How Extensive Was The Opposition To The Poor Law Flashcards
What nickname were the workhouses given?
Bastilles (after the infamous French prison)
What influenced this name?
The French Revolution
Give 2 reasons why workhouses were repellent to the poor?
Threatening strict regime
Situated at some distance from applicants home
Impersonal
What rumours circulated about the workhouses?
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.
Discussed the possibility of gassing pauper children to reduce population.
Why did the new workhouses make no distinctions between deserving and undeserving poor?
Everyone 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 as part of a gov plan to drive down wages
Why did old poor law overseers oppose the new system? 3 reasons.
To protect their existing powers
Cost of building new workhouses = expensive and unsustainable
Believed they operated a successful and viable system already
Why were urban areas a special case?
Industrial work put lots of workers out of work for short times making the workhouses stand empty.
What was the problem in agricultural areas with the ideas of workhouses ?
Outdoor relief cost 1/2 of what a workhouse would cost.
Why did Richard Oastler oppose the new poor law?
He said it would break up society
Why was John Walter singled out for criticism?
He was Berkshire magistrate paying generous outdoor relief and opposed the new poor law in the Times.
Why were influential landowners shocked?
At the power of the new commission’s powers
How did the opposition manifest itself in the rural areas of Britain? Give an example
Riots in the south :
Amersham riot act 1835
Kent 1835
East anglia 1844
How did opposition manifest itself in the industrial areas of Britain?
More violent than rural areas:
Huddersfield 1837- opposition 6 to 7 thousand riot
Oastler refused to read the riot act
Bradford 1837 and Dewsbury 1838- were violent protests
Why did John fielden help the Anti- Poor Law Campaign?
Radical MP,
Closed down his factory in protest
Refusing to pay poor rates
What conclusions can you draw about the anti poor law campaign?
Spontaneous reaction to maintain traditional rights
Short - lived moment
Evangelical Tories
Chartism
Working - class radicals
