Western Civilization II / Unit 9 WC2 0819 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Peterloo, 1819, and the Luddites
Captions available
The idea
Before parties there were struggles: the Luddites, whom the witness describes as skilled workers smashing machines used to undercut them, and Peterloo in eighteen nineteen, when middle-class volunteer cavalry charged a reform meeting in Manchester. The anchor says hundreds were gunned down.
In practice
The standard record: sabres, about fifteen dead, hundreds injured.
Where people slip
Peterloo rests on the anchor; its toll is the anchor's.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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