Life in the Victorian times was very tough for many people. Diseases were common; actions that are nowadays seen as perfectly legal were then punishable with death and over seventy five per cent of the population earned less than £1 in a week. In this website I will be explaining the living conditions of upper, middle and working class Victorians, how crimes were dealt with and the restrictions that women had to live by.
Upper and middle class
· Upper-class Victorians had an income of £1000 to £10,000 per year.
· Middle-class Victorians had an income of £300 to£1000 per year
· The upper and medium classes only made up fifteen per cent of the Victorian age population.
· The upper class did not need to work as their income came from inherited land and investments
Working class
Most working-class Victorians received ten pounds a year, but overall they received weekly wages of four shillings to twenty eight shillings. Most children had to start work at an age of seven and normally worked in mills and factories which were linked with a high fatality rate. If they couldn’t get a job then they resorted to pickpocketing. Dog waste could be sold to tanneries and discarded cigarette butts could be recycled and sold. Even a stolen handkerchief or tissue could be sold for food. Many families were either homeless or lived in houses of the poorest quality
Dealing with crimes
The main punishment was hanging and many thousands would have died on the gallows. Until the 1930s, reported thefts were noted down as lost property and in later years, if you stole a loaf of bread, you could be sent to Australia. For most of the nineteenth century, homosexuality was punishable by death and the last execution took place in 1830. The most common crimes were theft, murder or child mistreatment but most crimes were not dealt with or the police could not get to the crime scene (people chucked nitric acid at them). Interestingly, there are records to show 15 children under the age of 7 were put into prison for crimes such as begging and making fires.
Women
Unmarried women had to live with their parents and were not to have any sexual conduct until they married. Also, when a woman married, she had no independent legal status. She had no right to any money (earned, inherited, etc.), she could not make a will or buy property, she had no claim to her children, and she had to move with her husband wherever he went. If the husband died, he could name the mother as the guardian, but he did not have to do so. In the Victorian period, women were not allowed to vote and in 1866, the women’s suffragette movement was founded.