THE 18th CENTURY
Belfast Castle burned down in 1708. In 1700 the population of Belfast had increased to 2,500 but it rose further in 1750, to about 8,000 and then again in 1780 to 13,000.
During the 18th century increasing amounts of linen were exported from Belfast. In 1701 less than 200,000 yards of linen was exported from Belfast but by 1773 the figure had risen to 17 million yards. The White Linen Hall was built in 1788. Cotton spinning was introduced into Belfast in 1777, however it was never as popular as linen. In 1785 a Harbour Board was formed to look after of the harbour and then shipbuilding in Belfast began in 1791.
THE 19th CENTURY
Belfast continued to grow rapidly in the 19th century and was made a borough in 1842 and a city in 1888.
From 1800-1850 the conditions in Belfast were appalling. The streets were dirty, houses were overcrowded and the Lagan was used a sewer. So not surprisingly in 1847 there was an outbreak of typhus which was followed by cholera in 1848. In the late 19th century conditions improved. New by-laws meant all new houses were much better. Unfortunately the old ones still remained. In the late 1880s and early 1890s Belfast Council built a network of sewers.
The shipbuilding industry in Belfast boomed and the Harland and Wolff shipyard was founded in 1862. The River Lagan was shallow and winding so in 1841 a channel was dug to by-pass one of its curves. Queens Island was formed because of this. The rope making industry flourished but linen was still the dominant industry in Belfast in the 19th century. In the early years of the 19th century linen was woven by hand in people’s homes in Belfast and surrounding villages. From the mid 19th century the linen industry grew and it was woven in factories. However the cotton industry declined severely in the mid-19th century. There were several iron foundries in Belfast in the mid 19th century and in the late 19th century a large engineering industry grew up. Also in the late 19th century there was a whiskey distilling industry in Belfast and a tobacco industry.
The Site and its supporting sources fully explain the social problems of Belfast in the 19th Century. Do you agree?
I do not agree that the site and its supporting sources fully explain the social problems of Belfast in the nineteenth century. There were many social problems at this time like disease, the influx of beggars, overcrowding in graveyards, rural migration, body snatching and unemployment to name only a few.
Disease was a major problem in Belfast in the 19th century and the biggest disease was cholera which killed 418 people and many more suffered from the disease. This is why the cholera pit was opened in Friars bush in 1823 which we can see in source B and source A. There were less severe epidemics of cholera in 1848, 1854 and 1866.
Another major problem was the famine (1845-1850). The disease was brought to Belfast from other people from around the country who were looking for work in Belfast. Source A shows us that this lead to the re-opening of the cholera pit in Friars bush in 1845.
We can see from source F that in the 1st half of the 19th century there was a fever which killed 62 000 people over 30 years and 6000 died. It also tells us about Dr Blade who was the medical attendant, he said that "defective sewage, overcrowding, poor ventilation and the filth in the narrow back yards" was the cause. No other town outside Dublin had been so severely attacked by this particular fever.
Overcrowding was a major problem. This was because of a rise in population in Belfast. In source G we can see that in 1801 there were 19,000 people living in Belfast but by 1850 this had risen to over 100,000. Source A explains this increase by telling us that many rural Catholics migrated to Belfast in search of work. Overcrowding in the graveyards was beacuse of the outbreak of typhoid, we can see this in source C, source C also says that "the Shankill burying ground is full; a month more will completly fill that of Friar's bush." This shows the severity of the disease.
Body snatching is mentioned in the sources. These are reported as early as 1823 In The Belfast news letter which tells us about two men who said that they had, for some time, taken bodies from their graves to be used for medical purposes in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Source I which is in the Ulster folk and transport museum, a grisly trade grew in Ulster supplying corpses from graves to be given to medical schools. But source I tells us about Burke and Hare who instead of digging up the bodies they just killed them themselves and in a year they had killed around 18 people.
Another big problem in the 19th century was unemployment. Especially after the famine. The Protestants had most of the work and the Catholics found it hard to gain employment in mills, factories and shipyards. Those who couldn’t find work often went to the workhouse.
There was a high infant mortality rate in Belfast in the 19th century. Source B shows the graves of the Bracegirdle family which was used for their children. This could be caused by the fact that there was no free health care available in those days and medication was hard to obtain and the overcrowded conditions helped the spread of disease.
