British workhouse The origins of the workhouse can be traced to the Poor Law Act of 1388 after the Black Death in England, where the law attempted to address the labour shortages. They restricts the movement of labourers, and indirectly responsible for the support of the poor. Inmates were usually in a poor state of health because of the poor food they consumed. As a consequence of the lack of nutrients in their diet, they were vulnerable to sickness and disease. Many died in the workhouse with only very basic medical treatment.
Figure 2: History of the Poor Law.
Soon and later, a series of poor laws against to vagabond over the centuries after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. (Figure 2) However, mass unemployment in the early 1830s, the advent of new technologies to replace farm workers in particular. A string of bad harvests caused the existing poor relief scheme proved unsustainable. The New Poor Law of 1834 sought to counteract the economic trend by discouraging the granting of relief to those who refused to enter a workhouse. (Ottaway, 2020)
7
