Pauper badges from the past

[Micael]

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These are so-called ”fattigbrickor” or roughly translated pauper badges, probably dating to the 18th century in this particular case. Some were made from wood, many from brass.

What were these for you might ask? Well, in the olden days in Sweden the paupers in the countryside, where there weren’t poorhouses as there were in the towns, were (somewhat) taken care of by being allowed to move between farms every day or week depending on the era. This according to a set schedule, and at each farm they’d get lodging and food, before it was time to move onto the next one which then took over the burden. Over time, in order to avoid paupers from elsewhere such as a town (where poorhouses were often pretty dismal) to arrive in a parish and do the pauper walk between farms, parishes started issuing badges usually with the parish name and a number on them, certifying that an individual pauper resident in the parish had been granted the right to walk the pauper walk.

This practice of pauper walks was medieval at least. The first mention of it in a law text is from 1296 where it was stipulated that they shift farms every 24 hours, but it may have considerably older origins than that. In later centuries the weekly move became the common practice. Then in 1847 the practice was outlawed for children, and finally in 1918 for adults. With that we moved into an era with a more modern approach to helping the destitute.

But these badges serve as a reminder of a different time, of a harsh world, but one not entirely devoid of empathy.

[MikeKozlowski]

Micael,

Were the paupers in the country expected to help around the farms?

Mike

[warshipadmin]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotegång

[Micael]

Micael,

Were the paupers in the country expected to help around the farms?

Mike

Yes, to the extent that they were able they were expected to do so. Of course had they been fully able to do farm chores they would probably have been able to get a job, and hence not been a pauper, so their abilities were usually limited for various reasons.

[Craiglxviii]

This is explicitly mentioned in George Orwell’s “Down & Out in Paris & London”, dated 1930. The practice was very much alive then.