A Christmas Carol Background Information By Charles Dickens

A Victorian London Victorian London was the largest, most spectacular city in the world. While Britain was experiencing the Industrial Revolution, its capital was both reaping the benefits and suffering the consequences.

London in the 19th Century “Imagine yourself in the London of the early 19th century. The homes of the upper and middle class exist in close proximity to areas of unbelievable poverty and filth. Rich and poor alike are thrown together in the crowded city streets. Street sweepers attempt to keep the streets clean of manure, the result of thousands of horse-drawn vehicles. The city's thousands of chimney pots are belching coal smoke, resulting in soot which seems to settle everywhere. In many parts of the city raw sewage flows in gutters that empty into the Thames. Street vendors hawking their wares add to the cacophony of street noises. Pick-pockets, prostitutes, drunks, beggars, and vagabonds of every description add to the colorful multitude.”

Living conditions in England In the nineteenth century there were developments in technology that meant many people stopped working on the land and instead moved to towns and cities to work in factories. This meant cities were overcrowded and the working classes may have had up to thirty people living in one room. Children as young as three worked in factories. Those who could not cope were forced to join workhouses. Three out of every 20 babies die before their first birthday. Life expectancy is about 40 years.

Children in Victorian England The children in poor families had to work from the moment they got up in the morning to when they went to sleep in the night. They worked in caves, coal mines and as chimney sweepers and many more hard jobs, at what would now be two pence a day!! And that goes to their parents to pay for the family. But most children didn’t live long because there was no medicines or equipment to help with diseases. 2 Pence= .03 cents

The Poor Law The Victorian answer to dealing with the poor and indigent was the New Poor Law, enacted in 1834. Previously it had been the burden of the churches to take care of the poor. The new law required parishes to band together and create regional workhouses. Children were often sent to work in workhouses for long hours under terrible conditions.

They were self contained communities. Workhouses varied in size. The smallest housed only 50 people, while the largest housed several thousand. They were self contained communities. Apart from the basic rooms such as a dining-hall for eating, day-rooms for the elderly, and dormitories for sleeping, workhouses often had their own bakery, laundry, tailor's and shoe-maker's, vegetable gardens and orchards, and even a piggery for rearing pigs.

Entering the Workhouse Entry to the workhouses was voluntary, but it was certainly the last choice for people. People ended-up in the workhouse for a variety of reasons. Entering the Workhouse Usually, it was because they were too poor, old or ill to support themselves. This may have resulted from such things as a lack of work during periods of high unemployment, or someone having no family willing or able to provide care for them when they became elderly or sick. Unmarried pregnant women were often disowned by their families and the workhouse was the only place they could go during and after the birth of their child. Prior to the establishment of public mental asylums in the mid-nineteenth century (and in some cases even after that), the mentally ill and mentally handicapped poor were often consigned to the workhouse.

The weekly menu at Hertford in 1729 comprised: More often than not, meals followed a weekly routine, with meat featuring on only a limited number of "meat days". The weekly menu at Hertford in 1729 comprised: Breakfast Dinner Supper Sunday Bread & Cheese Meat Broth Monday Pease-Porridge Bread and Cheese Tuesday Hasty-Pudding Wednesday Thursday Frumety Friday Ox-Head Saturday N. B.. None are Stinted as to Quantity, but all eat till they are satisfy'd.

Pease-Porridge Hasty-Pudding Frumety Broth Gruel A baked vegetable product, which mainly consists of split yellow or Carlin peas, water, salt, and spices, often cooked with a bacon or ham joint. Hasty-Pudding A pudding or porridge of grains cooked in milk or water. Frumety A dish consisting of wheat, milk, sugar, and spices. Broth Meat liquor, 1 pint; barley, 2 oz; leeks or onions, 1 oz; parsley and seasoning. Gruel Oatmeal, 2 oz; treacle, ½ oz; salt and sometimes allspice; water.

Charles Dickens Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in England, one of eight children. When he was 12, his father, a gambler who liked to live beyond his means, was jailed for debt. Charles had to go to work. Charles worked long hours in a shoe polish factory. He worked 40-60 hours per week putting labels on bottles of shoe polish. He was paid poorly for this.

Fighting for the underdog This experience was so influential on Dickens that his literary work reflects how it effected him. This experience was also enough to make Charles take the side of the underdog (the person not expected to win, for example, the poor). Many of his characters are children who suffer from poverty.

Political cartoon A political cartoon depicting how unsanitary the drinking water was for the poor.It came directly from the Thames River, where raw sewage was dumped. Many died from drinking it.

Political Reformer Dickens became angered with these changes. His later novels are laced with satire about education, government, greed, sanitation, and the treatment of children and the poor.   Because Dickens works criticize the treatment of women, children and the poor. He helped to change he way they were treated. He is now known as an important social reformer. This picture of “street boys” was a common sight. These boys, as young as 4, lived on the streets and begged for food (and tried to steal it).