The Lost Code

A Major Shift in Daily Life

In the city, as in the country, families had to work hard, but in the city workers spend long days indoors toiling away at repetitive tasks in unhealthy environments. They had to follow the foreman's orders and made no decisions for themselves.

Social life was also very different in the city. In the anonymous urban sea, the social structures, mutual support, and solidarity of the village and parish were absent. Workers instead found themselves part of a new social group—the urban proletariat. The neighborhood became the new backdrop for social interactions. Gone were the days of open spaces and fresh air.

In the city, where workers rubbed shoulders with English speakers and Protestants, the religious and social landscape was very different despite the presence of numerous urban churches and parishes.