Poverty and Pauperism 1834-1870 Flashcards
What rule made the workhouse worse than the streets?
Less eligibility rule
What year was the Andover workhouse scandal?
1845
What happened at Andover?
Eating of bone marrow
Bone crushing work
Reported to the times increased public interest
What year was the Huddersfield workhouse scandal?
1848
What happened at Huddersfield?
Lice ridden
Children forced to sleep in the morgue as a punishment
Sharing beds with dead bodies
What changes in Victorian society increased objection to the workhouse?
Growth in Christian ethos/ philanthropy
What was the significance of the publication of Oliver Twist in 1837?
Serialised - so widely read
Depicted the horrors of the workhouse
When was Self Help published
1859
What did Edward Smith carry out in 1863?
The National Food Survey
This calculated the required diet and demonstrated the ineffective nature of the workhouse
What were the provisions of the Poor Law Amendment Act?
- Poor Law Commission set up
- grouped 15,000 parishes into 600 unions
- discouraged outdoor relief
How many workhouses had been built by 1839?
350
How much did the Banbury workhouse cost to build in 1835?
£6,200
What were conditions like in Workhouses?
- diet of cheese, bread, water and gruel
- 10 hour day
- families separated
- inmates dehumanised
what was the cost of an inmate in a workhouse compared to outdoor relief?
4s8d vs 2s3d
estimated between 50 - 100% more expensive to maintain paupers in a workhouse compared to outdoor relief
What did the PLC allow in Lancashire and Yorkshire in 1838?
continuation of outdoor relief when necessary
Why was the PLAA criticised?
felt that it was ideologically prejudice rather than practical
Why did the Tories oppose the PLAA?
paternalistic ideals
Describe the riots of 1835 (East Anglia)
against PLAA
Riot Act was read - 4 arrested
unorganised
divided regional aims
What in 1837 forced the Government to allow Outdoor Relief to be reestablished?
a trade depression caused unemployment en masse
What was concluded from the investigations at Andover?
Mcdougal was abusing female inmates, rumours were true
What was the impact of Andover?
Poor Law Commission was dissolved and The Poor Law Board was set up
Outdoor Relief Regulation Order
1852 - further restrictions on outdoor relief to sick and infirm
Role of Women in Poor Relief
- women took on philanthropic movements due to their ‘maternal’ instincts
Angela Burdett Couts
Philanthropist - set up Urania Cottage in 1847 as a home for impoverished women who had fallen into prostitution
funded education of pauper children
Workhouse Visiting Society
Founded by Louisa Twining in 1858 - used empirical methods, visited inmates
Metropolitan Poor Act
1867 - In 1865 The Lancet Medical Journal investigated treatment of the poor, the 1867 act ensured separate infirmaries for the inmates
Charity Organisation Society
1869 - established ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor, had a methodical approach and advocated ‘helping the poor to help themselves’
Thomas Carlyle
published ‘Past and Present’ in 1843 - highlighted the growing divides between rich and poor in society
Henry Mayhew
‘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
Elizabeth Gaskell
‘Mary Barton’ 1848 - depicted harsh living conditions in Manchester - fictional genre meant it was not considered a threat to social order
Samuel Smiles
Self Help - 1859 - sold 250,000 copies, brought to light peoples individual potential
