ENGL 111W Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Peterloo Massacre
6 May 2017
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Massacre of 14, injury of hundreds, of unarmed protestors gathered at st. peter"s field. Basic democratic reforms: freedom of the press and publication, freedom of public assembly and political organizations, extension of the vote (to at least middle class men). A magistrate at the time: some of you reformers ought to be hanged. Shelley thought england was on the verge of revolution and he tried to make his own contribution with mask of anarchy (michael scrivener radical shelley 196) The idea that the values of passion and imagination needed to be defended against the rising dominance of materialism and industrialization. That the individual every individual was to be valued and nurtured as an independent and creative being. That human beings are naturally or inherently good, and that society should be arranged in such a way as to honour and encourage the goodness of all humans. All these ideas feed into the rise of democracy.
