Poverty during the Victorian era
How was society affected in the Victorian times
Poor people could work in mines, in mills and factories, or in
workhouses. Whole families would sometimes have to work
so they'd all have enough money to buy food. Children in
poor families would have jobs that were best done by
people who weren't very tall.
How did Victorians view death
Compared to modern attitudes, our ancestors of the
Victorian time in history could be accused of having had a
scary and depressing fascination and weird obsession with
death and dying. The Victorians had reasonable
expectations of living to a relatively old age, so death at a
young age was generally considered tragic.
Employment
Poor Victorians would put children to work at an early age,
or even turn them out onto the streets to take care of
themselves. In 1848 an estimated number of 30,000
homeless, filthy children lived on the streets of London.
Boys became chimney sweeps, worked the narrow shafts in
coal mines or were employed beneath noisy weaving stands
near and threatens retrieving cotton bobbins while others
would shine shoes or sell matches to earn a crust.
How society treated the poor
For the first half of the 19th century the rural and urban
poor had much in common. Unsanitary and overcrowded
housing, low wages, poor diet, insecure employment and
the feared and hated effects of sickness and old age.