LAST MINITE POOR LAW INFO: Flashcards
Figured- population of U.K. 1801, 1851,1901
-In 1801 the population of England, Wales and Scotland was around 10.5 million. By 1851 it had doubled to 20 million, 1901 doubled again to 45 million
What could you argue about the settlement laws?
-the fact that the government passed the settlement laws suggests they wouldn’t create something which would combat their own system of relief- old poor law
What did MP William Cobbett say about the swing riots? How many riots? What were the consequences?
- openly spoke about violence in towns like Rye and Hastings
- there was riots in 20 counties across southern and Eastern England
- harsh- 400 transported to Australia, 644 imprisoned
-Parliamentary response to the swing riots:
- Home Secretary Lord Melbourne demonstrated fear ordering them to be dealt with harshly- 19 rioters sentenced to death
- attacks specifically against MPs eg: John Bennett who had a harsh allowance system for poor relief. Felt threatened as local farmers were invited to a vestry meeting where grievance was discussed and resolved- demonstrates a big parliamentary influence- power with the people
What was issue with Elizabethan poor law?
-“nobody could come up with an answer to the question of how to deter the idle without penalising the defenceless”
Insanity in the Workhouse:
- ‘The Workhouse Howl’
- 45,000 moved from workhouses to asylums- didn’t know what to do with them
- mentally ill grew from 1 per 100 in the Workhouse to 1 per 8 as century progressed
What was the impact of the First World War on indoor and outdoor relief?
1914-1919:
- indoor paupers dropped 100,000
- outdoor relief decreased 285,000-lowest figure for 2 centuries
What was the Anatomy Act 1832?
The Anatomy Act provided for the needs of physicians, surgeons, and students by giving them legal access to corpses that were unclaimed after death – in particular, corpses of those who had died in hospital, prison, or a workhouse.
-‘crime’ of poverty made their bodies permitted to be dissected
Goodlad’s argument:
- as attitudes in 20th century changed, proved impossible to craft modern welfare state on the structures of the 19th century
- Benthamite ideal of bureaucratic centralism remained a ideal rather than a reality
- Workhouse characterised by an all-pervading psychological harshness
What was Dr Banardo’s school for children?
- In 1870, Barnardo opened his first home for boys. As well as putting a roof over their heads, the home trained the boys in carpentry, metalwork and shoemaking, and found apprenticeships for them.
- To begin with, there was a limit to the number of boys who could stay there. But when an 11-year-old boy was found dead — of malnutrition and exposure — two days after being told the shelter was full, Barnardo vowed never to turn another child away.
-Barnardo’s work was radical. The Victorians saw poverty as shameful, and the result of laziness or vice. But Barnardo refused to discriminate between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor. He accepted all children, regardless of race, disability or circumstance.
Barnardo believed that every child deserved the best possible start in life, whatever their background. This philosophy still guides the charity today
- By the time he died in 1905, the charity had 96 homes caring for more than 8,500 vulnerable children. This included children with physical and learning difficulties. Barnardo’s experience of caring for his daughter Marjorie, who had Down’s syndrome, strongly influenced his approach to the care of disabled children.
- As early as 1887 he introduced the practice of ‘boarding out’ children to host families – an early form of fostering. By 1905 more than 4000 children were boarded out. This paved the way for our pioneering work in foster care and adoption in the twentieth century.
- Barnardo’s was one of many children’s charities that sent some children to start a new life in Australia or Canada
- 6- ‘fighters for the poor’:
- Who was Martha Loane? Olive Malvery? Mrs Mary Higgs?
- By 1914 women became social investigators of their own also seeking to alleviate the plight of Britain’s Edwardian underclass
- before 1900 women had been largely in represented such as Beatrice Webb, Octavia Hill or Clara Collett who assisted Booth in his survey- “Life and Labour of the people of London”
- all 3 of these women raised awareness of social deprivation in Edwardian Britain and were held in high regard at the time
1) Martha Loane (1852-1933):
- Queen’s nurse
- published 5 nursing handbooks and commentaries and 6 books between 1905-1911 eg: “The Queen’s poor”
- focused on all aspects of working class life but particularly women and children
- raises awareness on the complexities of poverty
- produces authentic, anecdotal evidence which spoke frankly, had privileged access to poor and unique access to poor- trust developed
2) Olive Malvery (1877-1914):
- also focused on women and children and their need for protection
- co-wrote “The White Slave Market” which campaigned against the procurement of women for foreign prostitution
- wrote many books eg: “The Soul Market” which became one of the most popular Edwardian work of social investigators- reprinted 11 times in 4 years
- took many low class jobs eg: factory, shop worker, barmaid…- able to convey what it felt like to be a low-paid, exploited woman in dangerous trades
- helped in Salvation Army Shelter and lodging houses
- gave some book proceeds to “Girls Guild of Good Life”
3) Mrs Mary Higgs (1854-1937):
- well educated
- earned an OBE
- Wrote books eg: 1905 “Five Days and Five Nights” and 1906 “Glimpses into the Abyss”
- set up woman hostels in Oldham which became widespread being replicated in many cities
- campaigned against vagrancy laws
- visited wards, lodging houses and disguised as a tramp
- lectured on social issues
- “cast iron system administered in a cast iron way”
How many parishes- Elizabethan poor law?
15,000 parishes in England and Wales
-When was the outbreak of the French Revolution?
-1789
What was other issues in Elizabethan poor law?
- agrarian depression- reduced farm employment and increased in able-bodied applicants
- American cotton crop failing
When was Knatchbull’s General Workhouse Act introduced?
-1723
