LAW AND POVERTY

1. LAW AND POVERTY Professor Bill Quigley

2. Historical Development ofLaw and Poverty

3. English Poor Laws

4. Map of England

5. Feudalism

6. From Murraystate poor law show

7. Edward III 1327-1377

8. 1349-1350 Statutes of LaborersEdward III • prohibition of begging • prohibition of almsgiving • compulsory work for all under 60 • maximum wages • people restricted to own town

9. Categorization of poor on ability to work • Able-bodied? • Disabled?

11. 1531 - 1536 Poor Relief Statutes • positive obligations and negative sanctions

12. 1531 - 1536 Negative Sanctions • punishment of beggars and vagabonds • worries about the wandering poor • only licensed poor were allowed to bet only aged and disabled were given licenses • begging without a license was a crime • crime to give $ to non-licensed beggars • poor begging children (5 to 14) could be taken from families as apprentices

13. 1531 - 1536 Positive Obligations • local responsibility for disabled or aged poor • local financing and administration • punishment for those who refused to work • assistance limited to three year residents

14. 1563 Statute of Artificers • compulsory work for poor • could not leave community without written permission • poor children as young as 1 were apprenticed

15. Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 • Local Responsibility (parish) • Primary Family Responsibility • Settlement and Removal

17. Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601divided poor people into four groups: • needy neighbors who could not work • needy neighbors who could work • needy strangers who could not work • needy strangers who could work Only help was for first group

18. Settlement and Removal • only helped worthy residents who were settled in jurisdiction (parish) • outsiders, even worthy, were removed

19. 1822 English poor rate summons from www.workhouses.org.uk

20. 1747 English poor rate settlement document from www.workhouses.org.uk

21. English poor rate removal notice 1836 from www.workhouses.org.uk

22. Colonial Poor Laws

23. Colonial Poor Laws • came from English Poor Laws • built on Puritan Ideology • use Public-Private Partnership

24. Key Elements of Colonial Poor Laws • Local Responsibility (parish) • Inter-generational Family Responsibility • Settlement Laws • Forced Imprisonment for the Idle

25. Colonial Settlement • Followed English Law • Especially poor arrivals by ship

26. Ship from Sailing Ships and Their Stories by E. Keble Chatterton

27. Who Were the Poor in Colonies? • Apprenticed children (Including those working off parents’ debt) • Indentured servants • Slaves • Widows, orphans, abandoned women and children • Mentally and physically disabled

28. United States of American until Civil War • followed mostly colonial poor laws • local responsibility (county or town) • settlement and removal • family responsibility • anti-immigrant poor

29. 7 year indenture of John Broad to George Washington, December 21, 1773

30. April 19, 1809 contract between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison for sale of remainder of the terms of service for indentured servant, John Freeman, likely a indentured free black man, for term of 76 1/2 monts for $400. (Carter Woodson collection)

31. Slave pen in Alexandria, VA 1862

32. Slave auction poster

33. Slave pen in Alexandria, VA

34. Native Americans homestead in Sandhills

35. Debtor’s prison in Accomoac, VA made from a picture postcard by Mayrose Co., Linden, NJ

36. Movement Towards Institutional Relief • Outdoor relief: assistance in own homes • Indoor relief: assistance in governmental setting

37. 1834 Poor Law Reforms in England(and others in USA) • helping poor people was hurting them • poor people were lazy and immoral • $ was going to drink and wild lives So… • Less Eligibility (make lowest paid worker better off than best poor person) • Stigmatize poor relief • Consolidate and centralize poor relief

38. Institutional Poor Relief • Houses of Correction • Almshouses • County Poor Houses • Poor Farms • Workhouses • Asylums

39. Civil War to New Deal • Who were the poor? • Victims of war, widows, orphans • Disabled • Freed Slaves • What were the changes? • More institutions • Increase in private philanthropy • States starting to accept responsibility • State laws on minimum wage, preventing child labor, etc.

40. American Memory/Library of Congress-Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record Catalog No.: HABS.RI.4-PROV.131-1

41. American Memory/Library of Congress-Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record Catalog No.: HABS.RI.4-PROV.131-2

42. American Memory/Library of Congress-Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record Catalog No.: HABS.RI.4-PROV.131-3

43. State lunatic asylum, Buffalo, NY, built 1871 Catalog No.: HABS No. NY 0 5606

44. Southern Ohio lunatic asylum, Dayton, Ohio. Erected 1855 Catalog No.: HABS No. OH-2222-3

45. New Orleans female orphan asylum and Margaret Monument, pic taken 1890

46. Orphan asylum, Charleston, SC

47. Rendering of St. Elizaeth’s Orphanage, 1314 Napoleon Ave.

49. Cook Co. Poor Farm, Oak Forest, IL, east view Library of Congress Call No: Illinois, no. 21 Collection: Panoramic photographs

50. Door to poorhouse