Unit 3.5 The Government, Self Help & Charity 1847-80 Flashcards

Question

What were the successes of friendly societies?

Answer 1

-friends, neighbours or workers provided for themselves in times of need -Surge in the number of friendly societies at the beginning of the 19th century & after 1834 after more stricter Poor Law -Created protects against the uncertainties of the Industrial Revolution -1847 - friendly society movement had become an organisation with central bodies to which individual societies (lodges) could affiliate - spread over several branches -received payment in times of sickness, death and unemployment -Membership topped 2.7million by 1877 -Burial societies saved paupers from a pauper funerals (flimsy wooden coffin and an unmarked mass grave) for as little as 1d a week -the 3 biggest burial societies - e.g. the Royal London - by 1880 had over 4 million members

Answer 2

-Society fees were often too high for some paupers - usually 6d a week was the norm - beyond the means of the poorest workers, who regularly suffered from unemployment -Some societies also fined paupers for late payments - added to the debt paupers faced -Some paupers stopped from membership; over 40, ill, in dangerous occupations e.g. miners -Therefore only suitable for skilled workers -Fully paid up members were not always assured benefits when they needed them -Some friendly societies were badly managed and collapsed - encouraged workers to join knowing they couldn’t keep up the weekly payments

Answer 3

-Trade unions offered a range of benefits for a weekly fee of 1s e.g. ASE - offered pensions, benefits for sickness and death, other unions offered unemployment pay -Trade unions rose rapidly in the mid to late 19th century - due to industrialisation -Allowed workers to fight for better working conditions and higher pay -Co-operative societies allowed paupers to have regular dividends (assured the food wasnt adulterer - spoiled or had something added to it like adding chalk to bread to make it white) - they were used to pay rent -Co-ops sold good quality goods to working class fam through them paying money to rent shops -1851 - 130 shops spread in the North -1880 - nearly a million coop shareholders

Answer 4

-Only skilled workers could afford the weekly subscription fee of the trade unions. -Some unions couldn’t be as generous as the ASJC e.g. Brickmakers Society of London had no sickness fund -Semi-skilled and skilled workers were the only ones who benefitted from co-operative shops - you had to pay in cash at the time of purchase and not in tokens or credit -Co-op dividends were based on amount of money people spent so those who were the poorest had less money to spend so had thus less dividends

Answer 5

Charles Dickens Samuel Smiles Henry Mayhew

Answer 6

-Emphasised two points: the poor were people who had hopes and desires like everyone else and the workhouse system was a mindless cruel institution that dehumanised -He experienced poverty firsthand when his father John Dickens was thrown into Marshalsea prison -at 12 - he was sent to work in a blacking factory in poor conditions -He contributed to the Mirror of Parliament before becoming a parliamentary journalist Morning Chronicle -He ended all of his novels with a cliffhanger - eager for the next instalment - not just popular with the middle class and the illiterate poor gathered together to have episodes to read them -Oliver Twist 1838 - damning indictment of the workhouse system -Bleak House - paupers were excluded from normal human life and contact -Inspired other novelists like Elizabeth Gaskell in Mary Barton (1848) that focused on poverty and problems faced by those living close to the edge -provided a subtle pressure for change

Answer 7

-he was an investigative journalist -he confounded a satirical magazine called ‘Punch’ - sold 6000 copies in a week in the 1840s -1849 - he wrote a series of articles in the ‘Morning Chronicle’ in which he described the lives of the Poor in London - gathered together and published as a book called ‘London Labour and the London Poor’ which captured the imagination of the public -visited the homes and workplaces of the poor and wrote about what he saw, heard and felt - investigative journalism revealed the extend of how Londons economy relied on the unskilled -divided the labouring poor into: 1 - those who will work who undertook an enormous range of hobs such as carpenters or bricklayers, 2 - those who cannot work because there was no jobs for them to do, 3 - those who will not work because they choose not to such as vagrants

Answer 8

-he wrote articles on Parliamentary reforms whilst a medical student -then, as the editor of the Leeds times he campaigned for reform of parliament, women’s suffrage and free trade and factory reform -strong supporter of the cooperative movement such as the Leeds cooperative societies and the Leeds Railway society -supported Chartism - became concerned with advocation of physical violence - distanced himself -didnt think that parliamentary reform was enough to get people out of poverty -thought individual reform (changing attitudes as an individual) would be the most successful -wrote a book called ‘Self Help’ published in 1859 -thought it was important to accumulate wealth without concern for others and therefore the correct use of money is the basis of self help -said there was no need to pay vast amounts in poor rates and that only the destitute need help

Answer 9

Smiles - called for parliamentary change Mayhew - works became national Dickens - subtle pressure for change in both the middle class and lower class, he was persuasive

Answer 10

Smiles - mostly worked in Leeds, favoured self help and some of his manuscripts weren’t published Mayhew - categories not much better than deserving or underserving Dickens - focused on just workhouses

Answer 11

-Parliamentary Reform Act 1867 extended the voting qualification to include householders, which doubled the electorate from one million to two million men so the respectable working class could now vote -increased pressure from radicals to democratise the election of guardians, since 1834, the well to do ratepayers were able to have more votes in guardian elections based on the amount and value of their property - Impacted rural parishes the most where number of ratepayers was small so the gentry had a lot of control - tried to combine small parishes but only combined 580 small parishes out of 6,111 in 10 years -increasing the electorate to the better off working class meant the government was aware of the welfare of the people. Legislation that was introduced to improve public health was enforced by the local authorities, allowing government to see how the Local Government Boards were doing compared to the Poor Law Board - greater pressure for change

Unit 3.5 The Government, Self Help & Charity 1847-80 Flashcards

(35 cards)