People Entering a Workhouse Had to Swear an Oath That They Were Truly Desperate
When entering a workhouse, people had to agree to an oath “swearing to their lack of worldly goods and to their need for assistance.” This oath gave the poorhouse full control over what they ate, the clothes they wore, and how they acted on a daily basis. Sometimes, even those “deserving” of aid were ordered to go to the workhouse. In 1874, a man named David Jenkins was ordered to go to the workhouse with his wife, even though they were in their 70’s, and too old to work. And yet for some reason, the charity they received from their local Parish was stopped. Most poorhouses disappeared after the Great Depression, when the government got more involved with giving aid to unemployed people. However, there was a poorhouse in Texas that didn’t close down until the 1970s.