CONSEQUENCES of the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION for the WORKING CLASS
I.
ECONOMIC PROBLEMS FOR WORKING CLASS
A. GENERAL REMARKS RE WORKING CLASS
1. who were working class?
2. just like in prior centuries working classes made up majority of people
a. analogous to peasant class
3. Europe & England use working class
4. where America uses lower class
5. unskilled, semiskilled & highly skilled
B. Boom & Bust cycles
1. Boom & bust times intensified under Ind Rev
2. cf w/our economic cycles today of depression & inflation
3. general depressions like that of late 1840's frequent & severe
4. why?
5. factories at first made little attempt to provide steady level of employment
6. when a batch of orders came in
7. machines & workers labored to capacity until orders filled
8. then factory simple shut down to await next order
9. food riots common during these troubled times
a. no work no food
10. government officials often threatened by hungry people
11. not only factories caused economic problems
12. for more women & children worked in small workshops than factories
a. "sweatshops" as they came to be called
13. & married women worked at home with their children
14. again orders for piecework fluctuated too
15. wages terribly low for piece work
a. like number of matchboxes glued
b. shirts sewn
16. & if no work then women prostitutes
17. domestic service employed great numbers
a. both men & women
C. Economic problems and their effect on working class families
1. since women's wages 1/2 to 2/3 of a mans for same work
2. single women could only make enough money to pay rent
a. not enough for food or clothing
3. thus working class women needed to marry
4. so women worked all day on their outside job
5. & then took care of children, & household duties
6. men did not help with chores & children
a. if they did they were ridiculed
7. women who failed to manage or spent too much could be expected to be hit
a. violence to wives common
b. violence increased when economic times worsened
c. no one intervened unless man beat another man's wife or fear of woman's death
d. & wives did not do anything about it because they needed their husband's wages to survive
8. mothers sacrificed for their children in other ways too
a. ate less than the husband & children
9. studies argue that working class women's status within family declined as result of industrialization &
urbanization
a. especially married women of working class
b. for few new opportunities for employment created for them
10. unmarried mothers plight terrible too
11. some mothers resorted to infanticide
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12. most women tried for infanticide in 18-19th c. servants
13. what now different than previous centuries infanticide equally practiced on boys & girls
II. POOR PEOPLE OF LONDON: STREET PEOPLE
A. GENERAL REMARKS
1. real poor most effected by industrial revolution
2. real poor earned their living in a wide variety of "street" occupations
3. Paris, London, & all countries had their street people
4. however, England better documented than other areas
5. plus Paris rebuilt 19th century
a. wide broad avenues constructed & crowded slum areas demolished
6. London was not redone until after WWII bombing
7. so London could handle more poor in smaller areas
8. considerable number of street people 19th c.
a. over 50,000 or 1/40 of total London population
9. where did they come from?
a. some displaced farm laborers from country
b. some refugees from Irish potato famine
c. some poor from Scotland
d. orphaned & abandoned children
e. others brought down by disease, injury & various personal misfortunes
f. 3 or 4 days of successive rain could reduce a person to starvation
10. common to all was dread of the workhouse
a. food & shelter available but lost of independence
11. new poor law of 1834 aim was to end outdoor relief for able bodied poor & forced them to work
a. where previously paid & got to stay in home
b. workhouses separated parents from their children
(1) done to discourage people from entering them
12. during this time in London one adult in three died on public charity,
a. either in workhouse, hospital, or asylum
13. idea to make workhouse so unattractive
14. poor would resort to it only as a last expedient
15. for Middle Class still had philosophy that poverty
16. one's own fault & equated with both idleness and criminality
17. Salvation Army established at this time
a. giving out soup
b. but this merely temporary palliative
B. HENRY MAYHEW
1. London journalist of mid 19th c.
2. today regarded as one of the best journalists ever to have written in English tongue
3. London Labour & the London Poor
a. interviewed & investigated thousands of London poor in 1850's
b. remarkable 4 volume work
4. why did he do this?
5. he said “to improve the condition of the people whose misery, ignorance & vice amidst all the immense
wealth and great knowledge of the first city in the world, is to say the very least a national disgrace.”
C. MAYHEW FOUND 6 MAJOR TYPES STREET PEOPLE
1. 1st - Street-Sellers, hucksters & vendors
a. all items from food to mfg goods sold by these people
b. 3/4 of street people
c. majority of them costermongers (literally apple sellers of costard - large apple)
2. Mayhew's volumes contain numerous examples of pitiful plight poorest & least successful street sellers
3. for 1/2 it was an hereditary calling
4. working day ranged from 4 am to 6 pm
D. Other street people
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1. Street-buyers
a. purchasers of used, left-over or cast off objects for resale or recycling
2. street-artisans
a. makers & sellers or repairers & menders of household articles
3. street-laborers
a. grubby army that gathered up, carried away or otherwise disposed of great city's refuse
4. street-performers
a. providers of a wide variety of amusement
5. street-finders
a. various types of street-finders
b. bottom of street folk
c. those that grubbed in streets
d. or in mud on banks of Thames for anything might bring in a penny
(1) called mudlarks
(2) toiled, often hip deep in mud of Thames after each high-tide in search of bits of coal, piece of
rope, fragment of old iron, perhaps a copper nail
e. 250 collected dog-dung for leather industry
f. used it to cleanse & scour skins
g. rat catchers
(1) because of unsanitary conditions rat population problem
h. sewer-hunters
(1) braved death by inrushing tides, foul gases & attack by rats in sewers in their quest for objects of
value that had entered London drains
E. ADDITIONAL STREET PEOPLE
1. Mayhew added an additional category of "those that will not work"
2. out of respect for street people who were bent on earning "an honest crust”
3. underworld of vagrants, professional beggars, thieves, burglars, swindlers
4. youths between 10 and 25 made up 1/2 of all offenders
a. most Irish Cockneys whose parents worked all day
III. PROSTITUTION 19th c
A. GENERAL REMARKS
1. prostitution form of employment for women when all other means failed
2. always more women seeking employment than there jobs
3. but also problem as prostitution most profitable means of earning income for women
4. prostitutes could earn in day what others made in week
5. all major European cities 19th c thousands of prostitutes
6. estimates
a. 30,000 in England & Wales in mid 19th c.
b. 100,000-200,000 in Germany by 20th c.
7. not new - always been 1 way for poor women to generate some income
8. women generally prostitutes for few years
9. when able moved back into regular work force or married
10. no stigma attached for lower working class prostitutes
11. also fashionable ones & occasional ones
B. REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION
1. prostitution generally legalized on continent
a. so subject to municipal regulations
2. police gave permission & supervised brothels
3. compulsory medical inspections required
4. generally each prostitute carried a card
5. attesting to her freedom from venereal disease
6. if she found w/venereal disease sent to hospital
7. once cured allowed to resume profession
8. prostitutes in England not examined by doctors & then given medical ok to practice their trade
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but when syphilis became almost epidemic in England
Parliament passed the Contagious Diseases Acts
anyone who police suspected or identified as a prostitute
could be required to undergo immediate medical examination for venereal disease
those found w/disease confined to lock hospitals for months
& then subject to a rigorous moral & religious instruction
this Act was repealed w/aid of Josephine Butler
who saw this as a discrimination against women
one negative result though was that this began the stigmatization of prostitution that has lasted through out
own times
C. JACK THE RIPPER
1. he preyed on lower class prostitutes in East End of London
a. poor area of London
2. bodies ripped - deep jagged incisions in lower abdomen as well as other mutilations
3. 5 prostitutes killed
4. never discovered who Jack was
a. ideas from doctor to Victoria's grandson Duke of Clarence
b. key papers have been destroyed
IV. LIVING CONDITIONS IN CITIES
A. Rapid Population Growth
1. those who survived hazards of work often succumbed to hazards of their living conditions
2. During 19th c European cities experienced massive growth
3. between 1800 & 1910
a. London grew from 831,000 to 4,521,000
b. Paris from 547,000 to 2,888,000
c. Berlin from 173,000 to 2,071,000
4. more large cities in England in 1900 than in all of Europe in 1800
5. populations were increasing in general because
a. better food
b. elimination of smallpox & bubonic plague
c. lower infant & child mortality
d. but still necessary to have 8 children in order for 5 to survive to adult
e. maternal mortality remained high until advent of antibiotics
f. motherhood fatal for 1 woman out of 20
B. Problems of Cities
1. cities in past had always been congested, dirty and unhealthy
2. but now that their size had increased so dramatically problems were just compounded
3. problems in every area:
a. transportation
b. sanitation
c. housing
d. education
e. crime & punishment
f. pollution
g. quality of life
h. employment opportunities
4. cities could not adapt quickly to the unfolding Industrial Revolution & population explosion
5. inadequate housing & poor sanitation the worst conditions
6. poor had to live in crowded 1 room to a family
7. & poorest in basements w/no light
8. construction lagged far behind population growth
a. eg. Vienna population rose 42%
(1) but housing rose 11% in 20 yrs period
9. Not until end of 19th century were
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a. central heat
b. clean running water
c. adequate street lighting
d. dependable sewage systems
10. available in major western cities
11. but for many working class men & women
12. urban improvement meant relocation into dreary row tenements
C. SANITATION PROBLEMS
1. w/cities so overcrowded no wonder conditions unsanitary
2. typhus, cholera, & tuberculosis were natural predators in areas w/o adequate sewerage facilities & fresh
water
3. cholera is caused by drinking water contaminated w/sewage
a. infested European cities until 3rd quarter 19thc.
4. towns did not have enclosed sewers, drains
5. toilet facilities primitive
6. these overtaxed privies meant raw sewage overflowed into cellars
V. SOME SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS RELATING TO CITIES
A. GENERAL REMARKS
1. 19th c becomes age of reform as result of problems
2. all areas Europe reform-minded
3. wanted to solve problems of urban society
4. Great Britain led way because it industrialized first
5. but before reform possible publicity needed to let people known about problems
B. CHARLES DICKENS 1812-1870
1. keen observer & set out to let people known about problems of city life
2. not college educated
3. from large poor family who suffered hard life
4. fortunately for Victorians, he experienced first-hand many of the conditions he later wrote about
5. DICKENS WORKS
a. Bleak House
b. Hard Times
c. Great Expectations
d. David Copperfield
e. Old Curiosity Shop
f. Oliver Twist
6. really aroused his public
7. Dickens helped to bring Victorian England around to the realization of the following:
a. horrific life in poorhouses
b. squalor of prisons
c. imprisonment for debt
d. slums
e. need for pure water
f. education
g. sanitation facilities
8. his literary style was such that he could show pathos instead of just pity
9. readers came to realize that the poor were not primarily in the poverty bracket because of damnation from
above for their sins & riotous living & slovenly ways
10. but because circumstances had dealt them their blows of poverty
11. his characters believable and mostly factual
12. he did not specifically have a program for help or reform,
13. but he served a useful purpose in pointing out where reform & action were needed
14. other writers wrote to the intellectual level of people’s minds
15. Dickens wrote to their hearts
16. a good summation of his thoughts can be found in his best book (according to critics) David Copperfield:
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a. "we all can do some good if we will"
C. ENGLAND'S PUBLIC HEALTH MOVEMENT
1. Edwin Chadwick, 1 of the most well-known 19th c reformers
2. set out to find a solution to problem of unsanitary conditions in London
3. he felt problems of poor not just economical in nature
4. he became convinced that disease and death actually caused poverty
5. he believed disease could be prevented by cleaning up urban environment
6. he proposed adequate supply of clean piped water
7. he said that excrement could be carried off by water through sewers
a. at less than 1/20th of cost of removing it by hand
8. Chadwick responsible for getting England's 1st public health law passed
a. that cleaned up filth in London
9. part of this campaign - increased use of soap
10. soap became 1 of most advertised products of 19tc.
11. Chadwick's obituary:
a. had he killed in battle as many as he save by sanitation, he would have had equestrian statues by the
dozen put up in his memory
12. public health movement won supporters in U.S., France and Germany
13. this sanitation campaign 1st step in solving the problem of disease & health problems
14. your text discusses the bacterial revolution w/Pasteur & others
D. NEW POLICE ORGANIZATIONS 19th c
1. in 18th England private law enforcements or agencies hired to keep peace
a. Bow Street runners
b. River Police
(1) private force hired by companies for protection on docks
2. but agitation for public police protection because of series of crimes
a. Shadwell Murders 1811
(1) Manchester family murder
b. Cato St Conspiracy 1820
(1) plot to assassinate Prime Minister & Cabinets
3. METROPOLITAN POLICE FORCE
a. est 1828 act by Robert Peel
b. greater London area
(1) called Scotland Yard
c. why
d. rented #4 Whitehall Place townhouse for headquarters
e. back fronted on Scotland Yard Way
(1) where constables or policemen located
(a) constable on patrol - cop
f. criminal investigation dept is what made it famous
(1) 1840's jewel thefts
g. criminal element didn’t like it & had to leave
h. made a difference in crime rate
i. success in solving crimes meant acceptance for police force
j. before they had been for protection of property
k. went on to further expansion
(1) hired detectives
l. use plainclothesmen
m. riot control
n. today called bobbies from Robert Peel
o. then called Raw Lobsters, Blue Devils
(1) more polite nicknames
p. not until 1850's police in outlying areas
q. Scotland Yard was & is not all over England
r. but became model for others cities
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E. EDUCATION
1. in 1815 majority weren’t in school
2. by end century majority were in school
3. but compulsory education for girls followed boys by about 50 years
4. 19th c is century for education for masses all over Europe
F. NEW EMPLOYMENT PATTERNS FOR WORKING CLASS WOMEN
1. gradually conscience of middle class became uneasy about the gulf between ideal woman hood & laboring
working class women
2. seamstress became a particular focus of guilt
3. tremendous increase in variety of new jobs for working class women
4. women could now find employment because of:
a. expansion of govt bureaucracies
b. emergence of corporations & other large-scale businesses
c. new & growing demand for schoolteachers resulting from compulsory education laws
d. vast expansion of retail stores all kinds
e. department store in Europe became major institution of retailing last half 19th c
f. led to jobs for women
5. technological inventions such as typewriter & telephone exchange fostered female employment
6. women by the thousands became secretaries & clerks
7. new jobs offered better employment opportunities for women than factory jobs
8. school teaching came to be identified as female occupation