Richard oastler prisons for the poor. Oastler, Richard (1789 2022-10-21
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Richard Oastler was an English reformer who fought against the exploitation of children and the poor in the early 19th century. One of his main campaigns was against the use of prisons as a means of punishing the poor for petty crimes.
Oastler argued that the poor were disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system and that they were often given harsh and unfair sentences for minor offenses. He believed that prisons were being used as a tool to punish the poor and keep them in a cycle of poverty and crime, rather than as a means of rehabilitating offenders.
Oastler argued that the harsh treatment of the poor in prisons was a reflection of the wider societal attitudes towards the poor, which saw them as being inferior and undeserving of the same rights and protections as the wealthy. He believed that the poor were being punished for their poverty rather than for any wrongdoing and that the criminal justice system was being used as a means of maintaining social control and inequality.
Oastler's campaign for prison reform was supported by other reformers of the time, including Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Fry. Together, they worked to expose the harsh conditions and mistreatment of prisoners and to advocate for alternative forms of punishment that were more humane and focused on rehabilitation.
Oastler's efforts were eventually successful in bringing about some reforms to the prison system, including the introduction of separate prison wings for women and children and the implementation of more humane treatment of prisoners. However, the wider problem of poverty and inequality remained and the use of prisons as a means of punishing the poor continued well into the 20th century.
Today, there is still a debate about the role of prisons in society and whether they are effective at reducing crime and rehabilitating offenders. Some argue that prisons serve a necessary function in protecting society from dangerous individuals, while others believe that they do more harm than good and that alternative forms of punishment, such as community service and rehabilitation programs, are more effective at reducing recidivism and promoting positive social change.
Regardless of one's perspective on the role of prisons, the work of Richard Oastler and other reformers serves as a reminder of the importance of ensuring that the criminal justice system is fair and that it is not used as a means of punishing and oppressing the poor.
New Poor Law: A Speech by Richard Oastler (1837)
You see this Hat. When Thomas Thornhill heard about this he sacked Oastler from his post as steward of Fixby. You will remember that I told you something about one Learoyd; just when I had finished, and was sitting down, I was without Hat , the wearer of this Hat rose to make way for me. Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser. We both seek fur the happiness, the contentment, and the security of all: and, for that very reason, we are neither of us Whigs. Bell's New Weekly Messenger. He argued: "Very often the children are awakened by the parents at four in the morning.
His last years passed quietly, and he died in obscurity, of a heart attack, at Harrogate, Yorkshire, on 22 August 1861. The King is check, mated by three Traitors! Once establish the reign of bullets, and stones, and ropes, and lamp posts; and then I know who will be your match. The Poor Law Boards were then to appoint a clerk to administer whatever system of relief was specified for that Union by the central Commission. The Act, that the souls and bodies of paupers are lighter than Vanity, compared with the saving of a few pence! As usual, the administrators took advantage - which shows something of human nature, cruelty perhaps. For saying those things , to huge cheering crowds Only if you subsequently have the same casual approach to the fascist mob, gun rights advocates, anti immigration parties and so on. This is now English Law!! Both Stephens and Oastler were lifelong campaigners My OP is not about African slaves. John Wood turned towards me, reaching out his hand and in the most impressive manner pressed my hand in his said: "I have had no sleep tonight.
These hypocrites pretended it was necessary to keep these poor infant slaves at this excruciating labour just to preserve them from "bad company" and to prevent them learning "bad habits". They say that the rates have not been well managed, by the rate-payers; is it likely that Lawyers will manage them better? The subject throws up the mimic and moralizer Dickens for instance, and his novel characters, like Oliver Twist. It is not surprising that Christian ministers decline to join in a crusade where the leaders are utterly devoid of Christian charity, and reckless of the consequences of their violence The Standard therefore did not report that Oastler had talked of teaching children to sabotage mill machinery,; :327 this was however seized upon by his opponents such as the Guardian Oastler said that he was only advocating sabotage where as at Blackburn magistrates were denying justice to factory children by openly refusing to enforce the Factory Act. For the first time a prominent local citizen of impeccably abolitionist credentials had asserted that: Cole, 85 The effect of these words, coming as they did at a time when, as Samuel Kydd remembered, ' England was moved from centre to circumference with appeals on behalf of the liberation of West Indian slaves' Kydd, 1. Mixed with current politics were explanations of past events in his life and accounts of visits and gifts by sympathisers and well-wishers, and of life in the Fleet.
It must be burnt, — out and out burnt. He was a follower of Wilberforce when he was a young man and had handed out pamphlets for him in Yorkshire. I ask you not, dissenters, if this be right; I know what I think, and what you think, if you be Christians. A similar campaign was later taken up by others in the coal mining industry for the children working in coal mines. From prison he published the Fleet Papers, a weekly paper devoted to the discussion of factory and poor-law questions. But, my friends, I have more important business with you, than to expose the dastardly meanness of these assassin Huddersfield Whigs.
Richard Oastler's opposition to the Poor Law Amendment Act
So he was very much inspired by the fight against the enslavement of Africans in the colonies. Some Victorians welcomed it but of course not everyone did. For instance slave owners would have a right to organize paramilitary gangs in the UK and start breaking a few heads im sure you would be opposed to this. After Hobhouse's Bill was lost when a General Election was precipitated by defeat of the Reform Bill, a deputation from the Huddersfield 'Short Time Committee' called on Oastler at Fixby and agreed with him the 'Fixby Hall Compact'of 19 June 1831 :88 to combine their efforts on the issue despite fundamental differences on other political issues. And, if you obey their orders, sure to receive the curse of all around you? Oastler and Stephens were campaigning against the practice of children sometimes shackled being forced to work 16 or even 18 hours a day, though they also wanted restrictions on adult labour practices too. I said it would be so. That they will here have fine houses, with four rooms each, and all well furnished, and will be able, as factory-workers, to save £50 a year! They were both jailed.
Abolitionists Oastler and Stephens, "Slavery?" and Prison
The Constitution makes no room for Treason: yet Treason is now enthroned in three Commissioners! Disinherited, Robert went to the nearby market town of Thirsk, where he was raised by an uncle who shared his evangelical fervour. The letter provoked a heated debate and helped to encourage the M. I can not bless that, which God and Nature Curse. When a Ten Hour Bill was finally passed in 1847, Richard Oastler retired from public life. I know one field, which will change its tenant, before it will recognise Commissioner-made-Law. Do idleness and lust form reasons for the confiscation of your properly and rights? Oastler was the 'centre of communication' for the organisation, :211 and prominent in the agitation against the Commission. Hobson, Printer, Market Street, Leeds.
An essentially unsophisticated man, broad-shouldered, fresh-complexioned, abounding in joviality and health, and animated by an unequivocal moral code, he had, his biographer says, an oratorical power amounting ' almost to genius' Driver, 127. We seek to save life, not to destroy it; to protect property, not to burn it. The facts were probably less dramatic. I know they would. Hear me, friends, for I will speak right out, without fear; I will, this night, tell you what I think about that damnably accursed thing, which is intended to root out of England, every principle of natural and revealed Religion; which is intended to make us all more wretched and more base, than the brutes;— I mean the New Poor Law! He swears to the King and the Constitution — but these Traitors assert a power greater than the King or the Law. A meeting of Fixby rate-payers agreed to take no part in the election of a Poor Law Guardian; :343 Oastler played little active part in the resistance until May.
The constitution, the law, protect you, but you have Commissioned them, and removed them from under the protection of the Crown. Then, as to the Tendencies. Bethel Street, Brighouse, West Yorkshire, HD6 1JN This pub bears the name of the man who lived at nearby Fixby Hall for 20 years and famously campaigned against excessive working hours in the 19th century. Whig, look at this hole, and tell me, does that stone of yours fit it? Oastler was still campaigning when he died in 1861. I have often witnessed it. They felt frustrated at repeated attempts to block those laws and their speeches became increasingly inflammatory and seditious. Trollope, What I Remember, 1887, 2.
