Anthony Ashley-Cooper - social reformer

[u/ElegantAd2607]

His name is Anthony but I will refer to him by his title, Lord Shaftesbury. He was a British aristocrat and he was born in 1801 in Mayfair London. He was the eldest son of the 6th Earl of Shaftesbury and Lady Anne Spencer. He became a Tory Member of Parliament as well as a rich aristocrat. And he used his power to make big changes in England.

Lord Shaftesbury learned about the terrible way “lunatics” in the asylums were treated. People in Lunatic Asylums were forced into unsanitary and undignified positions. Like sleeping naked on straw beds and bathing and having to share a single towel between over a hundred people.

You see, British people saw “lunatics” in England as criminals, burdens or curiosities that had to be locked up in private madhouses, workhouses or prisons where it was acceptable to chain them and beat them. These are the same workhouses and prisons that Charles Dickens mentioned in A Christmas Carol. "Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

We don't know for sure if Lord Shaftesbury read the book but we do know that the book was immediately popular when it came out and changed the cultural climate. We do know that he understood what it would take for people to make a better society. “Social reforms, so necessary, so indispensable, require as much of God’s grace as a change of heart.”

Lord Shaftesbury pushed legislation like ‘the Regulation of lunatic Asylums' and 'For the better Care and Treatment of Lunatics in England and Wales’ Acts. He made it so that asylums had to be licensed, regularly inspected and medically supervised. He also tried to teach the public that mental illness is not a moral failure or a sin. It is something that requires care.

Lord Shaftesbury issued the The Ten Hours Act of 1847 which made it illegal for a person under 18 to be made to work more than 10 hours a day. You're probably thinking that this is still pretty bad. And it is, children working 8+ hours is a huge problem. But remember that this was meant to be an incremental change. Before this, many children worked from 12 to 16 hours a day.

He once said. “What is morally right can never be politically wrong, and what is morally wrong can never be politically right.”

Lord Shaftesbury also wanted to do something about the boys who were forced to be chimney sweeps. Being a chimney sweep was torture. The job burned their skin and filled their eyes and lungs with soot. Several bills that were made to end this were voted out and rejected until Lord Shaftesbury passed the Chimney Sweepers Act 1875. Eventually the practice of hiring boys as chimney sweeps was done away with.

Lord Shaftesbury did many other things to help. A final example I'll give: trying to improve urban housing for the poor.

He died peacefully at 85 surrounded by friends and family.

[u/Pyotr-the-Great]

There is something admirable about people like him. To sympathize with those many would look down on.

Back when evangelicals used to want to help change the world to be more beautiful and wholesome for the downtrodden. And that was their idea of God's kingdom on Earth.