Changing Attitdues Towards The Poor And Pauperism 1834-70 Flashcards
When was the Andover workhouse established
1836 under Colin Mcdougal
Conditions at Andover
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
How did Andover go unnoticed
Cost was kept very low which pleased the board of guardians
How many paupers attempted to escape Andover
Between 1837 and 1846 , 61 tried to escape by deliberately committing offenes
How did the paupers supplement their starvation at Andover
Eating any meat left on the bones to crush
However due to the need for substance fights would break out over meaty bones
Who reported Andover
1st august 1845 the local mp Thomas wakley which led to a full investigation into the allegation undertaken by the poor law commissioner
What came from the investigation
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
What was the impact of the dissolution of the board
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
Middle class
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
Henry Mayhew
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
Huddersfield scandal
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
Affluent women
The development of charity work in Britain offered affluent women a way to participate in public affairs
Angela Burdett Coutts
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
Collection of statistics
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
The lancet
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
Self help
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
Charity organisation society
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
Thomas Carlyle
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’
Charles dickens
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
Oliver’ twist
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
Oliver Twist as a serial novel
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
Elizabeth Gaskell
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
Samuel smiles
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
Publication of self help
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
