Chapter 18

Question 1

How did the population rise between 1801 to 1851 ?

Answer 1

At a slow rate more people started to immigrate from a more rural areas to urban areas

Question 2

How can we account for the rapid population growth ?

Answer 2

The development of industrialisation and job opportunities due to the rapid increase of factories/railways

Question 3

What do you think were the social effects of rapid population increase in urban areas ?

Answer 3

Led to overcrowding and poverty mainly for labouring classes
A lack of good sanitary conditions
Middle class and labouring class begin divided and social inequality emerging

Question 4

Housing conditions in the 19th century ?

Answer 4

• In working class houses there was no potable water and toilet
• there was usually an outside privy which might have been shared as many as 20 houses however not connected to sewers
• sewage would be drained in cesspits which were emptied by hand
• lived in hastily built, overcrowded and cramped back to back terrace or tenement dwellings
• close to smelly industrial centre with an entire family in one room

Question 5

Sanitation and water supply condition in the 19th century ?

Answer 5

• drinking water was normally supplied by water companies that only middle class could afford
• rest of the population had to use stand pipes
• many towns had to use river water which was always polluted, it always came from the Thames were around 237 sewers were emptied

Question 6

What did the 1841 Leeds Newspaper described the River Aire ?

Answer 6

• as begin charged with the contents of about 200 water closets, infirmary, slaughter houses, pig manure, old urine wash and all sorts of decomposed animal and vegetable substance

Question 7

Transportation condition in the 19th century ?

Answer 7

• creation of railways led to eviction of labouring classes and lose of houses
• increased more leisure time and new education degree
  -revolutionised Britain and created an economic growth
  -population increasing in public health
• parliamentary trains in 1844 could be seen as improving passenger rail service

Question 8

Living condition during the 19th century ?

Answer 8

• in 1840 one child in three died before reaching the age of five
• cholera the most terrible of all diseases, killing around 21,000 people in 1832 just in England
• by 1848-49 killing around 2000 a week just in London

Question 9

What other diseases where during the 19th century ?

Answer 9

-typhus
-typhoid
- tuberculosis ( causes a quarter and one third of all death during the first half of the century )
-scarlet fever
-measles

Question 10

How much did the national death rate increase ?

Answer 10

• before 1831 the figure was region of 19 per thousands
• in 1838 it rose steadily to 22.4
• and by 1849 reached a peak of 25.1

Question 11

What was the population between 1801 to 1851 ?

Answer 11

• rose from 10.5 million to 20.8 million

Question 12

Middle class living conditions ?

Answer 12

• segregated themselves from the rest in large houses in leafy suburbs
• respected middle ranks such as trades and crafts peoples live in neat respectable terraced houses
  -enjoyed from the structural and culture improvements

Question 13

What towns and cities developed in to great culture centres ?

Answer 13

• public building such as the magnificent town hall in Birmingham in 1834
• professional institution such as Liverpool Medical Centre Institution in 1837 and Royal Institution in Edinburgh in 1836

Question 14

Agriculture workers condition ?

Answer 14

• enclosure and agricultural improvements had changed the way of life for most of the other half
• in rural areas the income of agricultural labourers fell by about 30 per cent
• however was offset by easier access to fresh food, the health benefits of working in the fresh air
• agriculture wages lower that manufactures

Question 15

Industrialist workers condition ?

Answer 15

• wages were not reliable and were broken up by periods of unemployment
  -in the new urban sprawl the traditional close knit communities of rural living had be broken up and dispersed
  -the family ties and friendship that had acted as a support mechanism in troubled times could no longer operate
• provision of the new poor law of 1834 meant that they could no longer depend on relief from the parish

Question 16

Town dwellers conditions ?

Answer 16

• the period of intense cyclical unemployment and the consequent poverty and distress encouraged the crime and social disorder.
• rise in crime levels and easier to commit in large overcrowded city
• Municipal Reform Act of 1835 an attempt to improve administration of towns and services
• Metropolitan Police Force to deal with crime rates and disorder
• however lacked efficient and trustworthy police

Question 17

Factory acts way to improve conditions ?

Answer 17

• alleviated the worst abuse of labourers by outlawing employment of children under 9 in 1833 and curtailing women’s working hours in 1844
• many have slightly improved the quality of life for factory workers and families but would have meant a drop in the total wages coming into the households

Question 18

Hand loom wavers conditions ?

Answer 18

• there inability to compete with the machines and there subsequent fall in status and living standards was a tragedy
• earning dropped to 4s 6d a week during the 1830 meant that meat was never affordable
• earlier in the century they were earning 25 shillings a week and so loss self esteem as well as a decent livelihood would be an issue

Question 19

What did the Edwin Chadwick report do to improve conditions ?

Answer 19

Alert the government to the urgent need to improve living conditions of the poor although peel conservative government rejected the repot

Question 20

What were the key finding of the Edwin Chadwick report in 1842 ?

Answer 20

-suggest that sanitary conditions mostly for the labouring classes have been caused by bad ventilation and inhumane living conditions
- he stated that the were more death caused by bad ventilation than war
- suggested that if we improve public health the economic employment would increase

Question 21

What fraction of a workers weekly was spent on food ?

Answer 21

3/4

Question 22

What was the state of trade unions since 1824 and why?

Answer 22

• they were weakened by trade depression and anti combination laws that had made trade unions illegal.

Question 23

Why did Owen form a trade union ?

Answer 23

• believed that peoples character were a product of their environment therefore if poverty led to crime it was wrong to blame them
  -duty of men with power and influence to improve the environment
• a complete reorganisation of society in where workers control replaced private ownership

Question 24

How successful was the GNCTU in the short term ?

Answer 24

• within a few weeks it had a membership of over half a million each member paying one shilling

Question 25

What led to the GNCTU downfall ?

Answer 25

• on paper the organisation looked good but communication between the local branches was poor
• four of the most important union, builders,potter, spinner and clothier decided not to join apparently afraid to loose their separate identity
• disagreement between different branches
• employers insisted on their workers to sign ‘the document’ stating that there were not part of the GNCTU anyone who reused would be sacked
  -Whig government not supporting local magistrates who dealt harshly with trade unionist

Question 26

What were the consequence of the failure of GNCTU ?

Answer 26

• turn workers towards Chartism and the anti corn law league

Question 27

What happened in October 1833 in Tolpuddle, Dorset ?

Answer 27

A friendly agricultural society was founded due to the increase in mechanisation

Question 28

Tolpuddle aims ?

Answer 28

To unionise agricultural mechanisation
Fair wages for workers that have been depressed in the 1830s

Question 29

What happened the Tolpuddle Martyres ?

Answer 29

• six of the group were prosecuted and transported to Australia for seven years however this unfair subversion inspired a well- coordinated campgained led by William Lovett and they were pardoned and allowed to return to Britain

Question 30

Who were the Rochdale Pioneers and the Cooperatives movement 1844 ?

Answer 30

• inspired due to the social and economic values projected by many of the skilled tradesmen who saw themselves as a cut above unskilled laboureres
• believed that if they applied the currently popular virtues of thrift and self help in their daily lives they could continue to enjoy a decent standard of living
• in 1844 they set up a cooperative store by each contributing investment of £1. They borought good at wholesale and sold them at profit
  -by 1850 there were over 100 stores and they formed the cooperative wholesale society in 1863 which continues today

Question 31

Who were the friendly societies ?

Answer 31

• maintained paid subscriptions
  -members were mainly skilled artisan and regarded themselves as god fearing respectable and working class people
  -provide basic welfare benefits when they were required
• grew in both rural and urban areas and number soared about 1.5 million by 1846
• Peel government improved their status by appointing a paid register to administrate on behalf of all registered societies
• they became a symbol of Victorian working class respectability and emphasised their distance from the poorer labouring classes who were often out of work