Lesson video

Hello, and welcome back to History at the Oak National Academy.

My name is Mr. Arscott, and hopefully you recognise me, because it's our third lesson, looking at our inquiry of what did the French Revolution mean to Britons.

Now the last few lessons, we've looked at how people in Britain reacted to the Haitian Revolution and how that might have scared some Britons because they thought it was a threat to their wealth.

And we also looked at the Napoleonic Wars and the Battle of Waterloo, and how people saw the events in France as a threat to British power.

What we're going to do today and in the next lesson is we're going to turn our focus to things that are happening in Britain.

How the ideas in the French Revolution such inspire some Britons and scare others.

Now for today's lesson, you're going to need a piece of paper and a pen, and I'll get my head out the way whilst you write down today's title "The Peterloo Massacre." Now the first thing we're going to do before we look at what was the Peterloo Massacre, I'm going to ask you to have a look at this shocking cartoon.

And the first thing that I want you to do is just look at it carefully and write down three words that come to mind as you're looking at it.

So for example, you might see the strange thing on the left and write down a word like monster.

So if you want to just pause the video now and write down three words and unpause it once you've finished writing them down.

Right, so this cartoon was published in 1819 in Britain and is drawn by a British cartoonist.

Now there's a few things that we can learn about this period from this cartoon.

So some of you might have pointed out there's this strange-looking monster on the left-hand side.

Now, if you've been looking really carefully, you might've noticed that it looks like some things from the French Revolution.

So for example, it's got a revolutionary cap on its head and its main body is actually meant to look a bit like a guillotine.

You might have then also thought about, who are the people on the right? Well, the people on the right are meant to represent the British ruling class.

So the people in Britain who got to make the main government decisions.

And what this cartoon can tell us is that in 1819, the ruling class of Britain was still scared of the ideas from the French Revolution.

Now 1819 is four years after the final defeat of Napoleon, which means it's four years after the French Revolution could well and truly be said to be over.

So why would people, why was the British ruling class still scared of the Revolution? Well, we're going to find out during today's lesson.

First of all, though, I want you to have a go at answering this question.

What can you see? So use the sentence starters on the left in order to try to give a good answer to that question.

You'll want to pause the video, watching this, and unpause it when you're finished.

Okay, well done, having a go at that.

Let's see how you put your great thinking into action with this answer.

So you might have written something a bit like this, in this cartoon I can see people running away from a monster that is shaped like a guillotine.

I think the message of the cartoon is that Britain's rulers were still scared of revolution.

Now you probably didn't get exactly that wording, but if you wrote something similar, really well done.

If you didn't, you might want to copy out these answers now before you move on.

Now, last lesson we introduced this question.

What did the French Revolution mean in Britain? And we thought about a few different options about how this could be answered.

And we actually thought about how different people in Britain might answer it.

So pause the video now, and have another look through these four options, then unpause it when you think about which option that cartoon might illustrate.

So well done, if you thought option four was the option which could be illustrated in that cartoon.

Some people in Britain in 1819, definitely still feared revolutionary changes in Britain.

As we're going to find out, not everyone in Britain did agree.

So let's briefly recap what's happened so far.

Now this period is known as the Age of Revolutions.

And during this time, Britain lost its colonies in America during the American Revolution.

Also during this time, Britain's kind of wealth from the slave trade was threatened by the Haitian Revolution, and Britain needs to fight against Napoleon because it looked like he was going to take over the whole of Europe.

But amongst all these events, the thing that scared the British rulers the most, was the terror during the French Revolution.

And during this time aristocrats were killed, the French King was executed, and France seemed to be in chaos.

And Britain's rulers were terrified this might happen in Britain too.

Now after the French Revolution, Britain does not experience a revolution, even though the rulers in Britain thought it might.

Instead there's a period of what we call political reform.

And that's what we're going to be looking at in the next few lessons.

How Britain changed its political system directly after the French Revolution.

Now, also during all this period, this Age of Revolutions, Britain was undergoing some other changes at home.

Now we can say that Britain was industrialising during this period.

Now, what this means is that new machines were invented and they were used in ways which changed how British people worked and how British people lived.

Now one of the biggest changes that is brought about by industrialization was the quick growth of cities.

Before Britain industrialised, almost everyone lived in villages and made money from farming.

But after Britain industrialised, almost everyone in Britain lived in cities.

We could say say Britain became an urban country, which means people were living in cities.

Now I want you to look carefully at these two images on the screen.

Now both of them were painted from almost an identical spot, but they were painted about 40 years apart.

Look carefully, what can you see that's changed? What we can see that's changed is that this is a scene or the image on the right is a painting of Manchester.

The painting on the left shows a countryside scene of where Manchester is about to be built.

So the lighting's slightly different, but the key thing is, if you look on the horizon on the painting on the right, there are loads and loads of buildings, there are loads of chimneys with smoke coming out of them.

And that's because this new city of Manchester was created.

Now, this is amazing to think that cities were created so quickly, but what was in these cities? Well, in these new industrial cities, there were factories.

And these factories contained machines, which could produce things like cloth.

Now, the factories also employed large numbers of workers who had to work there for low wages or who chose to work there for low wages.

So these factories meant people, lots of people moved to live in the cities.

And on this image on the right, we're going to see an example of some of these new factories that were built in Manchester.

Right, let's have a go at trying to answer this question.

When Britain industrialised, what happened to the size of British cities.

So pause this video now, whilst you read through the three options and make your choice.

Well done, if you got option three.

There were more people living in towns and cities as the size of urban areas increased.

Urban areas is another word for cities.

Now, industrialization did not just create cities and factories, it also changed British society.

Now you might have seen a diagram like this before, and this diagram is meant to show how society was structured.

So rulers tended to be people that came from the upper class.

We sometimes call them the aristocracy.

Now the upper class were rich because they inherited wealth and power from their parents.

Below them we see the middle class.

And the middle class had to work, but because they worked in jobs which paid them quite a bit of money, they often were fairly rich.

Some of them worked as factory owners, and they were very rich.

Other middle class people had jobs like being teachers or doctors or lawyers.

And in general, middle-class people were so well paid that they could afford to buy their own property.

At the bottom, we see the working class and the peasants.

And these are the poorest people in society.

And the working class, which are this new group that was created, and they worked in the factories in these big cities.

They had to work for wages.

Now as Britain industrialised, both the middle class and the working class increased in size.

Now this meant that were more people doing middle class and working class jobs.

And here we can see two images, which are typical images of a middle class person on the top and a working class person in the bottom.

And the person from the middle class, we see is fairly wealthy, they're wearing nice clothes.

This one is actually an image of someone who owned a factory.

So they are very rich.

Below we see a person from the working class and she is a factory worker.

So both the middle classes and the working class people tended to live in cities.

Right, let's have a go at answering this question, which social groups in Britain, which social groups increased in size as Britain industrialised.

So use the sentence starter.

copy that out to finish arching this sentence, unpause the video when you are done.

Right, let's see what you got.

So the social groups that got bigger as Britain industrialised were the middle class and the working class.

So well done, you got those two answers.

If you didn't, just change your answer now so you've got some really good notes.

Now we've just seen that there was some social changes which meant changes to how people lived, but these then led to political changes.

Now you might have seen these phrases before in history lessons, if not read them now and copy them into your notes.

If you have seen them before, no worries, and just let the video keep playing.

So by 1819 Britain had changed a lot.

There were new ideas from the French Revolution about democracy.

Briefly during the French Revolution, all men had been given the vote and there'd been discussion about whether women should be given the vote too.

Also due to industrialization in Britain, the middle class became larger and wealthier.

And also due to industrialization, there were difficult conditions for the growing working class.

They had work in poor conditions, often for little pay.

Now these three big changes led to calls for political changes.

So the change in the middle class, and change to the working class, these are social changes, and they led to calls for a political change.

Now let's have a go at trying to get this diagram into your notes.

Unfortunately, I've got rid of some of the words.

So I want you to see if you can remember them as you copy this out.

So I want you to pause the video now, recreate this diagram.

If you're not sure what are in the gaps, then we'll come back to them once you've had a go at finishing this diagram.

Right, let's see what you managed to write down.

So ideas about democracy from the French Revolution.

The middle class became larger and wealthier, and there were difficult conditions for the growing working class.

Now, when we're talking about political changes, we mean that people were starting to think there should be changes to how governments were chosen and who had power.

And let us look at that in particular and what they actually wanted to do.

So the major political change that people wanted was that people wanted the vote or more people wanted the vote.

So you may well remember that before all this Age of Revolutions, Britain did have a Parliament and some people in Britain could vote for who would be the members of Parliament.

But the number of people that could vote was actually fairly small.

It was only very wealthy men.

Now after the French Revolution and during this process of Britain industrialising, more and more people thought they deserved the vote.

They wanted to be able to choose who the members of Parliament would be, and these members of Parliament would then decide what the laws of Britain would be.

So people, more people wanted to have a say in the laws that govern Britain.

Now there were lots and lots of meetings across the country where people were discussing whether or not all people in the middle class and whether all people in the working class should have the vote.

There were also discussions about whether women should have the vote, too.

And in Manchester in 1819, there's a particularly large meeting where people got together to hear speeches about why working class men and middle class men should be given the vote.

Now, this meeting took place in somewhere called St.

Peter's Fields, and the numbers that gathered there were amazing.

Now they came to hear a radical speaker, called Henry Hunt, and it's believed that 50,000 people were present.

And these are people that are dressed up in their best clothes, because they're excited to hear Henry Hunt's ideas.

So I'll give you a few examples of people that came.

One person was called Mary Heys, and she was a mother of six children and she was pregnant.

But despite those things in her life, she thought she wanted to go hear Henry Hunt speak in order to get excited about potential political changes.

Another person that came to hear Henry Hunt was a man called John Lees.

And he was an ex soldier and he'd fought at Waterloo.

So he'd been proud to fight the British army there, but now he wanted to be given the vote and he wanted Britain to have its own political changes.

However, just before Henry Hunt started speaking, disaster struck.

Now for some reason, this peaceful meeting where people were talking about whether or not working men should have the vote and middle class men should have the vote, a violent massacre occurred.

Now we don't know exactly why it started, but British soldiers on horseback charged into the crowd.

Henry Hunt was arrested and within 10 minutes, 400 people were injured and 11 were killed.

And this included Mary Heys, who was trampled to death by a horse, and John Lees.

This ex soldier who'd fought at Waterloo was cut down by one of the army swords.

Now this shocking event became known as the Peterloo Massacre.

Massacre means a mass murder, and Peterloo was a name based on the fact that it took place in St.

Peter's Field.

But also it was meant to mock the soldiers.

After the battle of Waterloo, the British army had had a good reputation because it had fought bravely to defeat Napoleon.

But at this event, British soldiers had killed British citizens.

11 citizens and injured 400.

So the name Peterloo was given to mock these soldiers.

And this cartoon was also produced at the same time to mock the soldiers and make them look bloody and violent.

Right, you are now in a really good position to have a go at trying to answer some comprehension questions.

So shortly, I'm going to show you five questions, and then I'm going to ask you to pause the video, go to the next page and read through the worksheets.

There you will find some information that'll help you answer these five questions.

Now, I'll read through the questions first, and then instruct you to pause the video.

So who was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo? Question two.

What happened to the population of Manchester between 1750 and 1800? Three, what were the differences between people from the middle class and people from the working class? Four, what happened at St.

Peter's Fields in 1819? And five, why did the massacre in St.

Peter's Field become known as Peterloo? Now that question five is a bit harder than the other ones.

So what you're going to need to do is, shortly pause the video, read through the information and then have a go at answering these questions.

Once you've answered them, come back to the video and we'll go through the answers.

So please pause the video now.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's find out whether your answers were accurate.

So question one, who was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo.

An acceptable answer would be Napoleon or the French.

A good answer in a full sentence would be, at the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's French armies were defeated.

Now, if you didn't get exactly that wording, don't worry.

Look for common language.

And if you got something that seems roughly right, then give yourself a tick.

Okay, question two.

What happened to the population of Manchester between 1750 and 1800? Acceptable answers, the population increased.

A good answer in a full sentence, between 1750 and 1800, the population of Manchester increased dramatically.

The population went from 18,000 people to 90,000 as more and more people moved to work in the new industrial factories.

Question three.

What were the differences between people from the middle class and people from the working class? Acceptable answer, middle class people were richer than working class people.

A good answer in a full sentence and with a bit more detail, people from the middle classes were wealthier than people from the working classes and they worked in better paid jobs and some even owned factories.

People from the working class earned low wages working in factories and so normally could not afford to buy their own property.

Question four, what happened at St.

Peter's Fields in 1819? An acceptable answer, British soldiers killed people in Manchester.

A good answer, which gives a bit more detail, at St.

Peter's Fields in 1819, a crowd had gathered to listen to speeches about giving more people the vote.

British cavalry rode into a crowd to end the meeting.

11 people were killed and 400 were injured as the cavalry tried to clear the crowd.

And question five, the challenge question.

Why did the massacre in St.

Peter's Fields become known as Peterloo? An acceptable answer, to criticise the soldiers.

A good answer, the massacre in St.

Peter's Fields became known as Peterloo in order to criticise the soldiers.

After the British victory over the French at Waterloo, soldiers had been seen as brave.

However, at St.

Peter's Fields, the soldiers were criticised by many for using unnecessary violence against British people.

Okay, really well done for your work so far.

If there's any details from the questions that you want to add, just go back to the video and add those to your own answers.

Now, if you're getting near to the end of the time, I suggest you stop the video and then go to the final quiz.

But if you've got a bit of extra time, I suggest you have a go at our extension activity.

What does Peterloo tell us about British attitudes towards political change in 1819? So already we've looked at these four options before British attitudes towards political change.

And I want you to now read through them and see which one you think best sums up the attitude of the British to change.

Now you might have found that a really difficult task, because it seems that different British people had different attitudes towards change.

The crowd at St.

Peter's Fields probably were excited about the potential for revolutionary changes.

Some middle class people definitely did see political change as an opportunity to increase power or wealth.

They wanted the vote.

However, other groups might have seen political change as a threat, or they might have feared revolutionary changes in Britain.

So different British people had different attitudes towards change in 1819.

The working class in general were excited about revolutionary changes.

They wanted a radical increase in the number of voters so they might be able to stop having to work in such horrible conditions for such low pay.

They thought they could use the vote in order to elect politicians or rulers who would look after them better.

People in the middle class, they saw political change as an opportunity to increase their power and wealth.

Whereas people in the upper class, they are more likely to see change as a threat to their power or wealth, and they feared revolution the most.

Now, if you go back to the worksheet slide on the next page, you'll find two sources written by different people about the Peterloo Massacre.

And interestingly, because they have different political views, so they have different attitudes towards change, they see the events in Peterloo in different ways.

So a nice idea, if you'd have a go reading through them and seeing how these different attitudes towards change changed how people saw events like Peterloo.

Now once you've had a go at doing that, I then want you to have a go at trying to answer this question, which is also on the worksheet on the next page.

What does Peterloo tell us about British attitudes to political change in 1819? Now I put a couple of sentence starters to help you get going and some key words that you would want to include in your paragraphs.

Now, you might also want to quote from some of the sources I've included so that you can add a bit more detail to your answers from the time.

So have a go at doing that.

Well done for your hard work today.

It's really interesting seeing how the ideas of the revolution can tell us about the different groups in Britain and how they react in different ways.

Now, one final thing for me before we finish, is I want you to have a go at the end of lesson quiz.

So you do that now.

Brilliant.

And I look forward to seeing you for our next and final lesson of this inquiry.