Constabulary attack civilians
Peterloo Massacre: cartoons by Tim Sanders
The image is one of a set created by Tim Sanders for Red Saunders as preparation for the photographic shoots for the Hidden Peterloo Massacre Tableaux. The eventual nine images are also available as greetings cards, postcards, bookmarks, posters and photographic prints.
Tim's Illustrations act as a loose storyboard to show our volunteers what we hoped to achieve in collaboration with them. They do not necessarily reflect what the final photographic tableaux looked like, they are more of a guide to participation.
The Peterloo Massacre
On August 16th 1819 tens of thousands of working people – men, women and children – walked from surrounding towns to the centre of Manchester to hear the call for democracy – the right to vote.
The local ruling class unleashed the constabulary and armed mounted Yeomanry on the peaceful crowd. At least eighteen people were killed, including children, and over six hundred and fifty were severely injured. This was war on the emerging working class movement.
Tim Sanders
“I have helped Red with many of his Hidden projects. It’s a fascinating and really important body of work. I’ve learnt so much about the history that is hidden from us, the history of workers, the history of women, the history of black people. Our history, not kings and queens. We have changed the world in ways we don’t even realise and I think what’s great about this work is that it shows us what we’ve done in the past and can do again in the future. I also love the way it allows me to make up scenes and help to make these beautiful images real.”
The Hidden Project
The Hidden Project shines photographic light on great moments in the long struggle of working people for democracy and social justice. The aim of the project, through reimagining those events, is to reproduce important historic scenes involving the dissenters, revolutionaries, radicals and non-conformists who have so often been hidden from history.
www.hiddenpeterloomassacre.com
hiddenproject@clara.co.uk
Designed and printed by unionised labour. www.kavitagraphics.co.uk and www.rapspiderweb.co.uk
