Richard oastler prisons for the poor. Richard Oastler 2022-12-26

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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.

Richard Oastler

richard oastler prisons for the poor

Nor, how can property be valuable or secure, when the great mass of the people are unhappy, murmuring, and discontented? Retrieved 26 April 2015. When Oastler's campaign against the new poor law proved equally incendiary, Thornhill dismissed him from his position as steward 28 May 1838 and initiated legal proceedings against him for recovery of debts accumulated during his stewardship at Fixby. Now, mark what I say, and let any constitutional Lawyer contradict me, if I am wrong. The Bible containing the will of God, - this accursed Act of Parliament embodies the will of Lucifer. The King is check, mated by three Traitors! And of the right of Burial? From 1851 to 1855 he edited a magazine, The Home, ' addressed primarily to working-class families and consecrated to disseminating the message of Christian Tory Democracy' Driver, 513.

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Oastler, Richard (1789

richard oastler prisons for the poor

Even if that was the term used at the time by these campaigners it still does not make the term correct. The Oastlers were yeoman farmers and freeholders of the parish of Kirby Wiske in the North Riding of Yorkshire. It lays the axe to the root of the social compact: it must break up society, and make England a wilderness. 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. This had not been successful, and on Oastler's imprisonment transformed itself into an 'Oastler Liberation Fund'; this initially also stalled well short of its target :440 :440—445 On Shrove Tuesday 1844, a procession and meeting to mark his liberation were held at Huddersfield; he told the meeting that he now had no animosity towards his opponents, and that violent language was no longer necessary; the press and the public now fully supported further factory legislation and reform of the New Poor Law.

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New Poor Law: A Speech by Richard Oastler (1837)

richard oastler prisons for the poor

His Russian bears, would turn and rend the three Commissioners, rather than murder us. Englishmen, whether it be right, that a set of hungry Lawyers and Doctors, whose brains were never valued at a guinea, by those who lived near to them, should, like Dr. He revived old manorial customs such as rent day and harvest fair. Now to the point. I do not intend to ask you. Unable to pay back the money he owed, Oastler was jailed for debt in December 1840.

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RICHARD OASTLER: THE FACTORY KING

richard oastler prisons for the poor

There is a wealth of writing from the time about this. Oastler continued to campaign for factory reform until the Ten-Hour Act was passed in 1847. But how for this Hat It is not mine. In either case, it was dishonourable to the government, and insulting to you. Democracy and the change of Law is a slow process. But do not think that I intrude. No Tory can transfer his allegiance to these three Traitors; if he should, he will sin against every article of his political creed.

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Abolitionists Oastler and Stephens, "Slavery?" and Prison

richard oastler prisons for the poor

This type of treatment was not unusual and Oastler and Stephens knew it. That compelling the masters to treat their children better will REDUCE wages, and, what is very singular, will, at the same time RAISE THE PRICE of goods to the consumers. It is a fact! Although Hobhouse's Bill was passed it only applied to cotton factories and failed to provide any machinery for its enforcement. Homestead and hall, church and cottage, craftsmanship and harmony of function: these were the things that possessed his imagination, and in their name, paradoxically enough, Richard Oastler for ten turbulent years trod the edges of revolution. We do not hesitate to aver that they have, in one night, done more injury to the cause of the factory operatives in this town, by the disgraceful advice which they tendered to their hearers. On quitting Fulneck aged seventeen, Oastler meant to become a barrister, but his father had prohibitive scruples about the law, and after a failed effort as an architect's apprentice in Wakefield, Oastler settled down as a commission agent, a sort of middleman, that is, between the wholesale houses of Leeds and the small retailers in the towns and villages of the West Riding.

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Richard Oastler (1789

richard oastler prisons for the poor

I ask you not, dissenters, if this be right; I know what I think, and what you think, if you be Christians. The ten-hour day was now accepted as normal and proper: consequently it was now passing from remembrance that "the agitation in favour of it was by no means well received, and the struggle that won it was a hard one". It is an Act passed, by the Union of every faction, in the hope of their being able to crush the rights of the people, — the working people. However, I think you are attempting to endorse violence for a political purpose in a democracy admittedly at the time a flawed democracy. Back later I think it's worth rescuing this because we could have some fun with the British social history.

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Richard Oastler

richard oastler prisons for the poor

Bell's New Weekly Messenger. Oastler was a West Riding campaigner and Stephens in Lancashire and Cheshire. I learn this from the Holy Bible. 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! Two Neighbours have now the power to imprison, with Hard Labour, FOR LIFE! What say you, friends? I felt that we were each of us in the presence of the Highest and I knew that that vow was recorded in Heaven. His last years passed quietly, and he died in obscurity, of a heart attack, at Harrogate, Yorkshire, on 22 August 1861.

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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oastler, Richard

richard oastler prisons for the poor

. A contrast with Thornhill's lifestyle was always lurking, and sometimes made. It is a term still used now where I live. But these Commissioners have stepped in, like traitors, between thee and thy people, and dare to tell them, that they are no longer under thy controul!!! The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. A history of factory legislation. The younger children are carried on the backs of the older children asleep to the mill, and they see no more of their parents till they go home at night, and are sent to bed. They have no right to TRANSFER that power from themselves, and then expect us to obey the Laws, mode by these Commissioners.

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