal suffrage and election by ballot, which alone can save us from lingering misery and premature death. We look forward with horror to an approaching winter, when the necessity of food, clothing, and every requisite will increase double-fold… Black Dwarf,  14 July 1819, p. 456.

William Cobbett commented on the address:

Never was there a paper that did more honour to its authors than did this address. Unaffected, clear, strong eloquent and pathetic; the heart that dictated it is worthy of the fairest and most tender bosom, and the heart that remains unarmed by it is unworthy of the breast of a human being. We shall, by and by, see this address, side by side with the address of a Queen; and then, we will challenge the “higher orders” to a comparison of the two. The men, of what our foes have the insolence to call the “lower orders”  have, long since, shown their superiority , in point of mind, over the self-styled “higher orders”, and now we have  before us the proof that  our sisters surpass them in the same degree. We have too long, much too long, had the false modesty to admit, as a matter of course, that we were inferior to them in knowledge and talent. This gross and mischevious error is now, thank God, corrected.

Black Dwarf opined:

I have news to tell thee – news that will make thy heart leap with satisfaction; as I know thee to be advocate of female heroism, and a zealous  advocate for the rights of woman, as well as of the rights of man…Here the ladies are determined at last to speak for themselves; and they address their brother reformers in very manly language. …this array of women against the system my friend, I deem  the most fatal omen  of its fall. 

Conversely, the women were attacked by anti-reformers  in a pro-government newspaper, the Courier on 15 July,  for abandoning domestic considerations for political consideration:

Of the degraded  females who thus exhibited  themselves, we know nothing, and should care less, if we did not discern, in their conduct the strongest proof of the corruption of their husbands, fathers and brothers. We consider, therefore, the fact of these women, thus deserting their station, as a painful evidence that their male kindred, in the pursuit of their guilty objects, have disunited themselves from those social ties and endearments which are the best pledges of their fidelity to their God , their country and their King  L

We have lately witnessed a new contrivance for the ruin of society: Female Establishments, for demoralizing the rising generation: Mothers instructed to train their infants to the hatred of every thing that is orderly and decent, and to rear  up Rebels against Good and State. Hitherto, this diabolical attempt has been confined to the most degraded of the sex:  and it is to be hoped, that no woman  who  has a spark of virtue or honor remaining in her character, will engage in a scheme so disgusting and abominable.  Quoted in Robert Glen, Urban workers p.232.

The women were also attacked in a cartoon The Belle Alliance or the Female Reformers of Blackburn, by George Cruikshank, in which they are portrayed as harridans.

A female reformer from Ashton sent a letter to the women in Blackburn congratulating them on forming the Society. She argued against waiting patiently for the rulers of the country to grant political redress because “hope hath failed and it is ridiculous to look any more  to that quarter.”  She declared that “if the reformers have both women and truth  on their side, they cannot fail of proving victorious…let there be no more begging  and praying ”.  If reform was not granted, they should urge men to take direct action, they had “nothing to lose but [their] lives ; and those  will be better lost than kept, on the terms that we hold them at present”. She concluded that “we are on the precipice  from which there is no retreat…let us boldly take the plunge for there is no other way left but either slavery or exertion.. Let us prove we are true-born English women and that we are determined to bear this illegal  oppression no longer ”.

It was reported  in a hostile report in the  Morning Post that the Blackburn women had held a  meeting on the morning of  15 July:

With the names of the Chairwomen  and different lady speakers it would be idle to trouble you: they can never shine brighter than by being left in their native obscurity. The business of the day was to consider of the best means of  forwarding the great object for which they have abandoned their proper domestic cares, and given themselves up to mania of mending Constitution, to the neglect of the more fitting occupation of mending their husband’s breeches.  It was, after some discussion, unamimously that the Members  should go in parties to the public market on Thursday next, and endeavour by every means at their disposal to win people over the cause of Reform,  Morning Post 19/7/1819, p. 3

​There was no female reform society in Middleton because, it appears, that women in the village were allowed full membership in the reform union.

The Stockport Female Union was founded on 12 July at the third meeting of the women reformers.  They  decided that each class should number twelve  and that a committee of twelve would  run the Union, six to go out office every six weeks. They explained in their Articles of Association   that it  had been founded “for the purpose of co-operating with their male associates”.

We who form and constitute  the Stockport Female Union Society, having reviewed for a considerable time past  the apathy, and frequent insult of our oppressed countrymen, by those sordid and all-devouring fiends, the Borough-mongering Aristocracy, and in order to accelerate the emancipation of this suffering nation, we, do declare, that we will assist the Male Union formed in this town, with all the might and energy that we possess, and that we will adhere to the principles, etc., of the Male Union…and assist our Male friends to obtain legally,  the long-lost Rights and Liberties of our country.

In their rules they pledged themselves to:

 “collectively and individually to instill into the minds of our children a thorough knowledge of  their natural and inalienable rights, whereby they shall be able to form  just and correct notions of those legalised banditti of plunderers, who rob their parents of  more than half the produce of their labours; we also pledge ourselves to stimulate our husbands, and sons to imitate  the ancient Romans, who fought to a man  in defence of their liberty and our daughters  and female friends to imitate the Spanish women, who,  when   their husbands, sons and other kindred had gone out to fight in defence of their freedom, would rather have heard of the death of any of them, than their deserting the standard  of liberty.   Lancaster Gazette, 31/7/1819, p. 4.

They appealed for  correspondence  from like-minded societies so that a “national union of sentiment can be formed”. All communications to Mrs Hallam at  the  Union Rooms, Union Place,  Stockport.

That same day (12 July)  the Blackburn women visited Manchester and paraded “different parts of the town, but particularly the neighbourhood of  Newtown, in the costume that made such an impression at the late meeting in Blackburn”. They then attended a meeting of the Manchester Female Reform Society at the Union Rooms on George Leigh Street.

The second meeting of the Stockport Female Reformers took place on 19 July in the large room at the Windmill. Mrs Stewart moved that Mrs Hallam be president as she knew her  from her well tried principles. She accepted and asked the men present  to withdraw because  “if in our debates (for it is something new  for women to turn  political orators) we should  for want of knowledge  make any blunders,  we should be laughed at, to prevent which we should prefer being by ourselves.” The men immediately obeyed.

Mrs Hallam said:

Ladies, you have this evening placed me in a situation which I never occupied before, I kindly thank you for the honour you have done me, but cannot help observing  that  I am a very unfit person for the office, but as you have placed me here to protect order and peace, I will perform the task as well  I am able. I assure you that I am determined to dedicate to Liberty,  my heart, my body, yea, my very life (unbounded applause with cries of “Liberty”) I  am young , but Ladies, young as I am, I can assure you, that the Borough villains have furnished me with such a woeful life of  wretched experience, that I can feel for myself, and equally with myself feel for my injured, plundered country- women, this feeling is so acute, that an eternal war is waged betwixt us , which will never end, but in the emancipation  of a distressed and over burthened people from slavery to Liberty (reiterated applause)…These are sentiments I imbibed when almost a child , and as i grow older, the grumbling spirit goes (Laughter) I thank you Ladies for your  kind attention, but assure you, I do   not look for your applauses, applaud me not, it cannot please me, for I consider it my duty to use every ability in the cause without receiving any reward at all for my weak endeavours. It is a good cause, it is the cause of God…for its is the cause of the people and the voice of the people is the voice of God. ..we therefore are sure to triumph.  Seeing then, that it  is the common cause, let us all  unite, and never cease from persevering in a cause so just and holy, until we possess  those constitutional liberties and privileges which are the birth-right of every Englishman and woman.

In the discussion it was moved that the Female Union “cooperate with their male brethren in relieving those unfortunate individuals , now confined in Chester Castle, Messrs Bagguley, Johnston, and Drummond and all who may in future be incarcerated the cause of the people.”

Miss Whalley addressed the meeting:

Mrs President  and  Sisters, I love liberty and hate slavery. I know too truly the horrors of the one, and the virtues of the other. If a Borough-monger were to come to Stockport and be compelled to weave for his living, he would  more impatiently (when he saw he could  get nothing  more than a mess of pottage for his labour)  cry out for Liberty and Reform! As well as those who are called the incorrigible swine, the disaffected, and the lower orders. I will not detain you, I have only to say  that I could wish us to have a Cap of Liberty , and present it at the next Public Meeting, as our sisters  at Blackburn  did at theirs; and that we form the determination to bring it victoriously back again, or lose our lives in its defence.

A commitee was elected: Miss Goodier, Miss Knowles, Miss Lowe, Mrs Hodgson, Miss Whalley, Mrs Kenworthy, Mrs Rhodes, Miss Longson, Miss Johnstone, Mrs Stewart (Secretary), Mrs Hambleton (Treasurer).

A vote of thanks was proposed to their “Presidentess” who replied:

Ladies, I do assure you, you have so wounded me by the kind attention you have honoured me with , that the load overwhelms me with such a sense of obligation, that I  cannot express my thanks. Suffice it to say,  that this mark of esteem ,I will ever dearly cherish  in my heart. I can only say that it will be a fresh stimulus to spur me on with greater avidity in the common cause. Go peaceably home, for fear of furnishing the Borough-mongers, with materials for another green bag. A plot is what they are, as Cobbett observes, dying for; and the only plan to frustrate their hellish  wish, is to act constitutionally  in all your undertakings. 

The meeting then dispersed about half-past ten o’clock, “highly pleased with the proceedings of the evening .”

The Manchester Female Reform Society was also formed in July and issued an address on 20 July. It was an appeal directed at other women “to the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the higher and middling classes of society”.

Dear Sisters of the Earth, It is with a spirit of peaceful consideration and due respect that  we are induced to address you, upon the causes of  that have compelled  us to associate together in aid of our suffering children, our dying parents, and the miserable partners of our woes.  Bereft, not only of that support, the calls of nature require  for existence; but the balm of sweet repose hath long been a stranger to us. Our minds are filled with a horror and despair, fearful on each returning morn, the light of heaven should present to us the corpse of some of our famished off spring, or nearest kindred, which the more kind hand of death  had released from the oppressor. The Sabbath, which is set apart  by the all-wise creator for  a day of rest, we are compelled to employ  in repairing the tattered garments, to over the nakedness . Every succeeding nights  bring with it  new terror, so that we are sick of life and weary of a world, where poverty , wretchedness, tyranny and injustice, have so long been permitted to reign amongst men.  

Like their sisters in other societies they blamed the aristocracy and land-owners for their plight . “The lazy  boroughmongering eagles of destruction” who have “nearly picked bare the bones of those who labour” will “chase you to misery and death until the middle and useful class of society is swept by their relentless hands from the face of creation.”

The address also condemned the recent war against France and the carnage at Waterloo and  called on women to join to eradicate tyranny and oppression “our enemies are resolved upon destroying  the natural Rights of  Man, and we are determined to establish it….it is not possible therefore for us to submit to bear the onerous weight of our chains any longer, but to use our endeavour to tear them asunder , and dash them in the face them”.

The Society’s address was issued from Union Rooms on George Leigh Street, Ancoats and  the public was advised  that  the Committee sat every Tuesday evening from six to nine for the purpose of enrolling new members and transacting business. The address was signed by Susanna Saxton as Secretary of the Society. She was the wife of John  Saxton, a former weaver and now a leading reformer,  who had founded  the Manchester Observer with James Wroe and John Johnston.  Like many of the women whose names appear in the press at the time little is known about them,  other than that they  were often the wives or sisters of the male reformers.

At the end of July a member of the Stockport Female Union Society spoke at a meeting in Macclesfield, addressing the women present.  According to the report  in the Times  (which did not state her name) she said, “ Sisters, I am deputed by the Stockport Female Union Society to impress upon you the necessity of forming a similar union in this town, and as the rules of the society are here I cannot  explain to you better than  causing them to be read. “After they had been read   she urged them to adopt the same course and said that the Stockport Society was corresponding with the Blackburn Society, and if the sisters in Macclesfield needed help, they had only to write to the Union Rooms in Stockport   and they should have an immediate answer. She again begged them to persevere, to stand firm and they were sure to conquer.
   
At a large  reform meeting in Wigan John Saxton paid tribute to” the great number of females who appeared to take such  an unusual interest in the proceedings of the day – it was indeed delightful to behold the sweetest bloom of the country all arrayed  under the banners of Freedom –  he hoped they would persevere in the great principle of Freedom, and suffer no coxcomb to divert them from the noble cause in which they had volunteered their welcome services – (Very great applause)…At the end of the meeting the Cap of Liberty which had been presented by the Rochdale Society of Female Reformers, and the banners were then taken down, and carried in procession with a band of music from the place of Meeting. The people then peaceably departed to their respective homes.

At a very large reform meeting held on 19  July  in Nottingham the resolutions included  the following:

10. That this Meeting hear with peculiar pleasure the zeal manifested by the females of Blackburn, in promoting a Radical Reform and hope that their example, and the extreme sufferings of the poor in this town and neighbourhood, will stimulate the females of Nottingham and its vicinity to form themselves into societies, in order to accelerate the good cause, and thereby prevent the actual starvation of themselves,  and their beloved children.   Sherwin’s Weekly Political Register, 24/7/1819, p.182.

On 11 August twelve young women attended a political meeting in the marketplace in Leigh “all dressed in black with white sashes” and carried a banner that read “No Corn Laws, Annual Parliament  and Universal Suffrage.”

In these addresses the women, whilst  expressing solidarity with men and asserting their right to comment  publicly on political  questions, made no claim for political  rights for themselves, at least  publicly. Their private thoughts are more difficult to discern as, unlike the men,  none of the women  published political memoirs in later life.

Joseph Johnson wrote to Henry Hunt on behalf of the Manchester  Reform Society,  asking him to visit Manchester again, thus  setting in train the events that led to Peterloo.

At the end of July it was announced that a meeting would be convened for Monday 9th August at St Peter’s Field’s “for the purpose of taking into consideration  the most effectual  legal means  of obtaining a Reform in the Representation of the  House of Commons”, and that Henry Hunt would be speaking. This was a direct challenge to the existing political order which reserved the right to vote for  a handful  of wealthy men., as  any person chosen by a meeting of thousands would have greater political legitimacy and set a dangerous precedent.

Sherwin’s  Weekly Political Register reported in its issue dated 7 August that:

We are informed by the daily press that  is the intention of the  Magistracy to disperse the meeting by force. ‘The Magistrates,’ say the Courier, ‘have come to a determination to act with decision, and suppress all seditious meetings immediately as they assemble, and if the civil power be not sufficient, then to read the Riot Act and call in the military.’ It will be seen whether  the People will submit to this infamous violation of law.

William Perry of the Stockport Union wrote to Hunt, inviting him  to stop at Stockport on the way to Manchester, telling him “ the idea of your arrival strike terror to the very foundation of the borough faction in this part of the country.” Hunt did stop in Stockport on 8th August before proceeding to Manchester.

On  12 August  Colonel  Fletcher  wrote to the Home Secretary reporting on developments including a meeting  that day in Leigh:

During the morning a great concourse of the lower order of people were waiting for the arrival of Mr. Hunt, whose presence was anxiously expected, in consequence of which, the meeting was delayed until past two o’clock. Mr. Hunt, and none of his partisans forthcoming, it was deemed necessary to commence the proceedings of the day. Two carts were lashed together in the market place, (a fine open space of ground), when Mr. Battersby, (an itinerant preacher,) Mr. Thomas Cleworth, and a Mr. Bamber, (one of the Society of Friends) with several others, ascended the platform.

As soon as Mr. Bamber was chosen for their chairman, a parade of the female reformers took place, headed by a committee of twelve young women. The members of the female committee were honoured with places in the carts. They were dressed in white, with black sashes ; and what was more novel, these women planted a standard with an inscription, ” No Corn Laws, Annual Parliaments, and Universal Suffrage ;” as well as another standard, surmounted with the cap of liberty, on the platform. Both the flag and the cap were presents from the Ladies’ Union ! ! 

In the meantime the magistrates in Manchester had  issued an order banning the meeting, plastering the town with placards to this effect. The reformers,  after  having sought a legal opinion which went against them,  baulked at  a direct challenge  to the town authorities,  and  therefore re-arranged the meeting for  the following. Monday, 16 August.  The purpose of the meeting was now announced as to consider “the propriety of adopting the most legal and effectual means of obtaining a Reform in the Commons’ House of Parliament.” The requisition for the meeting was opened for signatures at the office of the Manchester Observer where in space of three hours over 700  householders added their names,  with  hundreds of others  gathered, unable to get into the office.

On reaching Manchester Hunt issued a letter from Smedley Cottage:

You will meet on Monday next , my friends, and by your steady , firm and temperate deportment, you will convince all your enemies, that you feel you have an important, and an imperious public duty to perform;  and that you will not suffer any private consideration on earth to deter you from exerting every nerve to carry your praiseworthy and patriotic intentions. The eyes of all England, nay, of all Europe, are fixed upon you; and every friend of real Reform, and of rational Liberty, is tremblingly alive to the results of your Meeting on Monday next.  OUR ENEMIES will seek every opportunity , by the means of their sanguinary agents, to excite a RIOT, that they  may have a pretence for SPILLING OUR BLOOD, reckless of the awful and certain retaliation that would ultimately  fall on their heads…..Come, then, my friends to the Meeting on Monday, armed with NO OTHER WEAPON  but that of aself-approving conscience; determined not to suffer youselves to be irritated or excited, by any means whatsoever, to commit any breaches of the public peace. Impartial Narrative , p.25.

On the morning of 16 August for miles around Manchester people gathered in their thousands  and set off on  the long walk into Manchester.  The Middleton contingent carried brightly coloured silk  banners, whose slogans included  “UNITY AND STRENGTH!, !LIBERTY AND FRATERNITY”, “PARLIAMENTS ANNUAL”  and  “SUFFRAGE UNIVERSAL” . The Saddleworth,  Lees and Mossley  Union banner read “EQUAL REPRESENTATION OR DEATH”.

The Reformers, who seemed determined  to make this a splendid day…..in preparing flags and small bands of music, and in arranging matters for the approaching meeting. It is evident, however, from  the great number of females, and even children, who formed part of the procession, that nothing was anticipated that could involve them in the least  degree of peril; and an immense multitude gathered together, relying in confidence on each other’s peaceful intentions, and certainly not expecting , that the precautions taken by the magistracy to preserve the peace, would be employed to destroy it, and convert a peaceable assembly into a scene of terror and alarm, danger and death.
Francis Philips, a Manchester manufacturer and merchant  observed the Stockport  procession as it made its way along the road to Manchester.

On the 16th August I went on the Stockport Road about eleven or a little after,  and I met a great number of persons advancing towards Manchester with all the regularity of a regiment, only they had no uniform .They were all marching in file, principally three abreast. They had two banners with them. There were persons by the side, acting as officers and regulating the files. The order was beautiful indeed. 

The banners read NO CORN LAWS, ANNUAL PARLIAMENTS, UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE, VOTE BY BALLOT and SUCCESS TO THE FEMALE REFORMERS OF STOCKPORT, the latter banner was carried by Mary Waterworth.  Phillips estimated that there were about 15,000 with 40 women.

The Royton women  numbered about 100 and had their own flag. The Oldham column was headed by a group of about 150 women in white. The Failsworth  contingent was led by a group of 20 women, also dressed in white who took it in turns to carry the flag. The Bury contingent was led by a group of 300 women, walking five abreast.

According to Sam Bamford,  the Middleton contingent  included  six thousand men and several hundred women, including his own wife.

Our whole column, with the Rochdale people, would probably consist of  six thousand men. At our head were a hundred or two of women, mostly young wives, and mine own was amongst them – women, mostly young wives , and mine own was amongst them – A hundred or two  of our handsomest  girls, – sweethearts  to the lads who were with us – danced to the music, or sung snatches of popular songs: a score or two of children were sent back , though some went forward ; whilst, on each side of our line walked some thousands of stragglers.  And this, accompanied by our friends, and our nearest and most tender connections, we went slowly towards Manchester.  Bamford, chapter 34.

The column from Oldham was headed by a band of 156  women dressed in white They were joined en route by a contingent of reformers  from Failsworth,   led by a troop of twenty women in white who took it in turns to hold the flag.  The procession from Bury had a contingent walking five abreast, numbering 300.

Richard Carlile from London wrote the first published account of what happened which wa s published in Sherwin’s Weekly Political Register just two days after the events  on 21 August. It was entitled “Horrid Massacre in Manchester” and began:

It is impossible to find the words to express the horror which every man must feel at the proceedings of the agents of the Borough-mongers on Monday last, at  Manchester. It is out of the pale  of words to describe the abhorrence which every true Englishman  must feel towards the abettors and the actors in that murderous scene. All prospect of reconciliation must be now considered as being effectually destroyed, and the people have no resource left but to arm themselves immediately, for the recovery of their rights, and the defence of their persons, or patiently to submit to the most unconditional slavery. The Government 

He had  walked the three miles out of Manchester to where Hunt was staying at Smedley Cottage and presented  him with several copies of a  pamphlet “An Address to  People of Great Britain and  People of Ireland, which carried a speech made by Hunt in London on 21 July in which he had  urged unity of the reform movements in the two countries under the banner of “Universal Civil and Religious Liberty.” Carlile noted that people gathered around Smedley Cottage at 11am,  and Hunt set off in a barouche at noon in which Carlile managed to get a seat:

They had not proceeded far when they were met by the Committee of the Female Reformers, one of whom, an interesting looking woman, bore a standard on which was painted a female holding in her hand a flag surmounted with a  cap of liberty, whilst  she trod underfoot  an emblem of  corruption, on which was inscribed that word. She was requested to take a seat   on the box of the carriage, (a most appropriate  one ) which she boldly and immediately acquiesced in,  and continued waving her flag and handkerchief until she reached the hustings, where she took her stand at the front, on the right. ..Females from the age of twelve to eighty were seen cheering with their caps  in their hands, and their hair, in consequence, disheveled…  

The Manchester Female Reformers had intended to present Hunt with an address and the flag in the course of the meeting,  but this was not be. (The undelivered address was later published in the Manchester Observer and other newspapers).  The banner of the Union Female Society of Royton was also on the platform, a crimson banner with the motto “Let Us Die Like Men and Not Be Sold Be Slaves”. According to eye-witnesses, there were a number of other women on the platform,  and also a group immediately in front of the hustings, eager to see Hunt.

The procession came through Shudehilll, Hanging Ditch, Old Millgate, Market Place, St Mary’s Gate, Deansgate and Peter Street.  By 1pm tens of thousands were gathered in St Peter’s Fields.  The Manchester Observer estimated the crowd at 153,000.

Hunt began speaking:

My friends and fellow countrymen – I must entreat your indulgence for a short time; and I beg you will endeavour to preserve the most prefect silence.  I hope you will exercise the all powerful right of the people in an orderly manner; and if you perceive any man that wants  to raise a disturbance, let him instantly be put down , and be kept secure. For the honour you have done me in inviting me a second time to preside at your meeting, I return you my thanks ; and all I have to beg of you is , that you will indulge us with your patient attention. It is impossible, that, with  the utmost silence, we shall be able to make ourselves  heard  by this tremendous assembly. It is useless for me to relate to you the proceedings of the past week  or ten days in this town and neighbourhood.  You know them all, and the cause of meeting appointed for last Monday being prevented. I will not therefore say one word on that subject; only to observe, that those who put us down, and prevented us from meeting on Monday last, by their malignant exertions have produced two-fold the number to-day. It will be perceived, that in consequences of the calling of this new victory, our enemies, who flattered themselves they had gained a victory, have sustained a great defeat. There have been two or three placards posted up during the past week with the names of one or two insignificant individuals attached to them…”

Here he broke off as a troop of horsemen approached.

What had happened was that the magistrates had, prior to the crowd assembling,  taken oaths from number of men  that the peace of the town was endangered by the assembly.  They later claimed to have read the Riot Act, although nobody present on the field ever claimed to have  heard it.  They summoned the  Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry,  who were stationed  in Pickford’s Yard. They mounted their horses and galloped onto the field. On the way  knocked over a woman and child,  a young  boy named William Fildes, who was killed.

The troop arrived on the field, about a hundred, and halted in front of the magistrates house. Hunt called for  three cheers and urged the crowd to be firm. They  then wheeled and  began pushing through crowd towards  the hustings,  using their  sabres,  both on the crowd and the special constables who were in their  way. They were led by a bugler and an officer . One of the constables later died from his injuries.

John Tyas, The Times reporter  wrote in his account,  “ Not a brickbat was thrown,  not a pistol was fired  during this period; all was quiet  and orderly, as if the cavalry had been the friends of the multitude and had marched  as such into them.” They were led by a bugler and an officer.  The officer told Hunt that he had a warrant for his arrest. Hunt  said, ”I will willingly surrender myself to any civil officer  who will show me his warrant”. Joseph Nadin then stepped forward. They also arrested Mr Johnson.

Richard Carlile writes that the Yeomanry:

…galloped furiously round the field, going over every person who could not get out of their way, to the spot were the police were fixed, and after a moment’s pause, they received the cheers of the Police  as the signal to attack. The meeting at the entrance of the Cavalry, and from the commencement was one of the most calm and orderly I ever witnessed. Hilarity was seen on the countenance of all, whilst the Female Reformers crowned the asemblage  with grace, and excited a feeling particularly interesting. The Yeomanry made their charge with the most infuriate frenzy : they cut down men, women and children indiscriminately, and appeared to have   commenced a premeditated  attack with most insatiable thirst for blood and destruction…The women  appear to have been the particular objects of the Cavalry Assasins. One woman, who was near the spot where I stood, and who held an infant in her arms, was sabred over the head and her tender offspring DRENCHED IN HER MOTHER’S BLOOD. Another was actually stabbed in the neck  with the point of a sabre which must have been a deliberate attempt on the part of the military assassin. Some were sabred in the breast: so inhuman, indiscriminate, and fiend-like, was the conduct of the Manchester Yeomanry Cavalry.     SWPR, 21/8/1819. P. 241. 

Carlile wrote a further account of the events of the day in February 1822 in the course of a long and bitter letter to Henry Hunt with whom he was now totally at odds:

I was on the hustings until almost the last, or until the Yeomanry were almost within a sabre’s length. There were five women on the hustings, part of the Female Reformers’ committee, another part had seated themselves in the barouche in which we had rode to the hustings. Four of the women took a stand in the bottom of the wagons that formed the hustings, the other who was Mary Fildes,   I believe, was elevated at one corner in the front, with a banner in her hand and resting on a large drum, a most singular and interesting situation for a female at such a meeting..,On the first approach of the Yeomanry I was standing by the side of Mary Fildes in the front of the hustings…I offered comfort and courage to Mary Fildes  but I found her above everything like fear…

Once Hunt and others  had been arrested there was a cry from the mounted horsemen “Have at their flags”. They began attacking the flags on the hustings, but also those in the crowd held aloft, attacking the crowd with their sabres to get at them.  Two horsemen singled out John Saxton, one  saying to the  other “there is that villain Saxton, do you run him through the body”, “no “, said the other, “I had rather not, I leave it to you.” The man immediately lunged at Saxton and it was only by slipping aside that he saved his life, as it was his coat and waistcoat were cut. Another man a few yards away had his nose completely cut off by a blow from a sabre.

Sarah Taylor was under the hustings and saw John Ashton, who carried the Saddleworth flag, sabred and trampled. He died two days later.

The Manchester Yeomanry  were joined by the Cheshire Yeomanry, the Dragoons and 15th Hussars, who did not hesitate to use their swords on the people  and within moments the crowd was fleeing in terror.

This is a vivid account by Jemima Bamford.

By this time Mr. Hunt was on the hustings, addressing the people. In a minute or two some soldiers came riding up. The good folks of the house, and some who seemed to be visitors, said, ‘the soldiers were only come to keep order; they would not meddle with the people;’ but I was alarmed. The people shouted, and then the soldiers shouted, waving their swords. Then they rode amongst the people, and there was a great outcry, and a moment after, a man passed without hat, and wiping the blood of his head with his hand, and it ran down his arm in a great stream. 

The meeting was all in a tumult; there were dreadful cries; the soldiers kept riding amongst the people, and striking with their swords. I became faint, and turning from the door, I went unobserved down some steps into a cellared passage; and hoping to escape from the horrid noise, and to be concealed, I crept into a vault, and sat down, faint and terrified, on some fire wood. The cries of the multitude outside, still continued, and the people of the house, up stairs, kept bewailing most pitifully. They could see all the dreadful work through the window, and their exclamations were so distressing, that I put my fingers in my ears to prevent my hearing more; and on removing them, I understood that a young man had just been brought past, wounded. The front door of the passage before mentioned, soon after opened, and a number of men entered, carrying the body of a decent, middle aged woman, who had been killed. I thought they were going to put her beside me, and was about to scream, but they took her forward, and deposited her in some premises at the back of the house.” Bamford,  Passages in the Life of a Radical, XIII & XIV pp. 222-223.

In his account Samuel  Bamford  describes  an anonymous young  woman fighting back against the soldiery:

A number of our people, were driven  to some timber which lay at the foot of the wall of he Quakers’ meeting house. Being pressed by the yeomanry, a number sprang over the balks and defended themselves with stones which they found there. It was not without difficulty, and after several were wounded, that they were driven out.  A  heroine, a young married woman  of our party, with her face all bloody, her hair streaming about her, her bonnet hanging by the string, and her apron weighted with stones, kept her assailant at bay until she fell backwards and was near being taken; but she got away covered with severe bruises. It was near this place and about this time that one of the yeomanry was dangerously wounded, and unhorsed, by a blow from the fragment of a brick; and it was supposed to have been flung  by this woman . Bamford, Passages, chapter 36.

According to  research carried  by  Michael Bush for his book  The Casualties of Peterloo, at least 18 people (including a child)  were killed either on the day or died of the injuries. Four of them were women.

Margaret Downes, Manchester – sabred in the breast.

Mary Heys, Chorlton Row  – trampled by cavalry and died of her injuries four months later after giving  birth prematurely.

Sarah Jones, Silk Street Manchester – truncheoned on the head by a special constable, Thomas Woodworth.

Martha Partington, Barton – crushed to death  in a cellar.

Michael Bush has established  that 654 people  were recorded as being injured,  of  whom 168  were women.  He believes, based on the casualty figures, that the women were present were particularly  singled out for violent attack for having involved themselves publicly in the campaign for political reform.

Ann Scott, of Liverpool Road, was arrested  on the  evening of Peterloo  by Charles Ashworth Special Constable,  In a statement she said she was “violently laid of in Deansgate"  and then  dragged to the police office  and then taken with others to  the New Bailey prison. She was detained from Monday to Friday with no bed, even though the floor was floating with water and filth, and were not allowed to leave the cell, even to perform what she called “the common offices of nature". On Friday she charged at a hearing  before the Reverend Ethelstone with inciting the  people to commit assault, a charge she vehemently denied.  She  was sent back to prison where she was confined with other women and allowed occasionally to take air. Not surprisingly she became ill because of the conditions in the prison and was eventually moved to the hospital. She made a statement about her treatment in mid  October.

Afterwards, when I had been a fortnight in the hospital, and suffering under a relapse of the fever, I was permitted to see my husband, for the first time since my arrest, although I had repeatedly entreated that he might be let in to speak to me; and when I saw him I was scarcely able to speak to him. He remained with me about ten minutes, when Jackson ordered him away…About a fortnight  afterwards, I was again allowed to see my husband: but he was not permitted to remain with me above ten minutes, the turnkey standing beside us during our conversation. Ruth and Eddie Frow, Political Women , pp.28-29

The Manchester Female Reformers flag,  seized  from Mary Fildes by a cavalryman, was put on display that evening  in Mr Tate's  grocers shop on Oldham Road in the manner of a spoil of war.  An angry crowd of women and children quickly gathered and threw stones, breaking the windows, The military were sent for, who read the Riot Act and then opened fire. Some accounts say that people were killed. They also arrested a number of women,  including one whom  it was alleged   had  “talked loudly against the Prince Regent",  and  said things “it  would not be proper to repeat".  There were further disturbances in the area and two women were , reportedly shot by the military.

The day after the Times reported that the military were patrolling the streets and that the Reformers were angry and that  threats of revenge were directed against members of the Manchester Yeomanry  who lived in the town  and “being well known  to the disaffected persons, became  distinctly marked out as  objects of their hatred.  The female part of the multitude  were not less conspicuous than on Monday for the share they took  in what was going on and were even more bitter and malignant  in their invectives than their male associates".

Robert Campbell, a special constable was killed by a crowd in Newton Lane on 18 August.

Women relatives of reformers  were targeted by the authorities in their crackdown in the wake of  the massacre, as detailed by Joseph Johnson in   a letter to the press  in late September.

Not content with multiplying  indictments upon Mr Wroe, the intrepid  proprietor of the Manchester Observer, and exasperated at his perseverance and their capacity to obtain possession of his person ,  the revengeful  animals have directed all the engines of their prostituted authority to the persecution of his wife and children, who continue to sell that and other obnoxious publications. Twice have the mean violators of the law and deciders of justice held Mrs Wroe to bail,  and twice have her children been taken out of his shop,  and sureties been demanded for their appearance to answer the charge of having published scandalous libel that told too much truth of these… In addition to Mrs Wroe, the wife of one of the journeymen Mrs Hough and her daughter, were arrested and confined in the New Bailey all night because forsooth the magistrates, after having them into custody, could not make it  convenient to wait until their friends  could be sent  for to put in security for an appearance which the magistrates  dare never require of them before any jury.  Black Dwarf , 29 September 1819, p.633.

A vivid glimpse of the experiences of some  women  at Peterloo can be found in the pages of the inquest into the death of John Lees, a weaver from Lees near Oldham,   who was sabred on the field  and died on his injuries on 6 September.  The inquest into his death  was turned into an enquiry into  the events of Peterloo by Mr Hamer –  a solicitor engaged by the Lees family – who,  in the teeth of bitter  opposition from the Coroner and an opposing solicitor engaged by the magistrates,   cross-examined the Crown's witnesses and also  summoned his own. The proceedings were taken down in notes  and shorthand and published in full  by William Hone the following year.  (The inquest was adjourned after ten days and never resumed).

Martha Kearsley  from Oldham,  had been sitting on the outside  of Henry Hunt's carriage very close the hustings.  She said that what occasioned the tumult  on the field  had been  “the soldiers coming and cutting and slashing among the people" . She had seen a man fighting off two soldiers who were attacking him with swords when a third came up and wounded him on the back of the shoulder. “I was so struck with horror,  that I turned round and saw no more of him." She saw many others cut by the soldiers.

Ellizabeth  Farren,  of Lombard Street, Manchester,  explained she had been cut on the forehead, raising her bonnet and cap and bandage to show  the wound, which had not completely healed. She said she was cut as the  cavalry went  to the hustings. “I was with this child (shewing the child she held in her arms). I was frightened for its safety, and to protect it, held it close to my side with head downwards, to avoid the blow. I desired them to spare my child, and I was directly cut on my forehead." She passed out and awoke three hours later in a strange cellar.

Hannah Croft was living in a house  Windmill Street, right by St Peter's  Fields. She described  looking out of the window and seeing the Manchester cavalry riding among the crowd “and the people falling in heaps".  The people tried to get away “but the soldiers rode so hard that they knocked them down before they could get out of the way".

Margaret Goodwin from Salford was situated  between Saint Peter's church and the hustings. She saw two men wounded near the church “ and all covered with blood and gore"  and a woman cut within a few yards of where she was standing.  She was trying to get away when she was wounded by Thomas Shelmerdine and knocked unconscious.

Ann Jones lived on Windmill Street. She told the inquest that she saw the cavalry cutting and slashing and saw a large quantity of blood on the field after they were gone.  “I saw a great many people wounded, and very bloody indeed,…there a great many people in my house, and all was in great confusion, and some of the special constables came up in great triumph before my door, calling out, “This is Waterloo for you! This is Waterloo."

A militant position  was taken by Ethelinda Wilson who  wrote articles in  Republican, a journal published by the political and sexual radical Richard Carlile. She condemned the failure of the male reformers to hold another meeting on St Peter's fields and said it  now up to women to take up the fight. Future generations would thank them for doing so,  exclaiming  “our mothers, our revered mothers, cultivated the soil in which this universal blessing grew".  Ethelinda  left Manchester for London  where  she attended meetings touting a loaded pistol  wrapped in handkerchief.

Article published by kind permission of the author, Emma Speed.  Originally published with images, 15 August, 2018 on the following blog: Red Flag Walks: taking radical history onto the streets

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