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141 " Within laboring communities, the social stigma of time spent at the workhouse was so great that many would rather beg, sleep rough, or become a prostitute than place themselves at the mercy of this institution. "
― Hallie Rubenhold , The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
142 " This Victorian double standard was enshrined in law, permitting a man to enjoy as many sexual dalliances as he wished, so long as he did not also rape the servants, have sex with his sister, and beat his wife too severely. "
143 " Over the course of his career as a factory owner, he would use foreign workers, death threats, spies, and imprisonment to break strikes. "
144 " By embracing him, we embrace the set of values that surrounded him in 1888 which teaches women that they are of a lesser value and can expect to be dishonoured and abused. We enforce the notion that ‘bad women’ deserve punishment and that ‘prostitutes’ are a sub-species of female. "
145 " Household income ebbed and flowed according to the number of mature earners residing under a single roof. "
146 " hop picking was as close as they would ever come to having an actual vacation. "
147 " In a good year, such as 1890, an estimated fifty to sixty thousand men, women, and children arrived for the hop harvest, where they were paid two pence a bushel for their labor and were housed in huts, sheds, or barns near the hop gardens. "
148 " Neither George nor Catherine Eddowes could read, "
149 " Illiteracy and a poor level of education were hardly unusual among the daughters of the working class at this time when 48.9 percent of English women could not even sign their name. "
150 " Finally, to gain admission, each household member needed to provide proof of inoculation against smallpox. "
151 " The demanding schedule, seven days a week, kept children away from their families but for dinner and bed; it also limited a child’s exposure to any vices that the home might harbor. "
152 " Wilmott’s catered to female lodgers only; for a solitary woman, this was the safest accommodation available. "
153 " Ellen described her roommate as “melancholy” and said “she kept herself to herself,” as if “some trouble was weighing upon her mind. "
154 " The pension to which George had been entitled expired with his death; in the mid-nineteenth century the law did not permit a widow to make a claim on behalf of a deceased husband. "
155 " Polly Nichols’s last movements are largely known through the testimony that Ellen Holland offered at the coroner’s inquest into her friend’s death. "
156 " At times the coroner’s inquest became a moral investigation of Polly Nichols herself, as if the hearing was held in part to determine whether her behavior warranted her fate. "
157 " At each juncture, she made it perfectly plain that Polly was not what the officials insinuated. "
158 " She reiterated that Polly was intent on returning to the single-sex lodging house. "
159 " the witness said she did not think the deceased was leading a fast [meaning immoral] life; in fact she [Nichols] seemed very afraid of it. "
160 " Similarly, the coroner’s attempts to goad William Nichols into elaborating on his wife’s character only succeeded in casting doubt over his own behavior in light of his marriage breakdown "