How Extensive Was The Opposition To The Poor Law? Flashcards
What nickname were workhouses given?
Bastilles
What influenced this name?
The French Revolution
Give 2 reasons why workhouses were repellent to the poor?
Situated at some distance from home
Impersonal
Threatening strict regime
What rumours circulated about the workhouse?
They had been built as extermination centres for the poor
What did Thomas Malthus propose?
That population growth would outstrip food production
What was the ‘Book of Murder’
Anti-poor law propaganda based on 2 anonymous pamphlets which discussed the possibility of gassing pauper children to reduce the population
Why did the new workhouse make no distinctions between deserving and undeserving poor?
Everyone was thrown together in the same workhouse
Why did Commission proposals to move unemployed labourers to the north of England 1835-37 create outrage?
Labourers argued it was part of a government plan to drive down wages
Why did Old Poor Law Overseers oppose the new system, 3 reasons ?
To protect their existing powers
They believed they operated a successful and viable system in their own parish
Cost of building the workhouse would be expensive and unsustainable
Why were urban areas a special case?
Because industrial work put lots of workers out of work for short periods of time and then the workhouses would stand empty.
What was the problem in agriculture areas with the idea of workhouses?
Because outdoor relief cost about half of what a workhouse would cost
Why did Richard Oastler oppose the new poor law?
Because he said it would break up society
Why was John Walter singled out for criticism?
He was Berkshire magistrate paying generous outdoor relief who opposed the new Poor Law in the Times
Why were the influential landowners shocked?
At the power of the new commissions powers
How did opposition manifest itself in the rural areas of Britain?
Riot and disorder in the south Ie:
Amersham riot act 1835
Kent 1835
East Anglia 1844
