manchester sources Flashcards
revision
Dr James Phillips Kay
who? young Medical graduate
where? Physician at Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary in the heart of Manchester
1828
Confronted with Cholera epidemic - 1832
Panic because of threat of cholera epidemic spreading from poor areas to more affluent areas
why? Authorities relied on public health measures to stop cholera from spreading
who for? Kay’s report summarised voluntary board of health’s inspectors findings - Kay himself visited all the districts mentioned
‘The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes Employed in the Cotton Manufacture in Manchester’
what? Report was Kay’s attempt to understand spread of disease and find ways of combatting it
Tables of statistics
Found connection between the disease and poverty
disease of the poor
Kay links poverty and vice but does not blame poor - he suggests it is down to their ignorance and the want for better examples and coping with ‘hunger and toil’.
Kay makes a moral judgement
‘moral and physical condition’ of the working classes
Kay uses his medical background to add authority to his findings - adopts a scientific tone. medical language, distant - does not blame but seeks to explain and seek something to be done about it
‘it reflects a medical view of society’
Kay talks about living conditions - streets and houses - connection between cleanliness and bad habits.
Kay is frustrated by limitations of his statistics and adds description to the tables.
Kay says society is difficult to measure
Kay also compares the condition of the working class homes with middle class homes eg ill-ventilated, uncleanliness’ the two types of accommodation are not comparable.
Friedrich Engels
who? German bourgeoisie
mill owner - Father owns Mills in Manchester
Friends with Marx
Meets up with Chartists - interested in their campaign
Has an agenda - bias
Reports of what he sees but also reports on information that he hasn’t seen but gleaned from others
‘The condition of the working class’ 1845
what? pamphlet/treatise
polemic, didactic, highly descriptive
uses reports and information form other sources
for a German audience
reports on polarisation between a small number of economists and the increasingly exploited working classes
deplores the ‘moral consequences’ of women working and men having to do domestic duties BUT also talks of how the ‘rule of the husband over the wife must have been inhuman too’
talks of demoralisation of working class
(he believed eventually the proletariat would overthrow the bourgeoisie)
*CONFLICT -Political conflict of unregulated market, political economy, Laissez Faire, economic chaos resulting in a dehumanisation of the working-class. Social conflict – starvation - dehumanising of working class – not seen as people leads to even greater separation of the classes.
Engels considers if crime by the working class is ‘the earliest, crudest, and least fruitful form of rebellion’ and this led to other forms of resistance - strikes and political protests
writing at a time of protests in Manchester
Joseph Adshead
merchant and reformer
Involved in Anti-Corn Law League
penal reformer
Distress in Manchester: Evidence (Tabular and otherwise) of the State of the Labouring Classes in 1840-42
Report linked to charitable distribution
statistical material - hard facts and individual stories
(some compared to Kay’s findings)
‘Narratives of Suffering’ - names the working-class featured
providing names and describing circumstances makes hardship seem more real
deliberate - handing out donations to the poor
examples are provided by a ‘military gentleman’ - not easily swayed by emotions - significant
Adshead stresses families are respectable
circumstances beyond their control
Adshead appeals for an emotional response
Makes a moral judgement
Connection with working class by middle-class inspectors is new way of knowing other classes
explicit & implicit references
eg Engel’s source
*Explicit Reference – to the unregulated market, Laissez Faire, and the impact of this on the working class. The failings of Political Economy.
‘growing polarisation between a small number of capitalists and the increasingly exploited working classes.’ (Mackie, R. with Chimisso, C. 2017, p. 13)
*Implicit Reference - Separation of classes.
Primary source
Secondary source
A primary source refers to documentation or material presented by parties that were directly present or involved in the referred subject, while a secondary source refers to documentation derived from the opinion or views of primary sources.
Historical source
Literary Source
Engel’s
Mary Barton
Period of Chartism Period of revolution in Europe Cotton Famine American Civil War Age of Equipoise Preston Lockout Utilitarianism - For the greater good. Condition of England -Engels, Carlyle, Disraeli. Dickens, Gaskell Irish Famine Anti Corn Law League Reform Acts Factories Act (Women & Children) Great Exhibition Hard Times - Charles Dickens Self Help - Samuel Smiles Food Riots - Stalybridge Third Reform Act - all male householders The Condition of the Working Class published in English (USA)
1830s - 1840s 1848 1863 1861- 65 1850s to 1860s 1853 - 54
1845-51 1846 1832 & 1867 1844 1851 1854 1859 1863 1884 1887
political economy
for - middle class and upper class who benefit for unregulated industry against - Chartists. Engels and Marx cited in conflict with - Carlyle, Dickens saw how Political Economy was in conflict with social issues - impact on working class.
laissez Faire
leave alone - unregulated business
freedom from resrictions
(did not trust gov - bias)
statistics
dehumanised and devalued the working class
Carlyle
Wrote for the Clerisy - he was at centre of literati - elite and middle class readership
Scottish, working class background - he is an outsider
political/philosophical essayist
Wrote about Chartists
was not against them but not totally for them
he believed they (Chartists) were in want of good leadership by the elite - moral authority
warned gov. not to ignore the meetings of chartists and their demands - at the elite’s peril
writing - rhetoric, persuasive, speech-like, discursive
historical and literary writing
saw conflict between political economy and society - social divide and unrest - consequences of an unregulated market
argues from a moral perspective
Carlyle’s voice is heard in debates
Leon Faucher
French, economist - wrote for French liberal journal
middle class and elite readership?
Faucher’s work immediately available in Britain (unlike Engel’s)
Fauchers is impressed by the vitality of the City’s industrial development
Faucher talks of the impact on the economy by the fluctuations in the demand for cotton goods
Faucher makes reference to poor conditions of the working class but presents it as an unfortunate side effect of efficient production
moral judgement on working class - worried about the moral consequences of employing women in the factories, the degradation of the working class, crime and public disorder as a consequence of industrialisation
Faucher discursive style of writing - distant
he is concerned about the consequences of industrialisation but sees it as interconnected problems
Faucher calls working class workers as operatives
writing at a time of protests in Manchester
condition of England
coined by Carlyle
social problems and issues indissolubly tied to economic vitality
‘from this filthy sewer,,, pure gold flows’ de Tocqueville
Writers such as Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë illuminated contemporary social problems through detailed descriptions of poverty and inequality.
sometimes - paternalism
utilitarianism
moral philosophy - focuses on consequences or outcome
David Ross
Chartist lecturer in Manchester
from Ireland, Catholic - outsider - working class
speaker on the corn laws before a speaker for the Chartists
arrested after Plug Strikes but acquitted due to no evidence
argues from a political perspective
inequalities between masters and men - legislation biased in favour of mill owners
hand loom weavers - controlled their own labour
factories - source of poverty, wretchedness and discontent
Ross’ voice not heard in debates
