<p><i>To Henry Hunt, Esq., as chairman of the emeeting assembled in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, sixteenth day of August, 1819, and to the female Reformers of Manchester and the adjacent towns who were exposed to and suffered from the wanton and fiendish attack made on them by that brutal armed force, the Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry, this plate is dedicated by their fellow labourer, Richard Carlile</i>:<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> a coloured engraving that depicts the Peterloo Massacre (military suppression of a demonstration in Manchester, England by cavalry charge on August 16, 1819 with loss of life) in Manchester, England.
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All the poles from which banners are flying have Phrygian caps or liberty caps on top.  Not all the details strictly accord with contemporary descriptions; the banner the woman is holding should read: <i>Female Reformers of Roynton -- "Let us die like men and not be sold like slaves"</i>.
Richard Carlile (1790–1843)
1819-10-01
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