Get an in-depth look at a unique aspect of musical history. Broadside ballads were printed for working people seeking the right to vote in Britain from 1768 to 1868. Sold on the streets, they tell of the long, hard struggle for democratic reform and reveal the obstacles created by those who were reluctant to share power with people they considered “inferior.” The stories include the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Luddites, the Peterloo Massacre, The War of the Unstamped, the Chartists, fights to pass Reform Bills and more. The ideas expressed about those hard times remind us of the difficulties encountered in obtaining the freedoms we take for granted, which could someday slip away due to apathy.
Suggested reading: The Idea of Poverty: England in the Early Industrial Age, by Gertrude Himmelfarb (Vintage Books, 1985) and The Common People: 1746-1946, by G.D.H. Cole and R. Postgate (London: Methuen, 1956)