In Their Own Write: Contesting the New Poor Law, 1834–1900 (States, People, and the History of Social Change)

Rethinking the grim picture of the Victorian workhouse through the authentic words of the poor and their advocates. Until now it has been impossible to know how the poor themselves negotiated the New Poor Law and its measures, and how their interactions with the state shifted and changed across the nineteenth century. Based on first-hand testimony – pauper letters and witness statements interwoven with letters to newspapers and correspondence from poor law officials and advocates – __In Their Own Write__ exposes this hidden history. "Few subjects in European welfare history attract as much attention as the nineteenth-century English and Welsh New Poor Law. Its founding statute was at once considered the single most important piece of social legislation ever enacted, and the coming of its institutions - from penny-pinching Boards of Guardians to the dreaded workhouse - has generally been viewed as a catastrophe for ordinary working people. Until now it has been impossible to know how the poor themselves felt about the New Poor Law and its measures, how they negotiated its terms, and how their interactions with the local and national state shifted and changed across the nineteenth century. In Their Own Write exposes this hidden history. Based on an unparalleled collection of first-hand testimony - pauper letters and witness statements interwoven with letters to newspapers and correspondence from poor law officials and advocates - the book reveals lives marked by hardship, deprivation, bureaucratic intransigence, parsimonious officialdom, and sometimes institutional cruelty, while also challenging the dominant view that the poor were powerless and lacked agency in these interactions. The testimonies collected in these pages clearly demonstrate that both the poor and their advocates were adept at navigating the new bureaucracy, holding local and national officials to account, and influencing the outcomes of relief negotiations for themselves and their communities. Fascinating and compelling, the stories presented in In Their Own Write amount to nothing less than a new history of welfare from below."-- Provided by publisher Few subjects in European welfare history attract as much attention as the nineteenth-century English and Welsh New Poor Law. Its founding statute was considered the single most important piece of social legislation ever enacted, and at the same time, the coming of its institutions – from penny-pinching Boards of Guardians to the dreaded workhouse – has generally been viewed as a catastrophe for ordinary working people. Until now it has been impossible to know how the poor themselves felt about the New Poor Law and its measures, how they negotiated its terms, and how their interactions with the local and national state shifted and changed across the nineteenth century. In Their Own Write exposes this hidden history. Based on an unparalleled collection of first-hand testimony – pauper letters and witness statements interwoven with letters to newspapers and correspondence from poor law officials and advocates – the book reveals lives marked by hardship, deprivation, bureaucratic intransigence, parsimonious officialdom, and sometimes institutional cruelty, while also challenging the dominant view that the poor were powerless and lacked agency in these interactions. The testimonies collected in these pages clearly demonstrate that both the poor and their advocates were adept at navigating the new bureaucracy, holding local and national officials to account, and influencing the outcomes of relief negotiations for themselves and their communities. Fascinating and compelling, the stories presented in In Their Own Write amount to nothing less than a new history of welfare from below. Cover 1 In Their Own Write 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Tables and Figures 8 Preface 10 Acknowledgements 20 Conventions 22 1 Thinking about the New Poor Law 26 PART ONE Finding and Hearing “Voices” 48 2 Navigating and Measuring 50 3 Advocating for the Poor 96 4 Responding to Paupers and Advocates: The Central Authority 129 PART TWO Pauper Agency 154 5 Rhetoric and Strategy: A Corpus View 156 6 Knowing the Poor “Law” 185 7 The Female Voice 210 8 Becoming Old 235 9 The Able-Bodied Poor 258 PART THREE Contestation 286 10 Punishing the Pauper Complainant 288 11 Limits to Agency? The Sick Poor 312 12 Experiencing the Poor Law 339 Appendix: Sampling 356 Notes 360 Bibliography 428 Index 464