The Politics of Hunger: Protest, Poverty and Policy in England, C.1750-c.1840

275 Pages·2020·8.149 MB·English

by  Carl Griffin

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The politics of hunger
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THE POLITICS

OF HUNGER
Protest, poverty and policy in England,
c. 1750–c . 1840
Carl J. Griffin
Manchester University Press
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Copyright © Carl J. Griffin 2020
The right of Carl J. Griffin to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 5261 4562 8 hardback
First published 2020
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs
for any external or third- party internet websites referred to in this book,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Illustration by Robert Cruikshank (1789–1856) from “Just starve us,”
comic song, words by W. H. Freeman, music by Auber, adapted by T. C. L[ewis].
Estimated 1843, London. British Library shelf mark h.1260.(1.)
Typeset by Newgen Publishing UK
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For Suzanne and Silas, that you may never

hunger for anything but knowledge
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Contents

List of tables and figures page viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: ‘The unremitted pressure’: On hunger politics 1
Part I: Protesting hunger 23
1 Food riots and the languages of hunger 25
2 The persistence of the discourse of starvation in the protests of
the poor 55
Part II: Hunger policies 83
3 Measuring need: Speenhamland, hunger and universal
pauperism 85
4 Dietaries and the less eligibility workhouse: or, the making
of the poor as biological subjects 130
Part III: Theorising hunger 177
5 The biopolitics of hunger: Malthus, Hodge and the
racialisation of the poor 179
6 Telling the hunger of ‘distant’ others 207
Conclusions 234
Select bibliography 246
Index 257
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Tables and figures

Tables
3.1 Amount spent on making bread per week for five Barkham
(Berkshire) families, 1787 page 91
3.2 Delineation of English counties according to payment of
wage subsidies as detailed in the 1824 Select Committee
on Labourers’ Wages, based on Blaug, 1963 108
4.1 Eden’s model workhouse dietary, per inmate per week 133
Figures

4.1 Howden workhouse dietary, 1792. East Yorkshire
Record Office, Beverley, PE121/ 63, Howden vestry minute,
14 June 1792. Reproduced by kind permission of the
East Riding Archives and Local Studies. 137
4.2 Front cover of Anon. (‘Marcus, One of the Three’),
The Book of Murder! A Vade- mecum for the Commissioners
and Guardians of the New Poor Law . . . Being an Exact
Reprint of the Infamous Essay on the Possibility of Limiting
Populousness, with a Refutation of the Malthusian Doctrine,
2nd ed., with a preface (London: John Hill, 1839). 156
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Acknowledgements

This book was first conceived on my arrival at the University of Sussex in
the summer of 2013, though several of the ideas herein had a longer gesta-
tion. Beginning work at an institution with a peerless reputation for research
on rural resistance past and present provided the spur to make sense of what
had been a constant presence in my previous writings and as yet remained
obscure, both in my thinking and in the wider historiography. How might
one begin to research a book on the politics of hunger in the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth century? Having written the book I am convinced that
no funding council or charity would be convinced of the case. Indeed, much
of the material used here was gathered piecemeal whilst working on other
projects, going back to the research undertaken for my doctoral thesis at the
University of Bristol. This project, then, was only possible because of the
slow accretion of materials across a wide range of topics, time periods, locales
and archives. The list of the latter is far too long to detail here – indeed not
all libraries and archives consulted remain open – but I note with thanks the
permission to reproduce figure 4.1 granted by the East Riding Archives and
Local Studies. The individuals who have helped to shape my thinking – and
hence this book – are legion, but my particular thanks go to Iain Robertson,
Briony McDonagh, Roy Jones, Katrina Navickas, Peter Jones, Steve Poole,
Rose Wallis, Richard Hoyle, Malcolm Chase, Keith Lilley, Dave Featherstone,
Paul Griffin, Keith Snell, Brian Short, Simon Sandall, and the much- missed
Alun Howkins. An earlier version of chapter six appeared in volume 42 of
Historical Geography and I would like to thank Gerry Kearns – the editor
of that fine volume on ‘Irish Historical Geographies’ – for his thoughtful
comments and careful editorial work. Chapter two was first aired at ‘People,
Protest & the Land: A Workshop in Honour of Professor Alun Howkins’,
held at the University of Sussex in July 2014. I would like to thank the organ-
iser, Nicola Verdon, and the participants of the wonderful workshop for their
feedback and encouragement. Sections of chapter five were first given as
a paper at the British Agricultural History Society’s Winter Conference in
December 2017.
Sussex has proved a wonderfully convivial place to think and work. For
granting me a term of research leave – the first and only period of my career
so far – so soon after my arrival I am hugely grateful to Richard Black and
Alan Lester who appointed me. A year after arriving I became, suddenly and
unexpectedly, Deputy Head of Department, and then two years later Head
of Department. This book was written during these periods and has provided