Eyewitness Accounts

Place: Manchester
Role: Spectator

To commemorate the 200 year anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre the Peterloo 2019 Ambassadors have worked in partnership with Professor Robert Poole (University of Central Lancashire), author of Peterloo: the English Uprising and the Age of Revolution at University of Kent to compile the 400+ eyewitness accounts which include press reports and petitions.

This is the first time the original accounts have been compiled into an online archive. You can now use the website to search by name, place and role and learn more about the eyewitness accounts from 1819.

Samuel Dawson Eyewitness Account

Saw Yeomanry come up the line of constables to surround the hustings. They began cutting and trampling people nearby. Saw many wounded including a young woman with her hand almost severed at the wrist. He and others were chased into Roger’s Row by the cavalry.