The Poor Law

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Type the Poor Laws of 1934 and write down 3 pieces of information.

What did you find?

The Poor Laws were distorted manifestations of the Victorian Middle Class and the virtues of hard work

England 1830

Poor Law

• The poor received public assistance only if they worked in workhouses
• Beggars risked imprisonment
• Debtors were sent to prison as well as their families
• workhouses were deliberately made to be miserable
• It was meant to deter the poor from public assistance

THE MISERABLE CONDITIONS WOULD PREVENT ABLE BODIED PAUPERS FROM BEING LAZY.

Poor Law

• Creating misery in workhouses: separate families
• Meals were deliberately inadequate
• State became surrogate parents to workhouse parents
• English Society: the poor considered immoral and evil
• The novel, Oliver Twist focuses on these themes