In previous articles on the Victorians we have looked at some of the great achievements of that era and drawn a distinction between the prosperous and the poor. The biggest losers during this era were the children who came from poorer backgrounds. The Victorians were notorious for the employment of young children, working in factories, mills, coal mines and as chimney sweeps, brilliantly depicted in novels by Charles Dickens. In fact, Dickens himself, at the age of 12, worked in a blacking factory, with his family in a debtors prison. Children from poor families often worked long hours, doing dangerous jobs, to earn extra money for the household. In 1840 only about twenty percent of children in London had any schooling. Agile boys were employed as chimney sweeps, whilst others were set to work in coal mines and cotton mills, the more fortunate were given apprenticeships in factories and the building trade , whilst many girls found work as domestic servants, often working as many as 80 hours a week. The less fortunate being plunged into prostitution, the majority of the prostitutes in London being aged between 15 and 22. In the coal mines children began work at the age of five and generally died before the age of 25. Earlier Factory Acts, passed in 1802 and 1819, aimed at limiting working hours, were largely ineffective, and when a Royal Commission recommended reducing working hours in 1883, it only applied to the textile industry. A further act passed in 1847 limited both adults and children to ten hour working days. Prostitution
Prostitution was rife in the Victorian era and became known as 'The Great Social Evil'. Many reform groups backed by news organisations, clergymen and single women became increasingly concerned by the growing numbers of 'working' women. Police estimated there were 8,600 prostitutes working in London alone in 1857. At the time of the 1851 census the population of Great Britain was about 18 million, and revealed there were 4% more women than men. Thus, 750,000 women would remain unmarried simply because there were not enough men. The Magdalen Asylums had been 'reforming' prostitutes since the mid-eighteenth century, but the period between 1848-1870 saw an explosion of institutions working to 'reclaim' these 'fallen' women.
Prostitution was now being regarded as a huge social problem and in 1864 the Contagious Diseases Act was passed which allowed the local constabulary to force any woman suspected of venereal disease to submit to its inspection.
Meanwhile, the middle and upper classes were adhering to a strict moral code, on the surface at least, and church attendances were high. Much emphasis was placed on the purity of women, leading to the portrayal of prostitutes as fallen women, soiled, corrupted and in need of cleansing. Moral reform movements attempted to close down brothels, which some people argued led to a concentration in street prostitutes by the 1880's, especially in areas around Whitechapel, in the East End of London. Prostitutes were seen by Dickens and other contemporary writers as commodities of industrialised modern life, to simply be used and discarded.
Debtors Prisons
At the start of the Victorian era debt was looked upon as a major sin. Non-payment of debt was punishable by a prison sentence. Some prisons were known as 'debtors prisons' and allowed a certain amount of freedom. In fact, with a little money a debtor could actually pay for some freedoms, whilst others were allowed to conduct business and receive visitors. Fleet and Kings Bench Prisons, allowed inmates to live a short distance outside prison, a practice known as the 'Liberty Rules' and the Fleet even tolerated clandestine 'Fleet Marriages'. Some debtors prisoners were less fortunate and had to serve their time amongst a mix of criminals, often confined to a single cell. The Debtors Act passed in 1869, abolished imprisonment for debt, although those who could pay, and did not do so, could be put in prison for up to six weeks. The flaw with the debtors prisons was they denied the culprit the ability to work, therefore making it harder to pay the debt, thus, making it harder for the person owed the money to recoup what was owed to him.
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In our next look at the Victorian era, we shall cover the Victorian seaside, women in the Victorian era, Victorian morality and the dreaded Victorian workhouse.
