The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844: with a Preface written in 1892Engels, Friedrich
History
The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844: with a Preface written in 1892
Engels, Friedrich
Great Britain -- Economic conditions; Working class -- Great Britain
in London (where the cheap shirts already mentioned are made), an
epileptic died of suffocation during an attack in bed, no one coming to
his relief; in the same house, four to six, sometimes eight children,
slept in one bed. In Shoreditch workhouse a man was placed, together
with a fever patient violently ill, in a bed teeming with vermin. In
Bethnal Green workhouse, London, a woman in the sixth month of pregnancy
was shut up in the reception-room with her two-year-old child, from
February 28th to March 20th, without being admitted into the workhouse
itself, and without a trace of a bed or the means of satisfying the most
natural wants. Her husband, who was brought into the workhouse, begged
to have his wife released from this imprisonment, whereupon he received
twenty-four hours imprisonment, with bread and water, as the penalty of
his insolence. In the workhouse at Slough, near Windsor, a man lay dying
in September, 1844. His wife journeyed to him, arriving at midnight; and
hastening to the workhouse, was refused admission. She was not permitted
to see her husband until the next morning, and then only in the presence
of a female warder, who forced herself upon the wife at every succeeding
visit, sending her away at the end of half-an-hour. In the workhouse at
Middleton, in Lancashire, twelve, and at times eighteen, paupers, of both
sexes, slept in one room. This institution is not embraced by the New
Poor Law, but is administered under an old special act (Gilbert's Act).
The inspector had instituted a brewery in the house for his own benefit.
In Stockport, July 31st, 1844, a man, seventy-two years old, was brought
before the Justice of the Peace for refusing to break stones, and
insisting that, by reason of his age and a stiff knee, he was unfit for
his work. In vain did he offer to undertake any work adapted to his
physical strength; he was sentenced to two weeks upon the treadmill. In
the workhouse at Basford, an inspecting official found that the sheets
had not been changed in thirteen weeks, shirts in four weeks, stockings
in two to ten months, so that of forty-five boys but three had stockings,
and all their shirts were in tatters. The beds swarmed with vermin, and
the tableware was washed in the slop-pails. In the west of London
workhouse, a porter who had infected four girls with syphilis was not
discharged, and another who had concealed a deaf and dumb girl four days
and nights in his bed was also retained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account