Poverty & Pauperism

Question 1

What are the factors for a ‘Consequences of the PLAA’ essay?

Answer 1

Money
Extent of poor relief
Impact on paupers
Punishment/support

Question 2

What are the factors for a ‘Changing attitudes after PLAA’ essay?

Answer 2

Government attitudes
Individuals
Self-help
Scandals
Charity/Philanthropic organisations

Question 3

When was the Poor Law Amendment Act (PLAA)?

Answer 3

1834

Question 4

What were the impacts of the PLAA?

Answer 4

• Designed to discourage applicants
• Restricted outside of workplace aid for able-bodied workers
• Created the Poor Law Commission (3 commissioners)
• Amalgamated parishes into groups of 30 responsible for their poor relief (board of guardians elected by ratepayers)

Question 5

How much did it cost to keep a pauper in a workhouse in 1862?

Answer 5

4s 8d in a workhouse but 2s 3d to provide outdoor relief

Question 6

What estimated percentage more expensive was indoor relief than outdoor relief?

Answer 6

50-100%

Question 7

What were the failures of PLAA?

Answer 7

• Didn’t achieve immediate success
• Show no reduction in poverty in years after
• Significant loopholes meaning many local guardians acted contrary
• Such opposition from the north meant by 1838 old poor law methods could be used
• Not applied consistently across country

Question 8

Why were there issues up north and rurally after PLAA?

Answer 8

• Many guardians resisted expensive workhouses due to need for employment. Cost £6,200 to open one in Banbury
• Rural areas thought it to be more expensive to put ppl in workhouses than pay outdoor relief

Question 9

When was the Andover workhouse scandal?

Answer 9

1845

Question 10

Why was Andover subject of a scandal?

Answer 10

Reports leaked out that inmates were eating raw flesh from animal bones while bone crushing (unhygienic)
-unmarried mothers wore a yellow stripe for shame
-milk was watered down
-reduced rations
Andover MP raised issue in parliament & master of workhouse forced to resign

Question 11

What was the positive impacts of the Andover scandal on public opinion?

Answer 11

• They were well publicised
• After 1845 conditions gradually improved
• Exposed the abuses of the PLAA system, led to Poor law board in 1847
• Illustrated how some groups already believed in a different way of dealing with poverty

Question 12

Where and when was there another workhouse scandal?

Answer 12

Huddersfield 1848

Question 13

What group was created after the Andover scandal?

Answer 13

the Workhouse society, 1858

Question 14

What was the Poor Law Board?

Answer 14

Reformed Poor Law Commission, formed in 1847. Brought poor law under government control, president of board was an MP

Question 15

What was the negative impacts of the Andover scandal on public opinion?

Answer 15

• Workhouses remained a central feature of provision for the poor
• workhouses continued to be built
• Changes made were to sedate any discontent from workers & to secure middle class interests

Question 16

How many workhouses were built between 1851 and 1866?

Answer 16

100 added to the existing 406

Question 17

What volumes did Henry Mayhew publish in 1849?

Answer 17

London Labour and the London Poor

-Concluded that wages were too low for people to deal with economic fluctuations

Question 18

Why did the government oppose the Poor Law?

Answer 18

• Outdoor relief was cheaper than indoor
• Some felt it was too liberal, passed by the Whigs
• William Cobbet felt it was harsh to treat them like criminals

Question 19

Why did poor people oppose the Poor Law?

Answer 19

• Poor workhouse conditions
• Introduction of the workhouse test
• Had little choice
• Many people believed government just wanted to save money

Question 20

Why did the south oppose the Poor Law?

Answer 20

• Attempted to end outdoor relief
• They had more unemployment due to lack of industrialisation
• Riots 1835 in East Anglia
• May riot in Amphill, 300-500 people

Question 21

When was the Metropolitan Anti-Poor Law association?

Answer 21

1838, led by Earl Stanhope

Question 22

Where was the most determined resistance to the Poor Laws?

Answer 22

Todmorden

• campaign led by local MP and factory owner Fielden
• closed down factory & refused to pay poor rates
• workers supported it & attacked homes of local guardians
• troops needed to stop it

Question 23

Who was Thomas Carlyle? (growth of charity/self-help)

Answer 23

• published ‘Past and Present’ in 1843
• drew attention to class divide
• more interested in ‘spiritual growth’ of the country

Question 24

Who was Henry Mayhew? (growth of charity/self-help)

Answer 24

• 4 volume work
• first study of this area to be investigated by private individual
• forced people to consider a different view

Question 25

Who was Elizabeth Gaskell? (growth of charity/self-help)

Answer 25

• wrote ‘Mary Barton’ in 1848

- offered a realistic impression of poorer classes and their lives in cities

Question 26

Who mainly organised the ship in charity and self-help?

Answer 26

The middle class

Question 27

Who founded a hostel for poor women, Urania Cottage?

Answer 27

Angela Burdett-Coutts and Charles Dickens

Question 28

When was Oliver Twist published?

Answer 28

1837

Question 29

When was the Charity Organisation Society founded?

Answer 29

1869

Question 30

What did the 1865 investigation by medical journal ‘The Lancet’ result in?

Answer 30

The Metropolitan Asylum Act, 1867

Question 31

What was the purpose of the Charity Organisation Society?

Answer 31

Distinguish between the deserving and undeserving poor & then to recommend the best ways to help the deserving get back onto their feet

Question 32

When did Thomas Paine publish ‘The Rights of Man’?

Answer 32

1792