‘Rise Now from Your Slumber’: Ballads and Songs of Peterloo

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the months following the Peterloo Massacre, an array of poems and songs was published in radical newspapers or as broadside ballads, the first of which appeared in the Manchester Observer a mere five days after the event. What is of import regarding Peterloo's literature is the speed with which it was written and published as well as the range of genres used by the largely anonymous balladeers to convey the outrage, horror and despair felt by the majority of English people at the slaughter of their fellow citizens. This article explores a selection of Peterloo songs, focusing both on their initial publication and longer-lasting impact on radical discourse not only demonstrating that they were not as ephemeral as the publications in which they were first printed, but also indicating the wider significance of Peterloo to the continuing campaign for democracy. Furthermore, through a joint project with musicians as part of the bicentennial commemorations, new life has been breathed into these songs, enabling the voices from 200 years ago to both inform and inspire audiences in an era in which democracy is under siege and xenophobic nationalism on the rise.