"The system of paying the mechanic late on the Saturday night — and more particularly of paying a man his wages in a public-house — when he is tired with his day's work lures him to the tavern, and there the hours fly quickly enough beside the warm tap-room fire, so that by the time the wife comes for her husband's wages, she finds a large portion of them gone in drink, and the streets half cleared, so that the Sunday market is the only chance of getting the Sunday's dinner." pg. 15
London Labour and the London Poor
by Henry Mayhew
"Naturally, the workers are perfectly free; the manufacturer does not force them to take his materials and his cards, but he says to them..'If you don't like to be frizzled in my frying- pan, you can take a walk into the fire.”
Friedrich Engels
“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.”
Thomas Paine quote
I would not liked to have been a male labourer; their life was dismal enough. But I would have liked to have been a labourer's wife or child even less. Do we know what the average number of children per married couple was, in the late 19th century?
ReplyDeleteMost were dead by the time they were 40. The average married woman gave birth to six children. Over 35% of all married women had eight or more children. Infant mortality was high of course relating to your other post. Upper class women tended to have fewer children - which begs the question how? given contraception was illegal mainly.
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