The Victorian Era

Victorian Morality and Social Reform

Article · Society & Daily Life · The Victorian Era, 1837–1901

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Victorian morality and social reform was one of the great movements of the period, a long series of campaigns, organisations, and legislative reforms that sought to address the social problems of the Victorian Era: A Complete Historical Overview. The Victorian period was an age of evangelism, of great preaching, of the nonconformist conscience, of the Salvation Army, of the temperance movement, of the anti-slavery movement, of the anti-corn-law league, of the factory reform movement, of the sanitary reform movement, of the women’s suffrage movement, of the educational reform movement, of the prison reform movement, of the lunacy reform movement, of the poor law reform movement, of the Contagious Diseases Act repeal, of the treatment of the poor, and of a long list of other moral and social campaigns. The Victorian period was the great age of the middle-class reformer, the Nonconformist conscience, the parliamentary crusader, and the single-issue pressure group, and the period saw the slow construction of the modern British welfare state.

This page examines the principal moral and social reform movements of the Victorian period, including the Evangelical Revival, the Oxford Movement, the temperance movement, the anti-slavery movement, the factory reform movement, the sanitary reform movement, the educational reform movement, the poor law reform movement, the prison reform movement, the lunacy reform movement, the women’s suffrage movement, and the Contagious Diseases Act reform. For the broader context of Victorian society, see Victorian Society, Class, and Daily Life, and for the parent overview, see The Victorian Era: A Complete Historical Overview.

The Evangelical Revival and the Oxford Movement

The Victorian moral reform was rooted in the great religious revivals of the period. The Evangelical Revival of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the work of the great preachers John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Charles Simeon, had transformed the established church, had founded the great nonconformist chapels, and had inspired a long list of moral and social campaigns, including the anti-slavery movement, the Sunday school movement, the Bible society movement, the missionary movement, and the tract society movement. The Clapham Sect — William Wilberforce (1759–1833), Henry Thornton (1760–1815), Zachary Macaulay (1768–1838), Hannah More (1745–1833), and the “Saints” of the Clapham parish — was the central group of the late Evangelical Revival, and the campaigns of Wilberforce for the abolition of the slave trade, of Zachary Macaulay for the abolition of slavery, and of the Clapham Sect for the moral reform of the British Empire were the foundation of the Victorian moral reform.

The Oxford Movement of the 1830s and 1840s, the work of the great theologians John Keble, John Henry Newman, and Edward Pusey, had transformed the established church from within, had restored the Catholic elements of the Anglican tradition, and had inspired a long list of social and educational reforms. The Oxford Movement was, in turn, the parent of the Anglo-Catholic revival of the period, and the new Anglo-Catholic parishes of the East End of London (St George’s, Camberwell; St Alban’s, Holborn; the Church of the Annunciation, Marylebone) were the great institutions of the period. The Nonconformist Conscience, the political and moral force of the Wesleyan Methodists, the Congregationalists, the Baptists, the Unitarians, and the Quakers, was the other great religious force of the period, and the long line of Nonconformist MPs, Nonconformist ministers, and Nonconformist campaigners was the backbone of the Liberal Party of the period.

The Anti-Slavery Movement

The anti-slavery movement was one of the great Victorian reform movements, a long campaign to abolish the slave trade and to abolish slavery in the British Empire. The movement had begun in the late eighteenth century, with the work of the great reformers Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, and Hannah More, and it had culminated in the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833. The apprenticeship system established by the 1833 Act was abolished in 1837 in the case of the house slaves and in 1840 in the case of the field slaves. The movement was renewed in the 1840s and 1850s, with the work of the great reformers Thomas Fowell Buxton, Thomas Clarkson, and Frederick Douglass, and it continued to campaign against slavery around the world, particularly in the United States, in Brazil, in Cuba, and in the Ottoman Empire.

The anti-slavery movement had a profound effect on the Victorian conscience. The movement established the principle that one nation had a moral duty to suppress the slave trade and to abolish slavery in other nations, and it laid the foundation for the later international action against the slave trade. The movement also inspired a long list of supporting organisations, including the Anti-Slavery Society (founded 1823, revived 1839), the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (founded 1839), the Women’s Anti-Slavery Society, and the London Emancipation Committee.

The Temperance Movement

The What was the temperance movement? was one of the great Victorian reform movements, a long campaign to limit or to abolish the consumption of alcohol. The movement began in 1831 with the foundation of the British and Foreign Temperance Society in Preston, and it grew rapidly through the 1840s and 1850s. The early temperance movement was largely concerned with the moderate consumption of spirits, but the movement became increasingly prohibitionist, and by the 1870s it was calling for the total abolition of the drink trade. The What was the temperance movement? is one of the central stories of the period, and the movement had a profound effect on the Victorian pub, on the Victorian wife, on the Contagious Diseases Act, and on the wider Victorian Daily Life and Society of the period.

The Factory and Sanitary Reform

The factory reform movement and the sanitary reform movement were two of the great Victorian reform movements. The factory reform movement, the work of the great reformers Lord Ashley (Anthony Ashley-Cooper, later 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801–1885), Michael Sadler, Robert Owen, and Lord Shaftesbury, had culminated in the Factory Act of 1833, the Mines and Collieries Act of 1842, the Ten Hours Act of 1847, the Factory Act of 1850, the Factory Acts Extension Act of 1867, the Workshop Regulation Act of 1867, the Factory Act of 1878, and the long series of later acts. The factory reform movement was largely concerned with the conditions of the Victorian children in the mills and the mines, with the long hours, the dangerous machinery, the poor ventilation, and the spread of disease, and it was one of the central reforms of the period. Lord Shaftesbury, who was the parliamentary champion of the cause from 1833 to 1885, was the leading figure of the period.

The sanitary reform movement, the work of the great reformers Edwin Chadwick, Thomas Southwood Smith, John Simon, and Florence Nightingale, had culminated in the Public Health Act of 1848 (the first act of modern public health in Britain), the 1858 Public Health Act, the Local Government Act of 1858, the 1872 Public Health Act, the 1875 Public Health Act, the Sale of Food and Drugs Act of 1875, the Artisans’ Dwellings Act of 1875, the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act of 1876, and the long series of later acts. The sanitary reform movement was largely concerned with the conditions of the Victorian Cities, Transport, and Entertainment, with the overcrowding, the poor drainage, the contaminated water, the polluted air, and the spread of disease, and it was one of the central reforms of the period. The story of the sanitary reform movement is told in How did Florence Nightingale change nursing? and in What was the Great Stink of London?.

The Treatment of the Poor and the Social Survey

The treatment of the poor of the period was the subject of the great How did Victorians treat the poor? campaign of the period, and the New Poor Law of 1834, the Charity Organisation Society of 1869, the Settlement houses of the 1880s, and the social surveys of Charles Booth and B. Seebohm Rowntree were the great institutions of the period. The Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress of 1905–1909, whose Majority Report and Minority Report were signed by, respectively, the Liberal majority and the Webbs’ Minority, was the great report of the period, and the Minority Report was the foundation of the modern welfare state.

The Education Reform

The education reform movement was one of the great Victorian reform movements, and the Education Act of 1870, the Education Act of 1880, the Education Act of 1891, and the Education Act of 1902 were the great legislative achievements of the period. The School Board for London, established in 1870 under the chairmanship of the University of London professor Robert Lowe (later Viscount Sherbrooke), was the first of the new educational authorities; the board schools that it built and the new profession of board-school teachers that it established were the foundation of the new system of elementary education; the School Boards were abolished by the Education Act of 1902, which transferred their powers to the new local education authorities. The new universities — the University of London, the Victoria University of Manchester and Liverpool, the University of Durham, the University of Wales, the new civic universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, and Bristol — were founded or reorganised in the period, and the new system of secondary education established by the Education Act of 1902 was the foundation of the modern English education system.

The Women’s Suffrage and the Married Women’s Property

The women’s suffrage movement was one of the great Victorian reform movements, a long campaign to extend the franchise to women. The movement had begun in the 1850s, with the work of the great reformers Barbara Bodichon, Emily Davies, and Elizabeth Garrett, and it had grown rapidly through the 1860s and 1870s. The movement suffered a serious setback in the 1880s and 1890s, when the parliamentary bills to extend the franchise to women were repeatedly rejected, and it was not until 1918, long after the Victorian period had ended, that the Representation of the People Act extended the franchise to women over the age of 30. The Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, the Infant Custody Act of 1839, and the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 were the great legislative achievements of the women’s rights movement of the period, and the women reformers were active in the anti-slavery movement, in the temperance movement, in the factory reform movement, in the sanitary reform movement, in the educational reform movement, in the Contagious Diseases Act reform movement, in the treatment of the poor campaign, and in a long list of other campaigns.

The Anti-Vivisection and the Humanitarian Movements

The anti-vivisection movement was a particular feature of the late Victorian period. The Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876 was the first act of Parliament to regulate the practice of vivisection, and the Act required the licensing of vivisection laboratories, the registration of all vivisectionists, the regular inspection of laboratories, and the requirement that the experimenter anaesthetise the animal unless he had obtained a special certificate. The Act was a compromise between the demands of the anti-vivisection movement, led by Frances Power Cobbe, and the demands of the medical research community, led by the physiologist Michael Foster, and the Act was the foundation of the modern system of animal experimentation regulation in Britain.

The RSPCA, founded in 1824, was the great animal welfare organisation of the period, and it prosecuted thousands of cases of cruelty to animals in the courts. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), founded in 1884 by Benjamin Waugh, stood as the great child welfare body of the era, its officers bringing thousands of cruelty cases before the courts. The Howard League for Penal Reform, founded in 1866, was the leading prison reform pressure group, and the league campaigned for the abolition of the long-term solitary confinement, the introduction of the ticket-of-leave, the reform of the convict prison, and the establishment of the modern prison system. The Lunacy Commission, established in 1845, was the great lunacy reform body of the period, and the Commission reformed the system of the private madhouse, established the county asylum, and laid the foundation of the modern system of mental health care in Britain.

The Key Victorian Reformers

The key Victorian reformers of the period were the great men and women who led the campaigns. Lord Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801–1885) was the parliamentary champion of the factory reform, the lunacy reform, the education reform, the housing reform, the anti-vivisection, and the ragged school movement; Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) was the founder of the modern nursing, the reformer of the army medical service, the campaigner for the sanitary reform, and the statistician; Josephine Butler (1828–1906) was the leader of the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, the campaigner for the women’s suffrage, the campaigner for the married women’s property, and the campaigner for the age of consent; Mary Carpenter (1807–1877) was the reformer of the juvenile offender, the founder of the Red Lodge reformatory for girls, and the campaigner for the ragged school; Octavia Hill (1838–1912) was the housing reformer, the founder of the National Trust, the campaigner for the open space, and the co-founder of the Charity Organisation Society. These were the great reformers of the period, and their campaigns were the foundation of the modern welfare state of the twentieth century.