The Good Fight

Diane Atkinson applauds an insightful and inspiring history of political and social action by women around the turn of the 19th century

- By Diane Atkinson. Photographs by Getty Images

On 16 August 1819 at St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, violence hung heavy in the air.n Some 80,000 protesters had converged there to demand the reform of parliamentary representation and manhood suffrage. Within their ranks were around 9,000 vocal women, proudly carrying banners.

Incensed by the demonstration, the authorities ordered for the crowds to be dispersed, and the protesters were charged by cavalry. Of the 18 who died as a result, four were women; indeed, it is estimated that more than one-quarter of the 654 casualties were women. An eyewitness recalled that “a 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 ITS MOTHER’S BLOOD”.