The suppression of Samuel Bamford's Peterloo poems

The Peterloo massacre of 16 August 1819 is mainly known to students of Romantic period verse through work by Shelley, Byron and, to a lesser extent, William Hone. However, none of these poets was present at the demonstration at St Peter’s Field in Manchester, which ended with the killing of up to twenty people and the wounding of hundreds. Samuel Bamford is the only poet known to have been present at Peterloo, but he is mainly known for his autobiography, not for his verse. Bamford was a prolific poet and, although he denied having written any poems about the Peterloo massacre, his poetry about it was widely published in pamphlets and newspapers. Some of these poems re-appeared after the publication of the autobiography in a revised form, purged of their politically motivated violence.