Poor Law: The Victorian Era

The Victorian Era was a time period in Great Britain when Queen Victoria reigned and therefore the era is named after her. This era began on her birth June 20, 1837 and lasted until her death on January 22, 1901. The Victorian Era was a time of great improvements growth in population, technology, industry, as well as creating a middle class. It is also widely known and documented for the increase use of child labor. While most people think of Britain and picture England there was more than that some people may call it the second Britain. This second Britain consisted of Scotland and Wales while they we not part of Great Britain, they were not completely separate.(278 Hobsbawm) They shared some of the same laws. They also traded goods

One such law that had a significant impacted to the entire society was in 1834 an Amendment to the Poor Law. This law was put in place to restricted aid given to the poor. The law restricted how aid was distributed and required those seeking assistance to work in a workhouse to receive the assistance. The middle class as well as the upper class would be taxed to help aid the poor. Taxes were paid to their city and were depended on the value of their house. (91 Sally) This is much many current property tax systems in place in the United States.

In this Victorian Era there was medicine to help combat diseases, while many of these practices would by today’s standards seem barbaric. While medicine was improving many treatments did not work and life expectancy was shorter than the 21st century. The wealthier had longer life expectancies because many of them inherited their wealth and therefore they did not have to work in factories being exposed to many hazards and dangers that lower classes were subjected to. This caused the wealthy to live longer than the common people and the poor. ( 198

The men that were already enlisted were more important unit which was usually three household Cavalry Regiments, six Dragoon Guard Regiments, four Dragoon Regiments, four Light Dragoons, four Lancers, and four Hassall units. That was for the cavalry parts of the army. While drafted men usually made up infantry such as three foot guard regiments, three fusilier regiments, eight light infantry regiments seventy nine line infantry regiments, and two rifle regiments.(Victorian ERA Military) In conclusion, while the victorian era had many advancements in economy, industry, and military power but in no way did it come close to what we have now in the twenty first century. This was a time period when Britain push for the innovation of new better products. This caused us to search for ways to make life easier this could be considered a major stepping stone. This era help us get where we are today in the the twenty first century it helped us make advancement in medicine for things we would not even think important but back then it could mean life or