Victorian Lives : Industrial Revolution

Showing posts with label Industrial Revolution. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2014

Victorian Childhood Based On Social Class

Public Domain
The domestic situation of most Victorian families offered an endless network of caregivers. Victorian households had six children, but most had a variety of other family and others that lived in their dwelling. The nuclear family that defined the last century was a rare family in Victorian times.

Yet, the extended family traditionally thought of by us as a Victorian norm only made up about 10 percent of Victorian households. A traditional extended family is one in which three or more generations lived in the same house. An average Victorian household would consist of the husband, wife, unmarried cousins, farm laborers, maybe one aged parent or aunt, and servants if it was a household of some economic means.

The makeup of the Victorian home was in constant flux. Older children married, left to find work, or died. In some areas of industrial homes life expectancy was only in the mid twenties and at the turn of the century not much more than 50 for most middle class people. Infants and children had more than a %50 percent chance of dying before the age of 5 in many communities. It was not uncommon for a healthy child to have lost one or both parents and a sibling before they reached their teens.
This is not to mention the changes in household help that occurred frequently as younger folks who worked in these homes married or went on to better jobs. Working class children and farm children often found themselves being farmed out to other relatives or moved to communities to find work and contribute to the family coffers in their early teens.

A family that found itself in a growing industrial community would be asked to take on other family members children in hopes they would find employment in exchange for limited economic contribution. Sickly children might have been moved to relatives that lived in the county hoping the air was better for them, but returned to the city if they could not pull their weight on a friend or family's farm. It was about the survival of the family unit and those individual close to the unit that determined the fate of many Victorian children.School was not mandatory for children in England till 1840 and much later in most parts of the United States.

The working poor who had ambitions for their children went as far as to ask charitable organizations to arrange night schools in order that children working in sweat shops might have a chance to attend school. In rural communities in the United States farm families pooled their money to hire a school Master or Marm. Most children in rural areas because of weather conditions and the planting season only attended school for three to five months a year. A growing middle class after the American Civil war increased the demand for public High School.

A girl in the rural Midwest was more likely to attend high school as her brother would have been needed to work the farm or family business than she was. In an upper middle class family, a smart girl was unlikely to get a University education than her brother was because it was considered a waste of time to educate women whose only future prospects were marriage. In late Victorian times it became acceptable for middle class girls to pursue a degree in teaching so they could have a trade before marriage. Women from the poorest urban areas many of them immigrants had always worked and never had a chance at any formal education. Women teachers especially, were underpaid and undervalued by most communities.
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Discipline for children in all social levels was strict. The sexually repressed Victorians went to great extent to punish and discourage all sexual expression in children. The very lowest classes did not have this luxury and were noted to sell young girls that family could not afford to feed into what was essentially domestic prostitution. Corporal punishment was considered appropriate even for infants in some Victorian households. Wealthier families did indulge their children in lessons, games, and parties, but many of these activities were meant to help the child learn the social mores of the day and not just "play"

In the 1830's it was not uncommon for children in urban settings to succumb to cholera because of a lack of understanding in the community about the need for clean water. Most cities had amazingly unsanitary conditions that made the whole community at risk for the spread of disease. Respiratory ailments were the norm in these communities where the industrial revolution had caused so much pollution. Many times these chronic respiratory ailments cover up epidemics of whopping cough and tuberculosis.

It was not uncommon for children who avoided these ailments to still literarily grow up with "blackened lungs" and have a short life span. Mortality rates for infants, children, and women were high because of all communicable diseases in urban areas where they went unchecked. Most women in children in poorer communities were malnourished and this contributed to low disease survival rates.
Diets tended to consist of bread, cheese, beer, and occasionally meat. There were not fresh fruits and vegetables widely available to the poor and in certain climates not even the middle class. The men as head of household got the best and largest portions of any food that was served for they were literally the most important "breadwinner".

This lead too many women and children; being deprived of necessary nutrition to have the strength to fight off common diseases Life on the farm the last century had in many ways been healthier for many people. Women breastfeed until most children were two, but their milk was only as good as their diet. Wealthier women could afford wet nurses, but many times these women were less healthy than the mothers of their charges and the infant mortality rate was high. Few children who were fed cow's milk, weak tea, and sugar if their mothers could not breast feed made it through infancy.

Victorian childhood prepared most children for a life of hardship and economic uncertainty. A growing middle class assured that a least a growing number of children would have an education and life of not just day to day survival. The lack of serious medical advances for ordinary people made the prospect of death something that the average person faced every day.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Death In The American Victorian Household Part 2

It was common for middle class Victorian men to be displayed in the black suits which they wore for Church or special occasions. It would not be uncommon for a deceased middle class housewife to be displayed in the morning clothes of widows weed and crepe that she wore in life to mourn the passing of her relations. Younger women tended to be displayed in white. It was acceptable to bury children in the best clothes they had and with flowers in their hands.

Funeral Flowers In Parlor: Public Domain

Victorian church women many times urged the wealthier to donate funeral coats to poor families burying children as not to deprive a living child of a needed coat. It seems strange to us a new coat would be given to a living child while a living child was given the coat of a dead child. This did not seem strange to a poor Victorian mother, because she expected to lose at least one child and it was expected she honor the dead child or be accused of being heartless. Many poor families saved for the funeral expenses of their children, at the expense of the quality of life all the household.

Very poor grieving women who had lost a child or provider had to suffer the additional indignity of begging among her neighbors, relatives, and church for the funds to provide a modest funeral for her loved one. Certainly, even the poorest head on household was seen as a poor father and husband if he had not prepared for death that would inevitably visit his household. Trade organizations, ethnic groups, and discreet church funds saved many a poor or working class family from the public humiliation of having to beg for funds to take care of their dead (Hellish, 2010).

Wakes were held in Victorian homes in order to make sure that the deceased was truly dead and would not 'wake' from coma. A relative was posted at the side of the casket. Wakes as social events could last up to four days and the family was relieved of doing the chores of daily life and the preparation of food by friends and neighbors. All blood relations and those related by marriage were expected to show their respect by wearing various degrees of mourning garb.

In general the more closely related a person was who had passed the greater degree of public mourning was expected. Women were in general expected to mourn longer and go to greater means to dress the part. Generally, Aunts, uncles and cousins were expected to wear a degree of mourning garb publically for at least. Relations in other towns that could not attend the funeral were also expected to make a public display of mourning (Levins, 2005)

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Funeral Photography: The girl is deceased in this photo

A widower was expected to remove himself from public life for a matter on months and in general could get away with wearing mourning armbands. The garb of the middle class husband was normally black anyway and his need to conduct business made his seclusion was public life impractical (Hellish, 2010).

Men were expected to mourn the passing of their wives for at least a year. If the need to have a household kept or presence of small children made his quick remarriage a necessity, the new wife was expected to show deep mourning for the deceased wife for the first at least a year. The reentrance of the family as a whole into social circles was kept for nearly two years an an elaborate system of leaving calling cards was instituted to make sure the surviving household members did not appear frivolous (Hellish, 2010.

Things like attending the theater, parties other than weddings and baptism, and gardening clubs were off limits to all adult household members for a year. Older widows and widower may have been excused from social niceties till the time of their death. Many older women simply never shed the last of the mourning garb, but it is unlikely any kept 'full 'morning garb. Many doctors urged melodramatic Victorian widows to put aside long periods of morning garb where they wore crepe or long veils as it was believed it caused respiratory and vision problems. Very wealthy families decked out their servants in mourning wear they were expected to wear as long as the family 'socially' mourning (Rothman, 2005)

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There were various practices for mourning periods for children. Mothers were expected to show public displays of mourning for the loss of a child for at least a year. Fathers tended to observe the mourning period according to religious or community practice. Even middle class families were hard pressed to come up expensive clothing and mourning adornments for the loss of a child. It was very common for household to lose many children and to have births in households, that Widow's weeds, veils of crepe, and other elaborate accessories were not practical. Many a resourceful housewife would simply dye the family's wardrobe in black; unfortunately, this black dye often came off on the skin of the mourner (Levins, 2005)

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Experts in child rearing at the time urged middle class and upper class families to not rear their children to be in a constant dark mood, by easing the degree of mourning that the young needed to display publicly. It was considered emotionally unhealthy to keep the young in a household in black or away from social activities.

Certainly in poor urban families where children worked in factories and on farms it would have been impossible for families to afford any garb apart from that they wore day to day (Hellish, 2010.

Victorian mourning in an average Midwestern farming community would have differed greatly from that that occurred in the middle class or upper class urban home. The showing of the dead would occur in the parlor and not an ornate funeral chapel.

There would be no elaborate parade of black carriages pulled by horses wearing black plumes. A trip for a funeral in the local church and burial in the church graveyard was the norm. Social displays of mourning would be limited to church gatherings or a disruption in business for a merchant in small farm town. Elaborate obituary with flowery Victorian language would appear for the most common citizen in local paper (Rothman, 2005).

When photography became more common and affordable after the civil war, death photography was all the rage with good artist being able to make the deceased appeared lifelike. Decomposition occurred quickly as most people did not have bodies embalmed until after the turn of the century. The deceased may also have looked grotesques after an accident or long illness, but Victorian photographers were not above painting on eyes or adding color to the picture of the dearly departed. Even the poorest families found the money to take pictures of children who passed because many times there were no pictures of the child in life. These pictures are still strangely endearing today (Levins, 2005)

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Lastly, superstitions may have played a role at side of the deceased in the most common Victorian home. Bodies were carried out feet first to keep the deceased spirit from looking back and taking another family member with them. Mirrors were covered with black crepe and pictures placed face down to keep the deceased from entering the reflection of the living or to keep their spirit from wanting to stay in the home among loved ones (Hellish, 2010)

Saturday, July 19, 2014

The Problem of Child Labor in Victorian America

Young boys working in textile mile Public Domain

During the industrial revolution in the late 1700's the United States and England replaced a great deal of manual labor with crude machinery. Slowly, almost as manufactured goods were made in factories instead of family owned workshops. The greed of factory owners was an incredible threat to the Victorian working class family in urban settings. These newly enterprising capitalists saw child labor as a source or cheap and obedient laborers. Children of the under classes had always worked on family farms and in cottage industries. Many children were loaned out in their early teens to neighboring farms and craftsman to learn trades. Industrial work was insidious as poor families allowed children below the age of seven to be employed for up to 14 hrs. a day for what amounted to slave wages in dangerous and dirty working conditions.

Children worked in factories 12 to 18 hours a day many times in spinning mills or hauling heavy loads.

Some of the worst conditions were those of young children; sometimes under the age of seven who, worked in coal mines. In 1810 there were an estimated 2,000.000 what we would consider school aged children working up to 70 hours a week. When poor parents could no longer feed their children they many times turned their care over to factory owners who essentially forced work upon them. A glass factory in Massachusetts used barbed wire to keep it's young male employees inside. These children were paid wages as low as forty cents a night to haul hot glass.

Church groups and labor reformers spoke out against child labor. In England, people such as Charles Dickens dramatized the plight of poor working class children in Oliver Twist. Britain and eventually the United States passed laws improving working conditions, shortening hours, and raising the age limit of those who could be employed. In the 1830's some U.S states passed laws prohibiting the employment of very young children in factories. Many times these laws were not enforced by local officials because of the belief that work for poor children would the family and the community at large.

Two girls protesting child labour (by calling it child slavery) in the 1909 New York City Labor Day parade. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It took several decades for the United States to in some ways restrict child labor. Connecticut in 1813 had passed laws stating that children engaged in labor should receive some sort of schooling . At the turn of the century only 28 states had laws restricting child labor. In the United States it took many years to outlaw child labor. Connecticut passed a law in 1813 saying that working children must have some schooling. By 1899 a total of 28 states had passed laws regulating child labor Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938 setting a minimum wage for child workers and restricting most work to children over 16 years of age and hazardous work to those who were legally adults.

This ended the unfair labor practices such as companies hiring whole families, requiring them to live in company towns and pay all their wages for substandard housing and food. It also increased the number of children in poor communities that could actually attend school to the eighth grade. The children of migrant workers have little protection from exploitation in the United States , some receive schooling, but many moved to often to get a good education