Victorian workhouses were created as a way to deal with poverty and unemployment in the 19th century.
Workhouses were designed to be unpleasant and uninviting to discourage people from seeking help.
People who entered workhouses were separated from their families and forced to wear uniforms.
Workhouse inmates were given minimal food and often had to perform hard physical labor.
Workhouse inmates were given minimal food and often had to perform hard physical labor.
Children were often sent to workhouses and were subjected to harsh living conditions and education.
Workhouse conditions were often unsanitary and disease was rampant.
Inmates were often stigmatized and treated as social outcasts
Workhouses were viewed as a means of punishing the poor and enforcing a moral code.
The harshness of workhouse conditions contributed to the development of social welfare programs in the 20th century.