Victorian ERA Social Class

Victorian Era: 1837-1901

Named after the Queen
Working Class:
-worked in factories (mills)
-very bad conditions
-long hours-10 hours or more!( very short breaks for meals)
-child labor: long term health problems(cholera,and T.B., injuries, physical
deformities) owners beat children if they were not working hard enough
-didnt have power over- personal lives-owners did
-owners might own housing, didnt care about their workers
-people were dirty and worked all this time and got low pay
-had to work if they were injured
-woman were cheaper to buy to work unlike men
Other Jobs in the Victorian Era:
muffin man
chimney sweep
police officer
rat catcher-- people gambled on rat fights
dangerous job bc rats are vicious and carry rabies
Toshers- sewer scavengers
mud larkers- scavengers in the mud
Street entertainers= snake swallowers
Jewish clothesman
Coughdrop traders
Little matchgirls-- sell lights, theyd light rich mens cigars
Ethopian serenaders
dust collectors-- took coal dust from peoples houses and put them in big wagons
and take them to the dump.
Women and children would scavenge in the dumps for little, tiny clumps of coal.
Prostitution
Why would people choose to work in the factory if the conditions were so
bad?-because you get steady wages, sometimes meals, and its actually less dirty
and cold than working on the streets.
In the US most of these factory conditions does not exist to a large extent.
Abroad there are much more lenient labor laws so these terrible working
conditions do exist. For example, in China. There factory coditions can be very
bad- but other jobs (like working in electronics dumps)
What are values that your parents try to reflect themselves and instill in you:
1. respect elders
2. dont steal
3. put things away when youre done with them
4. think of others
5. say please and thank you -- BE POLITE
6. behave properly in public, dont talk with your mouth full
7. do well in school -- education is valued
8. be independent -- learn to take care of yourself.
9. work hard, lifes not going to hand you stuff, working hard is a character
val ue.
These Middle Class Values came form the Victorian Era Middle Class! (At that
time they were new. . . They were not common as they are today. Before the
industrial reevolution the middle class (bourgeosie) was very small. Most people
were peasants, a few people were nobles. . . )
Upper Class
- like the nobility
-did not believe in hard work
-spend money freely
-fashion-lavish parties
Middle Class
-hard work=virtue! good for you!
-saving money
-spend money carefully- house!
-education
-family- children have a better education have virtuous
-hard working lives
-wives-stay home, lead family life
-morality important- no smoking, drinking, sex outside of marriage, discussion of
sexuality (today we call this kind of sexual conservativism Victorian)