This has turned into such an interesting thread and very informative.
I believe it is vital to understand the past as best we may in order to throw light on the present, not just the facts but the mindset of the people who lived in those times.
It was not blanket bad news though was it. So very many in the 19th C dedicated their life (at personal cost) to bringing about the social justice and reforms that we benefit from today at a time when the prevailing belief among many was that there was a divine order for things, that people had to stay fixed within the class in which they were born and then used this to justify (in their own mind) horrendous and hideous treatment of the poor.
Reading 19th century literature is fascinating in this respect and so hard to understand today how people back then could possibly have believed what they did but because others dared to challenge and agitate over the state of things, changes in attitude did come about- and it's still happening, thank goodness.