A Culture of Poverty? The St. Martin in the Fields Workhouse, 1817

Abstract

A Culture of Poverty? The St. Martin in the Fields Workhouse, I817 In early nineteenth-century England, it was an upper-class common place that the poor law promoted pauperism. Many in the upper classes believed that it undermined initiative and the willingness to work hard, that it bred dependency, and that these moral failings were largely the cause of the ever-escalating levels of poor relief. Baugh and Huzel have challenged this position convincingly with regard to the rural poor. But what of the urban poor? Did poor relief demoralize recipients in cities? Was the recourse to poor relief a way of life? Can a culture of poverty be identified? Did the poor law promote pauperism? These are large questions; definitive answers will require local studies of many urban parishes. An examination of the workhouse of a large Westminster parish-St. Martin in the Fields-sheds light on the situation in London.' The term culture of poverty has been used in various ways. In this context, it denotes aspirations, preferences, and practices peculiar to the poor and conducive to the perpetuation of poverty throughout the individual's life and, indeed, from generation to generation within particular families. As an analytic concept, the