HUNT, HENRY

born Nov. 6, 1773, Upavon, Wiltshire, Eng. died Feb. 15, 1835, Alresford, Hampshire British radical political reformer who gained the nickname Orator Hunt for his ubiquitous speechmaking in which he advocated universal suffrage and annual parliaments. Hunt's success as an orator came to national attention when he presided over an assembly of 60,000 demonstrating for parliamentary reform at St. Peter's Fields, Manchester (Aug. 16, 1819). The attempts to arrest Hunt and other leaders resulted in confusion and violence; about 500 of the unarmed demonstrators were injured and 11 were killed. The incident became known as the Peterloo Massacre. Hunt was uninjured, but the white hat he wore was staved in by a sword and became the symbol of reform. In 1820 Hunt was arrested, tried, and imprisoned for two years for his radical views. While in prison he wrote an expos of conditions in Ilchester Jail, A Peep into Prison. After his release he continued to agitate for popular parliamentary reform, and in 1830 he was elected to Parliament for Preston, Lancashire, a working-class district. The reform movement in which Hunt had played an important part culminated in the Reform Act of 1832. In granting the vote to the middle class and in standardizing the franchise, the Act ironically caused Hunt to lose his seat in the election of 1832.