Victorian Women Worked Long and Hard

Employment

Many men & women saw their jobs taken over by the factory system ... so they moved out of the country to the cities to continue to work. There was a steady stream of migration from the country to the towns and cities.

1820-1870: northeast USA transitioned from agrarian to industrial culture ... this shift from mercantile centers to manufacturing centers prepared the way for urban life

Census Data

1790 = 5% of all Americans lived in urban center

1860 = 15% Americans in cities (35 urban areas had populations over 25,000)

Wealthy Women
...As one might expect did not work, except for mistresses of wealthy men. I dunno where the myth got started that women did not work for gainful employment ... Reality is we would have worked ... and worked LONG and HARD ...

Female Occupations
authors, journalists, inventors, teachers, domestic service, mill work, factories, foul smelling breweries, dressmaking / needlework / shirt-makers / underclothing trades (which took 2nd place to men in these trades); milliners, hatters, glovers, hosiers, straw bonnet makers, collar-makers, tailors, patten-makers and shoe-makers, boot-makers, lapidaries, embroiderers, lace-makers and lace-joiners, gaiter-makers, furriers, curriers, feather-workers, running pawn shops and other shops, etc.

Girl Apprentices
Girls were apprenticed out (if you ever have the opportunity to read the Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series, you will see the Victorian Miss Marple continuing to teach young girls how to work so they can provide for themselves in the world); girl apprentices could be in workshops or by individuals in modest homes or by the extremely wealthy.




Long Hours and Hard Labour

Working hours were long and pay was low for women like it was for men. In 1862 a female journalist warned ... ‘All who are wise will avoid this profession, because such numbers crowd into it, that the competition drives the payment down to a point below that at which life can be sustained.’ [See: Boucherett, J., (1862) On the Choice of a Business] During an 1834 tailors' strike ... women flooded in to meet the demand.

I'll come back later and address how preachers in the Chicago area demanded that employers give women a decent working wage so they would not have to resort to prostitution in order to provide for their families.

~ from the notes of Lady Victorian Historian

Serious Victorian Era Diseases (ranging from problematic, epidemic and pandemic)

With an increase of population, there followed an increase in disease ... there were many diseases and the ability to treat them was either nonexistent or only treated the disease slightly ... the following are a few examples ...














Cholera

• Caused by human waste in drinking water
• Symptoms: nausea, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, overwhelming thirst, cramps
• Death often followed within 24 hours of the first symptom
• June 1832 ... 4000 people die of Cholera in New York City
• 1848 ... around 2,000 people a week die in a cholera epidemic (England)
  

Click on the photo~

Consumption

• Tuberculosis of the lungs
• Can also cause tumors filled with baterium
  
• Symptoms - weakness, fatigue, wasting away, blood in the lungs
• Killed hundreds of thousands of English in the 19th century and into the 20th century
• Quarantine requried: very contagious
  
• Very difficult to treat, very virulent
  
• If it could be afforded, sent to a sanatorium/sanitarium
  

Typhus

• Spread by body lice and dirty conditions
• Symptoms: delirium, headaches, rash, high fever
• Very difficult to treat bacteria
• In America, a typhus epidemic killed the son of Franklin Pierce in Concord, New Hampshire in 1843 and struck in Philadelphia in 1837. Several epidemics occurred in Baltimore, Memphis and Washington DC between 1865 and 1873. Typhus fever was also a significant killer during the US Civil War, although typhoid fever was the more prevalent cause of US Civil War "camp fever".
  
• Typhoid is not to be confused with typhus.
  

Unrelated to Typhoid Fever caused by food contaminated with the Salmonella bacterium which is much easier to treat. But that story is no picnic either and a story for another day.

~ embellished from the notes from Lady Victorian Historian

Random and Non Random Thoughts: A Victorian Discussion

A friend sent me some writings that she'd accumulated from various places of various discussions of things Victorian that she found in the blogosphere. The following has been taken from their discussions, when and from where I know not. Some of it is well documented and some of it is just a discussion of family history.

I don't know where these things came from because the links were not active in the document that I was sent, though some of the entries are referenced. For the privacy of those who posted, I removed their names, just because I don't know the original source. (Nothing like finding out you were commenting on a blog that you'd never seen before!) I've left some of the data raw -- so you might find spelling errors and the like.

They clearly appear to be Christians discussing the glorified nostalgia of the Victorian period that occurs within some Evangelical Christian groups. I, too, love the artwork, but as is described in these discussions, my family's experience (including my grandfather's family who immigrated the U.S. from London in the 1880s to find employment mining coal in the hills of Pennsylvania), their experience of the period was vastly different from velvet and lace. They were desperately poor in the U.S., but I am told that this is nothing compared to the terrible poverty they experienced in London.

Blog Host Note: There are some comments that mention drug addiction. If they are discussing the streets of London, I believe that people tend to exaggerate the famed “opium dens” that did exist, but they were not as popular as some sensational writers would have you believe. [One of my husband’s many fields of study includes forensic investigation of drug abuse, and this is his informed opinion based on that data.] There were also many heroin addicts that followed the War Between the States as a consequence of treatment of their brutal injuries, so there were quite a few heroin addicts in the U.S.

Each new person speaking is noted by a rose or bud or bloom.

I have asked this several times in several different places, and never have I gotten a satisfactory answer:

Why is this time frame so looked upon and really REVERED in some Christian circles as the end all be all of modesty and enlightenment?




Frankly, I have no idea why

My grandparents were from the Victorian Era. They held there were many aspects of it that was extremely wicked. Too often things were reduced to certain rules/regulations (as if any of those things could change one's mind and, then, their hearts ) It had a kind of cookie cutter existence to it.

My grandparents held that the era of the Great Depression was much more Christian in outlook and day-to-day life. Rightly or wrongly, I think folks want to point to such-and-such a time and say, See... that is how we should be living Yet, those folks in that timeframe point to other eras The Victorians, for example, lamented for the good ole days as well ...

Those susceptible to perfectionistic tendencies do not realize that each age has its problems and forget that God had them born NOW with all its marvelous technology to use for His glory and His people. It kinda reminds me of folks in the mid 1500s to mid 1600s wanting to secure a Utopia ... it's kinda like trying to sneak past the angels guarding the Garden of Eden ... trying to get to Point Z without striving or starting from Point A ...


I thank the Lord each day for indoor plumbing, cars, my computer, excellent medicines, quality food, etc. ... He chose to have us born NOW ... not then. (Thank You, Lord Jesus ) ... to conquer the issues of today. Frankly, I think any push to return to the Victorian Era is doomed for failure (not to mention goofy)

Sorry ... I'm sure I didn't answer in the politically correct fashion within the circles of conservatism




I think, or at least for me and my limited education, Hollywood paints a certain image. We adhere that this 'image' is truth and most of the time, it's not. It might be partially true. For example, the ladies always look so gorgeous in their ball gowns and the men in their dress of that era, the manners, the social gatherings (dance, almost always a party atmosphere or discussions, or card games, etc., etc. ) We wish for the same, and forget they didn't have running water, a bath might be had once a month, lice was a problem...ewwwwwwww, I think I'll stay here in this era.






Also many think that they would have lived
this life of ease ...
Not so ...
Most of those stories are about the wealthy ...
Not about us average Joes.

Those wealthy folks the movies present could not live the way they did unless they exploited those that had just come over from foreign lands ... They mocked and belittled others that were not of their class ... Then, there were the robber barons that really exploited the middle class ... When folks were hurt while working on the railroads or mining, they were left to themselves ... the employers (who said they were Christian) refused to practice the Golden Rule by taking care of the women left without husbands and their children ... they saw it as an easy way of having more domestic help ...

It was not unusual for every member of the family to be working outside the home (actually, that was never unusual for America since the colonial days) ... in the cities they were working in not-so-pleasant working conditions in the factories ... the hours were long and hard ... and it was very dangerous

[I can't think of the name of the factory in the east where it caught fire and all those women were burned alive ... can anyone else? I'd ask my ma, but I don't wanna depress her]

It was SOOOO bad that many were very frightened that anarchists, Marxists, and communists would come in and take over ... and they were RIGHT to be frightened ... in many respects it was becoming a close call

The Victorian Era has a great deal to answer for ...

One of the things I like about the era, though, was Albert ... her husband ... he was SOOOO concerned about how Christianity had been reduced to a bunch of rules and regulations that he brought the Christmas tree into everyone's home ... Why? ... to cause folks to remember Christ is ever green ... He is with us ... He is the center and the reason for Christmas






Some Links to More Info:

The Triangle Factory Fire
and
Leap for Life, Leap for Death


Very sad pictures in this next link, along with more of the story:
About the Union Narrative

There are many more links about it.




I think that many folks mix the Edwardian and Victorian Era's in fashion but the fact is that no matter what the era there has always been debauchery and immodesty going on right from the beginning of time.

I think that folks get mixed up in the romance of it rather than the reality of it. Having been a reenactor for nearly 30 years I can relate...there is a romance in almost all the eras really, you just have to be willing to turn a blind eye to the rest.

I think too that most women, especially, are romanced by the gallant and bravado of gentlemen and how a lady would have been treated. The beautiful clothing, the lovely parties. However, the wealthy were a very small minority.

The fact is that most of them were peasants like me. The had to cook their own meals, make their clothes, grow and raise their foods, do their own laundry and probably bathed more often than the elite (playing in cricks and streams and ponds). The elite had lots of perfumes to hide their odor as well as a higher rate of head and body lice because they didn't do their hair very often as those do's were hard and often spendy. They wore tighter clothing to show off as much shape as society would allow and covered what did show with powders and such. Lets not overlook the laudanum that most women (and often men) would carry with them for their nerves.

So what you really had was a group of people that were stinky, sticky, greasy, lice ridden folks that were high most of the time.

That's so romantic (Isn't )!




And so there again....just what is the fascination? Why are so many groups advocating a return to this?????

I think the glorification of the Victorian Era is done out of ignorance (in some situations the ignorance may be wilful ... in other situations it may just be lack of education & being led astray for the agenda of others)

Victorian Woes

From Lady Victorian Historian

Queen Victoria
Life Span: 1819-1901
Reigned: 1837-1901

Edward VII
Life Span: 1841-1910
Reigned: 1901-1910


Unemployment
The skilled and unskilled were all looking for work. Wages were so low they were barely above subsistence level.

Child Labor
Moms and dads were working hard to get food on the table, have clothes on their backs, and a roof over their heads. Children had to work. Hours were long, jobs were dangerous, and the environment was difficult at best ... and ALL for a VERY low wage.

Housing Shortages
Folks needed to live close to where they worked. Housing become scarce simply due to the number of people AND it was very expensive. Slum housing was prevalent. [Read: The Victorian Underworld by Kellow Chesney.] That's why folks of my grandparents' generation were confused as to why folks were complaining about government housing in the Detroit metro-area. To them this housing was FANTASTIC which only goes to illustrate how bad things had become.

Overcrowding & Poor Sanitary Conditions
Many families opted to live in the same apartment together in order to save $$$$ and to survive. Many families did not have separate living accommodations. On 24 September 1849, Morning Chronicle journalist Henry Mayhew described a London street had drains and sewers emptying into it. Stagnant pools were there which he decided as having ‘the colour of strong green tea’ and THIS was the only water they those living on that street had to drink. The big cities in the USA were no different. Mayhew reported, As we gazed in horror at it, we saw drains and sewers emptying their filthy contents into it; we saw a whole tier of doorless privies in the open road, common to men and women built over it; we heard bucket after bucket of filth splash into it.

Homeless Children
Orphanages were overcrowded. There were simply not enough places to keep homeless children. Subsequently, they lived on the streets surviving by any means they could.



... and these are just a FEW of the moral problems from the Victorian Era

How did some of the smug folks deal with it intellectually?

The problem of poverty was the fault of the poor because they spent money on gambling, drinking, and drugs ... that may have been true for a certain percentage of individuals ... but most definitely NOT for all ... otherwise the Horatio Alger rags-to-riches stories would not have been so popular ... folks needed to know they at least had a chance

God put those individuals in that place ... they had no right to get out of it ... they needed to accept those things ... they were in sin because they were not content



Check out the 1848 hymn by Cecil Frances Alexander ...

The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high and lowly,
And order’d their estate

ALL of these things are indicative of immorality.

~ notes from Lady Victorian Historian