Poverty and Pauperism 1834-1870

Question 1

What rule made the workhouse worse than the streets?

Answer 1

Less eligibility rule

Question 2

What year was the Andover workhouse scandal?

Answer 2

1845

Question 3

What happened at Andover?

Answer 3

Eating of bone marrow
Bone crushing work
Reported to the times increased public interest

Question 4

What year was the Huddersfield workhouse scandal?

Answer 4

1848

Question 5

What happened at Huddersfield?

Answer 5

Lice ridden
Children forced to sleep in the morgue as a punishment
Sharing beds with dead bodies

Question 6

What changes in Victorian society increased objection to the workhouse?

Answer 6

Growth in Christian ethos/ philanthropy

Question 7

What was the significance of the publication of Oliver Twist in 1837?

Answer 7

Serialised - so widely read

Depicted the horrors of the workhouse

Question 8

When was Self Help published

Answer 8

1859

Question 9

What did Edward Smith carry out in 1863?

Answer 9

The National Food Survey

This calculated the required diet and demonstrated the ineffective nature of the workhouse

Question 10

What were the provisions of the Poor Law Amendment Act?

Answer 10

• Poor Law Commission set up
• grouped 15,000 parishes into 600 unions
• discouraged outdoor relief

Question 11

How many workhouses had been built by 1839?

Answer 11

350

Question 12

How much did the Banbury workhouse cost to build in 1835?

Answer 12

£6,200

Question 13

What were conditions like in Workhouses?

Answer 13

• diet of cheese, bread, water and gruel
• 10 hour day
• families separated
• inmates dehumanised

Question 14

what was the cost of an inmate in a workhouse compared to outdoor relief?

Answer 14

4s8d vs 2s3d

estimated between 50 - 100% more expensive to maintain paupers in a workhouse compared to outdoor relief

Question 15

What did the PLC allow in Lancashire and Yorkshire in 1838?

Answer 15

continuation of outdoor relief when necessary

Question 16

Why was the PLAA criticised?

Answer 16

felt that it was ideologically prejudice rather than practical

Question 17

Why did the Tories oppose the PLAA?

Answer 17

paternalistic ideals

Question 18

Describe the riots of 1835 (East Anglia)

Answer 18

against PLAA
Riot Act was read - 4 arrested
unorganised
divided regional aims

Question 19

What in 1837 forced the Government to allow Outdoor Relief to be reestablished?

Answer 19

a trade depression caused unemployment en masse

Question 20

What was concluded from the investigations at Andover?

Answer 20

Mcdougal was abusing female inmates, rumours were true

Question 21

What was the impact of Andover?

Answer 21

Poor Law Commission was dissolved and The Poor Law Board was set up

Question 22

Outdoor Relief Regulation Order

Answer 22

1852 - further restrictions on outdoor relief to sick and infirm

Question 23

Role of Women in Poor Relief

Answer 23

• women took on philanthropic movements due to their ‘maternal’ instincts

Question 24

Angela Burdett Couts

Answer 24

Philanthropist - set up Urania Cottage in 1847 as a home for impoverished women who had fallen into prostitution
funded education of pauper children

Question 25

Workhouse Visiting Society

Answer 25

Founded by Louisa Twining in 1858 - used empirical methods, visited inmates

Question 26

Metropolitan Poor Act

Answer 26

1867 - In 1865 The Lancet Medical Journal investigated treatment of the poor, the 1867 act ensured separate infirmaries for the inmates

Question 27

Charity Organisation Society

Answer 27

1869 - established ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor, had a methodical approach and advocated ‘helping the poor to help themselves’

Question 28

Thomas Carlyle

Answer 28

published ‘Past and Present’ in 1843 - highlighted the growing divides between rich and poor in society

Question 29

Henry Mayhew

Answer 29

‘London Labour and London Poor’ published in a series in The Morning Chronicle over the 1840s
His empirical research concluded that poverty was a result of insufficient wages that prevented workers from being able to put provisions aside in anticipation of economic depravity

Question 30

Elizabeth Gaskell

Answer 30

‘Mary Barton’ 1848 - depicted harsh living conditions in Manchester - fictional genre meant it was not considered a threat to social order

Question 31

Samuel Smiles

Answer 31

Self Help - 1859 - sold 250,000 copies, brought to light peoples individual potential