Figure 1.--Here we have a William Morris Grundy stereoview photograph. The caption read, "A very poor peasant family." Of course we cam see that from the photograph. No other details are provided. Of interest here is that ythe familynis posed in front of their home--a cottage. These people were commonly called cvottagers, meaning rural labor, but also workers on an estate living in cottages provided vby the lord or landowner. Rather than idelic, rural life in the 19th century was a time of great hardship. The sysdtm had medievl origins. .

Here we have a William Morris Grundy stereoview photograph. The caption read, "A very poor peasant family." Of course we cam see that from the photograph. No other details are provided. Of interest here is that ythe familynis posed in front of their home--a cottage. These people were commonly called cottagers, meaning rural labor, but also workers on an estate living in cottages provided vby the lord or landowner. Rather than idelic, rural life in the 19th century was a time of great hardship. During the medieval period, serfs or peasants lived on the lord's land. Thy received little in wages, but were allowed to live in a cottage and grow food in a small plot of land in return for working the lord's fields. By the 18th century the enclosures began as land owners began trying to increase earnings. Some land owners had turned raising sheep for wool as less lanor was needed. In thev18th centyry this meant enclosing the commons. Parliament dominated by land owners passed the Enclosure Acts (18th and 19th centuries). These Acts denied free access to land that the landless peasantry had bebefitted from for centuries. This made them increasingly dependent on paid agricultural work and lessened their bargaining power. Rents were often minimal and seen as of the employee's weages. Large country estates had tied cottages for estate workers. Thomas Hardy in Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Land lords commomly provided tied accommodation to rural workers which also undermined their security. It mean if they refused to work for commonly low wages, they lost their home. The threat of eviction effectively controlled the lives of rural workets. Desiring to control their workers, aristocratic land owmers were the major reason that England lagged behind America and Germany in free public education. Too often the problems of the 19th century are associated with caitalism and the Industrial Revolution. This simplistic belief is justifiable only if ones's knowledge of economonics is based on reading Diknesian novels. Some simple fcts are in order: 1). The greatest povery in the 19th century then a now existed in countries wihout indudtry and capitalist economies. 2) Even in Victorian England there was obseen poverty in the counntryside. 3) Oporttunity existed in the city that did not exist in the country, in part because of the schools available in the cities. 4) The most prosperous country in the 19th century was the United States, the most capitalist country at the time.

Created: 11:53 PM 10/5/2005
Last updated: 5:18 AM 3/10/2022