Dark African Americans In The 19th Century

Treated like scum rather than people, Europeans in the nineteenth century faced a multitude of daily struggles including starvation and homelessness due to a lack of money. Some people attempted to make a difference by giving hands-on help, while others used personal stories to explain the corrupt world of poverty. Three important figures during this time were William Booth, Henry Mayhew, and Jeanne Bouvier. While Booth and his wife worked to rescue those suffering from poverty, Mayhew and Bouvier wrote books based on real life experiences. These people gave an insight to the horrid lives of those living in poverty, and they helped educate others living in higher classes in hopes to make a difference. Living in England during the Industrial
Dedicating his life to helping those that were homeless and unemployed, Booth saw firsthand the effects of poverty. He and his wife were both Methodist ministers, and they served as disciples to those that were lost. Booth wrote his book to describe the misery of the poor and to explain methods of salvation. In relation to Mayhew, Booth also recorded accounts of prostitution, stating that girls were forced to sin or starve (Booth 208). Likewise, the men were forced to perform painstaking labor, but they would only be paid the lowest wages. Booth thought it was unfair that the owners of companies would put their employees through what seemed like Hell, but then rewarded themselves with money and luxurious lives. By this point, England was just like Africa in the sense of being disease filled with malaria; it was believed children dying would be better than them living in the wicked world of poverty they were being born
In hopes to educate the rich on the horrible living conditions the lower class faced and spark empathy into their hearts, Mayhew wrote his book with the intention to make the upper class help the less fortunate. One person Mayhew spoke with was an unnamed sixteen-year-old prostitute. He received a statement from her where she explained the horrors of being an orphan growing up in poverty. The teenager recounted how she bounced from house to house growing up; no one treated her with respect, and therefore, she did not respect herself. She ran away because she could no longer handle the pain of being beaten. At such a young age, this girl was exposed to the terrors of the prostitution ring. Everyone around her spoke with foul language and made it seem okay to break the rules. She was eventually convinced to join in on the crimes as well. By age twelve, she had already contracted a disease from another person. She had no money and believed the only way to be cured was to be arrested and put in jail. After a month, she was released and put back into the streets. She continued to see and hear things she knew were not right, but she had nowhere else to turn. The young girl was appalled by the lack of police interference, and she knew she had to find a way out. She continued to live a life that involved stealing,