The Haves and the Have Nots Lives of the Middle Class vs. Working Class

Goal of Today The goal of today will be to see what life was like for people during the Industrial Revolution. We will see how people lived and some of the issues that arose during this time.

In his excellent biography, Dickens, Peter Ackroyd notes that –"If a late twentieth-century person were suddenly to find himself in a tavern or house of the period, he would be literally sick - sick with the smells, sick with the food, sick with the atmosphere around him". –Why do you think?

The Middle Class The middle class grew during this time. It consisted of bankers, manufacturers, merchants, lawyers, doctors, engineers, factory owners and teachers. Middle class believed in education Involved in reform movements in education, health care, prison improvements, and sanitation.

Lifestyle of Middle Class Where did they live? –Middle class people lived in large houses in spacious neighborhoods. What did they wear? –Men wore nice suits and Women wore lace and frill dresses. Members of the middle class were able to hire servants, they ate well and they were property owners.

19 th Century Middle Class :

“Upstairs”/“Downstairs” Life

Working Class Conditions As we have seen life in the factory was very hard for workers, life at home did not get any easier. Homes were cramped, poorly maintained, and unsanitary. To save money many workers crammed into a room. (At times that number could be over 12)

Workers worked long hours. Working class children usually did not go to school, they were usually working.

The Victorian answer to dealing with the poor and indigent was the New Poor Law, enacted in Previously it had been the burden of the parishes to take care of the poor. The new law required parishes to band together and create regional workhouses where aid could be applied for. The workhouse was little more than a prison for the poor.

Workhouses Why did people end up in workhouses? –too poor –old or ill to support themselves Who ended up in the Workhouses? 1. Unmarried Pregnant Women 2. Mentally Ill 3. Mentally handicapped 4. Orphans

The Life of the New Urban Poor: A Dickensian Nightmare!

Problems of Pollution “Fifty years ago nearly all London had every house cleansed into a large cesspool.. Now sewers having been very much improved, scarcely any person thinks of making a cesspool, but it is carried off at once into the river. The Thames is now made a great cesspool instead of each person having his own” Thomas Cubitt 1840 The Silent Highwayman

Until the second half of the 19th century London residents were still drinking water from the very same portions of the Thames that the open sewers were discharging into. Several outbreaks of Cholera broke out in the mid 19th century.

THE WATER THAT JOHN DRINKS This is the Thames with its cento of stink, That supplies the water that JOHN drinks. These are the fish that float in the ink- y stream of the Thames with its cento of stink, That supplies the water that JOHN drinks

This is the sewer from cesspool and sink, That feeds the fish that float in the ink- y stream of the Thames with its cento of stink, That supplies the water that JOHN drinks. These are vested int'rests, that fill to the brink, The network of sewer from cesspool and sink, That feed the fish that float in the ink- y stream of the Thames with its cento of stink, That supplies the water that JOHN drinks.

This is the price that we pay to wink, At the vested int'rests, that fill to the brink, The network of sewer from cesspool and sink, That feed the fish that float in the ink- y stream of the Thames with its cento of stink, That supplies the water that JOHN drinks.

In Little Dorrit Dickens describes a London rain storm:Little Dorrit In the country, the rain would have developed a thousand fresh scents, and every drop would have had its bright association with some beautiful form of growth or life. In the city, it developed only foul stale smells, and was a sickly, lukewarm, dirt- stained, wretched addition to the gutters.

Early-19c London by Gustave Dore

Cities are the abyss of the human species… Rousseau The New Industrial City

Worker Housing in Manchester

Workers Housing in Newcastle Today

Life In The City

Paris Street; Rainy Day (also known as Paris: A Rainy Day) is a large 1877 oil painting by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte.Gustave Caillebotte

Paris Street; Rainy Day (also known as Paris: A Rainy Day) is a large 1877 oil painting by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte. Gustave Caillebotte The Third-Class Carriage, ca. 1862–64 Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879) ’FRQ- Pictures: Paris, A Rainy Day and The Third Class Carriage. These two pictures suggest technological and urban transformations characteristic of modern Europe. Using the pictures as a starting point, describe the extent of these changes and their effects on working and middle-class Europeans in the second half of the nineteenth century.