A public institution where very poor and homeless people were housed and given basic care, common in Europe and America before modern welfare systems.
From 'poor' (from Old French 'povre,' from Latin 'pauper') + 'house.' These institutions became widespread in 17th-18th century England and spread to America. The term reflects both the building and the social attitude toward poverty as something managed by institutions.
Poorhouses were genuinely grim—combined workhouses, hospitals, and orphanages with terrible conditions, immortalized in Dickens' novels. They're why 'not ending up in the poorhouse' became a common phrase meaning poverty itself, and why their abolition was seen as social progress!
Poorhouses disproportionately confined single mothers, widows, and abandoned women; workhouse conditions (forced labor, abuse) were gendered by design. Women's poverty was moralized as shame.
When discussing poorhouse history, acknowledge that women faced harsher moral judgment and exploitation. Avoid romanticizing welfare.
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