Poverty in the Victorian Era - Essay Example

Insert Poverty in the Victorian Era Victorian era of British history is the period of Queen Victoria’s rule that span from around 1837 to 1901. Great Britain’s 19th Century was characterized with huge population blooms with various reasons advanced by different persons as the causes of this growth. Examples of commonly cited reasons include increased survival of children at the infancy stage, larger families, immigration (such as the great movement from Ireland into Britain due to Ireland’s poor employment status/ lack of employment and the potato famines of the time that caused food insecurities), people living longer, and so on. Consequently, at the end of the 19th century, the number of people occupying Great Britain had grown over three times compared to the population at the start of the century. Rapid changes in housing, employment and social welfare resulted in great variations in the lives of the peoples in the Victorian era with this period of adjustment leading to extreme poverty and people dying in the streets due to starvation. This period (19th century) thus braved a plethora of social challenges with the country moving towards industrialization from an agrarian society (Binns, 78). The urban population bloom then foresaw increased social inequalities. The poverty witnessed in Victorian England was principally a result of a sharp increase in the human population. Generally, the population growth throughout the nation was unprecedented. However, the bloom in major towns and cities was quite phenomenon with people flocking urban centers (from their rural roots) in search of opportunities of employment (as a result of the industrial revolution). Apart from seeking job opportunities, people flocked into towns and cities looking for a better way of living, adventure and searching for the unknown. In the end, population growth and internal and external immigrations led to the fight for any available job in the country. Because there were a lot of people desperate for jobs (both unskilled and skilled alike), employers characteristically paid low wages that were barely above the level of subsistence (as it was a take it or leave it attitude season for job owners). Situations would get more dire when work dried up or if the job was seasonal and the worker had to be rendered jobless again. Since the amounts paid during the active working seasons were barely enough to sustain them, most of the folks had no savings to return home to as they had been living from hand to mouth (Black, 124). Due to the economic difficulties families had to contend with at the time, children were hence made to contribute towards the budgets of their respective families (working in dangerous situations and for long periods with very little money to show for at the end of these gruesome endeavors). Children as young as four or five were made to do some form of work to keep the family going. For instance, children would precariously work as chimney boys and girls, cleaning chimneys and navigating through machinery to clean up dirty such as cotton bobbins and crawling tunnels that were too squeezed for adult access. Many children lost their lives in these hazardous jobs by falling to their deaths or simply suffocating in the chimneys. In many instances, children working in mills and factories were beaten so that they could work faster or be more diligent. Other children engaged in equally menial and unrewarding tasks such as selling flowers, matches and other cheap goods, performing errands, shining shoes and crossing sweepers (Collard, 345). Because of the soaring unemployment rates and low wages, people opted to live closer to the areas where jobs were available (to minimize on other costs such as transport). In addition, the duration spent commuting to and from work places would prolong an already lengthy day beyond human endurance. As a result of this need, housing became expensive (take it or leave it attitude from landlords, again) and rare to come by thus creating conditions of extreme overcrowding. London provided a novel example of these challenges. Therein, population grew astronomically as houses were transformed into tenements and flats with the owners unconcerned about the conditions and upkeep of these residential. A significant part of the metropolis was composed of slums (small and big alike) that reeked pure misery (Graham, 365). A single room in a previously spacious and beautiful house would then be held by many people of various age groups. This was because a majority of the tenants could hardly manage to pay rent for their rooms and so they would rent out space in their rooms to other people who paid around three pence daily. In these circumstances, families and spouses would live together minus separate living units for each household (needless to say, theft was common and open sexual activity ubiquitous as there was little privacy) and were hence referred to as rookeries (since rooks do not live in separate families as other birds appear to do). In some cases, it is documented that women had to be alert to ward off rats that would threaten to gnaw their children’s fingers and faces. People were simply desperate to have a roof over their heads; any kind of shelter would suffice. The period is however known for great disparity in fortunes, as in most areas, slums and tenements that signaled abject poverty were often a stone throw away from elegant houses that belonged to the rich (Graham, 601). The source of water for the city dwellers, for instance, is said to have been more of watery mud than muddy water with huge volumes of sewers and drains emptying their contents into the very waters the people consumed. Streets had flowing foul-water ditches into which waste substances were dumped. In the end, there were a lot of diseases such as cholera which meant that even the little capital families had was thus relocated into catering for medical bills as the sick lost valuable productive hours that could have otherwise been used for financial gains. Upon return to work, a recuperating individual would find themselves already replaced at the work place or simply refused opportunity to work as a health precaution to the rest of the workers. Life therefore became frustrating as many people resorted to reckless lifestyles, drug and substance abuse (to numb the emotional distress of living in the times, not knowing that the ensuing addiction would only result in more financial losses) and untold crime. Many fathers were jailed for not settling debts or for getting involved in criminal activity and in some cases the providers of the families lost their lives in dangerous robbery attempts leaving behind a more helpless situation (Ittmann, 348). The local residents did not do the water sources any justice either as they would unleash their domestic filth (bucket upon bucket of filth) into the water that was obliviously and ignorantly used by the dwellers downstream. The situation was a sickening disgrace and an indelible historical stain for Great Britain. In London and other regions of the country, starvation and destitution ran amok and caused several deaths. In an 1850 report, for example, the corpse of a 38 year old male was described as being little more than a skeleton with the wife referred to as the very personification of want while the child equally resembled a skeleton (Ittmann, 400). These conditions impacted on both adults and children alike. In some cases, children lived on with their families in desperate circumstances while in others, children fled from their homes in order to fend for themselves at very tender ages as other left their households due to poor treatment from parents and relatives. Others still were abandoned by their families who considered them burdensome as the number of homeless and destitute children in Victorian England clocked shocking figures. Research conducted in 1848 indicated that over 30,000 children were homeless around the city of London alone. In turn, these poor street children survived through theft and such other crimes with the rich regarding them as threats and menaces to the society. Children in the streets were recruited and exploited into becoming pick pockets and robbers. The Workhouse Commission that was set up to consider and regulate the employment situation ended up creating some sort of prison for the workers who served their employees under slave like conditions (Knoepflmacher, 377). Interventions had to be enforced to tame street children, with many voices stating that education was vital in rehabilitating them and saving the situation. Consequently, ragged schools mushroomed to offer street children with basic education. However, many argued against this approach as even the skilled and educated of the society would struggle to lands jobs and any means of survival for that matter. According to them, education would therefore only lead to a new breed of criminals that were more advanced, sophisticated and skilled (Knoepflmacher, 469). In as much as there was growing concern for the poor and destitute of Great Britain during the Victorian era, most people were overwhelmed with the size of the pending task and some of the greatest challenges in solving poverty were contemporary attitudes. Some sections of the society regarded the poor as wasteful and short-sighted people who would instantly misuse/ squander, gamble or drink any money they received as aid to build their lives. Others viewed poverty as an act of God which could not be challenged, and moreover, life after death was of more importance than any earthly tribulation such as poverty. However, as the century grew on, many became more concerned about the suffering of the poor in their midst as the thought of homeless children disturbed many consciences. In the end, therefore, the Victorian era metamorphosed into an age of intense philanthropy with quite a number of the world’s current institutions of charity, like the Children’s Society, tracing their roots to this era (Visual, 411). Conclusively, therefore, one can observe with great confidence that poverty in the Victorian Great Britain was caused by increase in population growth rates that led to a number of related complications. The resources available could simply not sustain the people. Increased population growth led to increased competition for available jobs, land, housing, social amenities and other resources such as food. As people continued to scramble for resources the costs of obtaining them went up, and with scarce and poorly paying jobs, poverty and utter desolation became inevitable. The government on its part significantly failed to create employment opportunities and housing to its people and in addition, did very little to regulate prices of vital commodities such as food, water and housing as the rich bled the poor dry. Survival was hence for the fittest and the rich (Visual, 418). Works Cited Binns, Leonard Elliott. Religion in the Victorian Era,. London: Lutterworth, 1936; 78. Print. Black, Joseph. The Victorian Era. Peterborough, Ontario [u.a.: Broadview, 2006; 124. Print. Collard, Chris. The Victorian Era. Stroud: Tempus, 2006; 345. Print. Graham, P. Anderson. The Victorian Era. London: Longmans, Green, 1897; 365, 601. Print. Ittmann, Karl. Work, Gender, and Family in Victorian England. Washington Square, N.Y.: New York UP, 1995; 348, 400. Print. Knoepflmacher, U. C. Laughter & Despair; Readings in Ten Novels of the Victorian Era. Berkeley: U of California, 1971; 377, 469. Print. Visual, Inc. The Victorian Era. Pleasantville, N.Y.: EAV, 1990; 411, 418. 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