A Bold Plan to End Homelessness (1890)
“The victims of vice and poverty are sinking to ruin in the raging sea”
This detailed pictorial view is one man’s vision to rescue a nation of 3 million destitute who were enslaved in Victorian England. (One tenth of the population was destitute and homeless at that time).
William Booth was an evangelical preacher. In 1878, he used a military model (with titles derived from military ranks) and created the Salvation Army.
In 1890, as his wife Catherine was dying of cancer, Booth published In Darkest England and the Way Out, which detailed his social reforms to rescue the poor. It included this pictorial view to illustrate his plan.
Booth set out to end homelessness in Britain by moving the unemployed from the streets to city workshops to farm colonies, and then to overseas colonies. Taking direction from the key (in the footer), the illustration can be “read” from bottom to top.
The borders on the pillars represent the appalling extent of the misery and ruin existing in Great Britain. The vices - “Drunkenness, Gambling, Lying …” and their impact on the poor - “Crime, Shame, Suicides …”
“In the raging Sea, surrounding the Salvation Lighthouse, are to be seen the victims of vice and poverty who are sinking to ruin, but whom the Officers appointed to carry out the Scheme are struggling to save.”
“On the left, a procession of the rescued may be seen on their way to the various REFUGES, WORKSHOPS and other Establishment for Industrial Labor in the City Colony.”
From there, another procession of those having "proved themselves worthy of further assistance, are on their way to the FARM COLONY, which, with its Villages, Co-operative Farms, Mills, and Factories, is to be created, far away from the neighborhood of the public-house."
“From the FARM COLONY are to be seen Steamers hurrying across the seas, crowded with Emigrants of all sorts, proceeding either to the existing Colonies of the British and other Empires, or to the COLONY-OVER-SEA, yet to be established.”
The keystone in the arch above the image (where one might envision a cross) bears the words "Work For All." The arch itself is labeled "Salvation Army Social Campaign.” In upper corners, “the sturdy baker on the left and the laundress on the right suggest, on the one hand, plenty of work, and on the other, abundance of food.”
While the scheme’s last two elements, the farm and overseas colonies, lasted only until 1906 in their designed form, urban workshops continue to be a major element of Salvation Army social services in the late twentieth century. More important, In Darkest England turned the Army from a singular emphasis on evangelism to an equal or greater emphasis on social services.
Today the Salvation Army is the largest non-government provider of social services in the United States and one of the largest in the world, with expenditures including operating costs of US $3.6 billion in 2022, assisting more than 32 million people in the U.S. alone. ~ Wikipedia
Need another plan for salvation?
Historic and Prophetic Diagram of the World (1912)
J. Elwin Woodward’s book “The Story of the Ages from Creation to Redemption - Key to Historic and Prophetic Diagram of the World and God's Plan of Salvation for Law Breakers,” included over 200 pages of detailed explanation. The cover of Woodward’s book,
Title: In Darkest England and the Way Out
Collection: Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection: 1104.01
Creator: William Booth, 1829-1912
Date: 1890
Guessing they weren’t on board with the “Arbeit macht frei” crowd
I wonder if this is where DeSantis got the idea to ship homeless immigrants to Martha's Vineyard.