Working Class Surname What Was Life Like

¶ … Working Class

Surname

What was life like in the 19th century for the working class?

The conditions of towns were often very dreadful in the early 19th century. However, there came an improvement. The gaslight saw its first London light in 1807 at Pall Mall. Coming to the 1820s, many towns started introducing gas lighting in streetlights. In the early 19th century, most of the towns were untidy and dirty, overcrowded, and unsanitary. Men started forming groups that they referred to as pavement commissioners or improvement commissioners in the 19th century. They had the power and mandate to light, clean, and even pave the streets. During the same time, England had made divisions, which they named parishes. The power that the commissioners had could only be applied in some areas. In the parishes nearby, houses were built as the towns grew. It was very unfortunate that the commissioners had no power over the newly developed suburbs (Laura (b)).

Those streets became dirty and with no pavements. The dirt littered in the streets was not collected resulting in disgusting piles. Most of it was turned into fertilizer when it turned sticky and black as most of it was organic in nature. The cesspits that people who were had were not so often emptied in the 19th century. During this same era, only people who were rich had lavatories that could be flashed. However, they later became common with time.

How were workers treated in the factories, mills, and coal pits?

Shop assistant were exposed to notorious overwork, and campaigners safely managed to safeguard the passage of the bill they had enacted known as the Shop Hours Act and this was in 1886. The act clearly stated that the working hours per week to be 74 hours. However, this did not take effect immediately until the regulations were passed to the local authorities where it could be implemented in 1912. This leaves many wondering the number of hours the shop assistants were forced to work. They claimed to have reduced the working hours to 74 hours and say that is it reasonable (Halsall (b)).. This is the exact reason as to why the conditions were termed as "wage slavery" or "white slavery."

The conditions at the mine were also worse if not say the same. The Employment Commission for children made a report to the parliament and it was presented in 1842. This saw full exploitation of child labor. The children were taken at their very earliest age and not only did they live and wave candlesticks or chase rats away from dinner, but they also the worst of it was that female children were employed at the mines. The practical returns that the commissioners received clearly showed that a third of the employees working at the mine were under the age of 18 years. In addition, a third mentioned was all under the age of 13 years. As far as the concern of underground is in place, there was no distinction of gender in the factories. The men did their work while perfectly naked within an environment of females of all ages who were also assisting with the same work. The females ranged from females from six years of age up to twenty-one years. The same females were also naked down to their waists. As was the case in other places that include Wales, Scotland, and England. All of these cases triggered the hash comment from the comment by Brownlow Canon in which he said that one of the most outstanding impacts of Christianity was remedying by public estimation, manual labor (Laura (c)).

Were women and children treated any differently than the men?

All slaves with disregard to their age and gender were supposed to meet their requirements of performing work that was labor-intensive for a period every day. Their hard work was never rewarded: they expected that they could perform their duties to the satisfaction of their owners. The work and duties assigned to women were equal to those that the men performed; childrearing and childbearing was an additional burden. Women were expected were to perform many duties that included, performing duties in the fields, working in the house of their must and taking care for the master's children. After children were born, they were also to face slavery. Their status depended on the life of the slave family. In many cases, their fathers were white: this never changed anything because their fate was still lifetime slavery.

What were the sanitary conditions like for the workers?

Conditions in the mines were at its worse. The Employment Commission for children made a report to the parliament and presented it in 1842. The summary of the report that saw it publish in the review of Westminster for October the same year. Industrialization started in America during this time and migration was massive as many people made their way to cities. Terrible health conditions came about because of overpopulation and lack of an appropriate technology for sanitation. Plumbing was not in place and so people had to go to the bathroom with a bucket that they would later dump in the streets after they became full. Dead animals are very normal to be seen in the street (dogs and cats mostly). It was very common to find multiple families who were living in an apartment similar to the current one: these apartments lacked regular maintenance ((Laura (a)).

How did these working conditions affect their health?

During this period, nearly 25% of all the born infants were killed by the harsh world. Mortality rate of infants can be defined as the rate at which children die before witnessing their first birthday. This is the annual death rates measured from a thousand childbirths. The mortality rates for infants were very high in the mid of 19th century. The rate of child death would have been 80 to 100 per every thousand if to say there were ideal conditions, environment that was clean, breastfeeding them daily and taking good care for them. The situation at the inner city was very high, 300 deaths per every a thousand in average. This was because of high levels of the poverty, situation of dreadful housing and sanitary conditions that are unhealthy in the urban areas. The obstetric development that covers all the pregnancy aspects, birth and its outcomes, and gynecology was as the result of this. The care of the child and mother were transferred from home with the midwife to the hospital with the doctor. Perpetual fever is a disease occurring in the uterus usually contracted exactly after child delivery. During the 19th century, this was the main cause of childbirth deaths. The medical community debated on this intensively because the disease was contagious even though it came up on the autopsy. It came to their knowledge that the midwives and doctors from the works of Semmelweis and Holmes were carrying the in infection. The remedy was the doctors and midwives washing their hands and this saw the death rates dropping drastically (Halsall (a)).