Changing Attitdues Towards The Poor And Pauperism 1834-70

Question 1

When was the Andover workhouse established

Answer 1

1836 under Colin Mcdougal

Question 2

Conditions at Andover

Answer 2

Run like a prison where men and women were separated and inmates had to eat with their fingers
The working day was very long and men would be required to spend it crushing animal bones to make fertiliser

Question 3

How did Andover go unnoticed

Answer 3

Cost was kept very low which pleased the board of guardians

Question 4

How many paupers attempted to escape Andover

Answer 4

Between 1837 and 1846 , 61 tried to escape by deliberately committing offenes

Question 5

How did the paupers supplement their starvation at Andover

Answer 5

Eating any meat left on the bones to crush

However due to the need for substance fights would break out over meaty bones

Question 6

Who reported Andover

Answer 6

1st august 1845 the local mp Thomas wakley which led to a full investigation into the allegation undertaken by the poor law commissioner

Question 7

What came from the investigation

Answer 7

1847 :Led to the poor law commission was dissolved and replaced by the poor law board which saw the end of independence administration as it was brought under government control

Question 8

What was the impact of the dissolution of the board

Answer 8

Marked a shift in public opinion of poverty however workhouses were still prominent : betweeen 1851 and 1866 another 100 were built on top of the 403 built in the immediate years beyond and 1834

Question 9

Middle class

Answer 9

Since they had been accepted into the upper echelons of society and were even granted the vote in 1832 so there was less of a desire to help the poor

Question 10

Henry Mayhew

Answer 10

Published London labour and the London poor after 1849 which concluded that it was poor wages that produced pauperism because they were inefficient in protecting the recipients from economic fluctuations

Question 11

Huddersfield scandal

Answer 11

During a typhus outbreak in 1848 the workhouse was being especially poor at caring for inmates such as ill people being made to share lice ridden infirmary beds with dead bodies and not get their linen changed for 9 weeks

Question 12

Affluent women

Answer 12

The development of charity work in Britain offered affluent women a way to participate in public affairs

Question 13

Angela Burdett Coutts

Answer 13

Became the richest woman in England when she inherited £1.8 million from her grandfather in 1837 so she turned her interest towards philanthropy so with Charles dickens she opened a home for poor women in 1847 and so she funded education projects to promote the lives of Britain’s poorest individuals

Question 14

Collection of statistics

Answer 14

Much of charity work also included the collection of standards regarding those who found themselves in poverty such as the workhouse visiting society collected information on the experiences of the poor which allowed a much more formal approach to private relief and began to focus on specifies causes

Question 15

The lancet

Answer 15

1865 the medical journal undertook an investigation into the quality of medical care in the London workhouses which led to the passage of the metropolitan poor act in 1867 : demanded medical facilities to be separate from the workhouse itself and called for the creation of the met asylum board

Question 16

Self help

Answer 16

Developed as a result of entrepreneurial men achieving Great wealth as a result of their own efforts so people began to think that the poor could do this
By 1862 it cost 4 shillings and 8 pence per person per week in the workhouse but caring for someone of the outside was less than half of that so self help was more attractive financially

Question 17

Charity organisation society

Answer 17

Formed in 1869 to distinguish between the deserving and undeserving poor and then to help get the ‘deserving’ back on their feet and rejected the practice of excessive assistance which was believed to be detrimental to sifted

Question 18

Thomas Carlyle

Answer 18

Scottish writer and historian whose works were influenced by a Calvinist upbringing 
His work ‘past and present’ published in 1834 drew attention to the growing class divide within Britain and refereed to workhouses as ‘poor law prisons’

Question 19

Charles dickens

Answer 19

Was forced into working in a shoe blacking factory at the age of 12 after his parents had entered the workhouse so experienced first hand experiences of the realities of poverty and developed a strong social conscience

Question 20

Oliver’ twist

Answer 20

Written between 1837 and 1839 he popularised the image of the workhouse as a place of despair and drudgery where charity was twisted for punishment - the depiction of hunger and overbearing masters that appeared gave the public an easy depiction

Question 21

Oliver Twist as a serial novel

Answer 21

Popular practice in the 19th century because it made the process of publication much cheaper and allowed people to pay as little as a shilling for each monthly instalment and so they became widely read by people who may not have been able to afford a single novel

Question 22

Elizabeth Gaskell

Answer 22

Her book Mary Burton was published in 1848 the lives of the working class and their difficult existence in Manchester were exposed for public consumption 
It wasn’t seen as a threat to established order and therefore it could reach a wide audience

Question 23

Samuel smiles

Answer 23

Graduated with a medical degree from Edinburgh in 1832- he was a social reformer and supported political reform and in particular the uniting of interests of the middle and working classes

Question 24

Publication of self help

Answer 24

Samuel smiles in 1859 published self help which talked about the importance of individual determination to improve oneself as the most important thing in achieving a successful life
By the end of 19th century it had sold 250000