Artifact of Empire: 1840sTyler Vendetti

Artifact: Newspaper advertisement

Author: William Little

Issued by: British Association for the Relief of Extreme Distress in the Remote Parishes of Ireland and Scotland

Publication date: Saturday, January 16, 1847

Publication location: 198 Strand, Parish of St. Clemens, Danes, County of Middlesex,London, UK

From: The Illustrated London News (Historical Archive 1842 – 2003)

ContextIndustrial Revolution caused

mass migration to urban areas

Corn Laws forced higher food prices on urban families

Blight wiped out potato supply in Ireland, causing widespread starvation

Relief programs drove people to the city, created epidemics

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Relation to Text

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Experiences at Lowood reflect national hunger problems

Both feature committees that come to the rescue

Exposure of poor conditions @ receive negative public attention

Jane = Bronte’s mouthpiece on impoverished communities

Important Quotes “ The scanty supply of food was distressing […] whenever the

famished great girls had an opportunity, they would coax or menace the little ones out of their portion […] after relinquishing to a third [girl] the contents of my mug of coffee, I have swallowed the remainder with an accompaniment of secret tears, forced from me by the exigency of hunger” (122).

“Several wealthy and benevolent individuals in the county subscribed largely for the erection of a more convenient building in a better situation; new regulations were made; improvements in diet and clothing introduced; the funds of the school were entrusted to the management of a committee” (149).

“Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty” (82).

Sources Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. N.p.: Smith, Elder, and

Company, 1847. Print. "Industrial Revolution." History.com. A&E Networks, n.d.

Web. 17 Sept. 2014. http://www.history.com/topics/industrial- revolution

Little, William. British Association for the Relief of Extreme Distress in the Remote Parishes of Ireland and

Scotland. Advertisement. Illustrated London News [London] 16 Jan. 1847: Print.

O'Rourke, John. The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847. 2004. Digital file.

Victorian Web. George P. Landow, 8 May 2009. Web. 17 Sept. 2014. <http://www.victorianweb.org/ science/health/ hunger.html>.