‘Naked and starving’: letters tell how English paupers fought for rights 200 years ago

Appeals to parish overseers show how penniless 19th-century families were ‘masters’ at navigating Old English Poor Law

They were destitute, their children were starving and their short, pitiful lives were often marred by heartbreak and suffering. But they knew that, morally, they had rights, and they understood how to make their voices heard.

Now, previously unpublished letters of penniless and disabled paupers living in the early 19th century reveal the sophisticated and powerful rhetoric they used to secure regular welfare payments from parish authorities, despite being barely able to read and write.

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