Was the radicals who were to blame for the Peterloo massacre essays

Was the radicals who were to blame for the Peterloo massacre essays It was the radicals who were to blame for the Peterloo massacre? The Peterloo massacre was an unexpected day for everyone who attended the protest that was given by Henry Hunt. On 16 August 1819, a crowd of over 50,000 gathered in St Peter's Fields in Manchester to hear a speech on parliamentary reform by Henry Hunt. The reformers bore two banners, surmounted with caps of liberty, and bearing the inscriptions: "No Corn Laws," "Annual Parliaments," "Universal Suffrage," "Vote by Ballot." Eleven people were killed and around four hundred injured, but what was to come was much unexpected. Many people got injured and killed but the question is who was to blame for the Peterloo massacre? Some people thought that the yeomanries were to blame for the Peterloo massacre because they attacked defenseless people in the middle of town with no warning. Archibald Prentice (eye-witness and friend of Henry Hunt) says ...when a wailing sound was heard from the main street and rushing out I saw people running in the direction of Pendleton, their faces pale as death, and some with blood trickling down their cheeks. From Archibalds statement I believe that the people were innocent and defenseless, they had no right treating them like that, they were not to blame. At first Archibald wasnt sure what was going on in town when he saw the people running in fear. The artist of the picture blames the yeomanry for the Peterloo massacre because the picture shows the soldiers killing innocent people with sabers, the horses tramping them and being shot. Other four hundred were also seriously injured. It also shows a helpless mother on the ground begging for mercy for the soldier to spare her and her childs life. On the stage it shows Henry Hunt and the other reformers holding flags and yelling at the crowd. It gives you the name of the people who were killed and how they died. This inform ...