“This would be a great world to dance in if we didn’t have to pay the fiddler.”
-Will Rogers
Women picking oakum in the workhouse – 1906
“What was the poor made for but to work? – go to the hemp you old rascal.”
The Poor House
With the advent of civilization, a social question arises, what to do with the poor and those unable to care for themselves?
The Poorhouse is born…
Starting in the early 16th century, the English Royals had a problem…
Shutting down churches that for long took in and cared for the poor, sick, old and stupid, a new system was needed…
The first law to set the poor to work came in 1576, in “Act for Setting the Poor on Work” which also gave them a task.
“stocks of material such as wool, hemp and flax should be provided and premises hired in which to employ the able bodied poor”
Before the invention of the Hemp break, grueling labor was needed obtaining the fiber need in hemp…
With oversized wooden sledge hammer mallets, workers would pound hemp stalks placed on slightly elevated tables or stump like pounding boards. The never ending reverberation would be enough to break a healthy bodied soul much less a already broken one…
Beating hemp in the Poorhouse – zoom in from the 1837 anti poor law poster
“A convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron, and other necessary ware and stuff, to set the poor on work.”
-from the 1601 Poor Relief Act
The 1601 Poor Relief Act gave the accepted church more power with the ability to appoint ‘overseers’ to both watch over the poor workers in the workhouse, enforce the act, and to collect ‘poor-rates’.
This act also multiplied the poorhouses workforce by adding children to be of able body, putting the children to work inside the workhouses.
The 1601 ‘Poor Relief Act’
The passing of the 1834 poor law act gave more power to the poorhouses/workhouses and overseers.
“By order of the Commissioners of the New Poor Laws, the period for all paupers to work is from 4 in the morning to 10 at night. 3 hours allowed for clearing away & sweeping the workhouse yard”
Extending the poorhouse work hours the poor were expected to work more while adding grueling punishments for those that could not keep up…
“Old and young must labour here – what was the poor made for but to work? – go to the hemp you old rascal.”
Anti-Poor Law poster c. 1834 showing the interior of an English workhouse under the new laws Date: c. 1834
Anti-Poor Law poster from 1837 against the 1834 poor law act, showing the interior of a English workhouse.
“Marge: I always told you you kids would send your father to the crazy house!
Bart: No, mom, you said poor house.
Marge: I said crazy house!
Bart: Poor house.
Marge: Crazy house!
Bart: Poor house.
Marge: CRAZY HOUSE!”
-The Simpsons