The Victorian LifestyleUshering in a New Era

The Victorian Era

Queen Victoria was the Queen of England from 1837 – 1901, and as such this time frame is known as the Victorian Era.

During this era, Great Britain has a vast empire. It stretched all the way around the world – in fact it is said that, “the sun never set on the British Empire.”

In Canada, now that the rebellions have ended, life in the colonies was beginning to truly embrace all aspects of the British lifestyle – including their views, styles, activities and prejudices.

Canada was to become a British society, one of GB’s favourite colonies, and it was far from being multicultural - in fact Canada was just the opposite of such an idea.

Class society

Because Canada was turning into another British Society, with it came economic labels from GB – upper class, middle class and lower class.

Upper Class – elites, the rich, the powerful. Ex. Business Men, Merchants, High Ranking Military, and etc…

Middle Class – the educated, and wealthy. Ex. Doctors, Lawyers, Educators (university) and etc…

Lower Class – the non-educated and working class. Ex. Farmers, Smith Masons, Seamstress, Miners, Lumber Workers and etc…

The Employment Front

Upper Class was comprised mostly of business men who gained their wealthy via the success of their business. Their costs were low as they had cheap labour, small amount of overhead costs, and didn’t have to pay much in taxes.

Middle Class gained their wealth by being employed in professional jobs, ones that were deemed valuable – doctors, lawyers, teachers and etc… They tended to be paid quite well (as most of their clients were from the upper class) and for all intent and purpose, were relatively rich within their profession.

The Employment Front

Lower Class workers were poorly paid, worked long hours, six days a week and had no vacation time.

In Canada, society had no employment insurance, no social welfare, no universal health care, no minimum wage laws, and no labour laws to protect workers and their children.

One other thing Canada didn’t do was collect a lot of taxes this resulted in two things: 1. Government couldn’t pay for social programs (health care,

employment insurance, pension plan, education, and etc…) 2. Business men were able to get incredibly rich (not to

mention that businesses also paid their workers a very very low wage)

Immigration

There was a massive influx of immigration.

However there was no desire for a multicultural society so most of the immigrants came from England, Ireland and Scotland.

Notice the ‘white touch’to this flock of immigrants.

Immigration

Habitants were not impressed, as the Irish and the Scots were deemed to be less British than people from England, however, they were an upgrade from Asians, African’s, and Muslims.

Most immigrants came to Canada to find work – back in Scotland, Ireland and England there was very little work. But because Canada was a growing colony, work was easier to find than back home.

Religion

No matter what class you were part of, religion played a huge role in everyone’s life.

The official religion in Canada West and Canada East was Christianity: Irish were Catholic French were Catholic Scottish were Presbyterians English were Anglicans

Anglican ChurchCatholic Church

Religion

Churches were a community within a community.

The church was the sole provider of services: They put on social events Held charity functions Sponsoring missionaries Leaders in education Created schools Actively involved in community issues (political,

economical, educational and etc…) They also told you how to vote in elections.

The church pretty much ran everyone’s day-to-day life.

Victorian Attitudes and Values

Victorian age citizens had a high level of morals (debatable, but they did argue for it), hard work and personal success.

They also had a high value for modesty, seriousness and duty to king/queen and the mother country.

A strong believer in science, technology and medicine.

Finally, they were very materialistic – that is to say, they valued possessions and physical comfort. Because they had a strong sense of different classes in

society, the materials you possessed help describe the social class you belonged to.

Leisure

Entertainment unlike we know it: No TV No Movies No Internet No Videos No Recorded Music and No Telephones and; (the horror) No Cell Phones

Leisure

Types of entertainment in the Victorian Era: In the cities, people would host parties, go to

musical concerts, live theatre, local fairs and circus’.

In the country people would attend barn raising, quilting bees, weddings and barn dances.

People read books and magazines. Books by Charles Dickens were very popular

novels to read.

Leisure

Blood sports were very popular – boxing was one of them. People would box bare-fisted and would fight for over 100 rounds.

The problem was this wasn’t “civilized” or “moralistic.” How “uncouth” it was to beat up on each other till one was almost dead.

Thus rules were made to make it more civilized, like boxers had to wear boxing gloves and if a man was hanging onto the ropes, or on the ground, and couldn’t walk on his own he was considered “knocked out.”

Other Games

For others they found happiness playing other games such as: Card games (whist, poker and etc…) Board games (checkers, chess and etc…) Attended dances and; Made their own music

Science and Technology

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