Antedating of "Underclass"

[Fred Shapiro]

underclass (OED 1918)

1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ ch. 23 (Project Gutenberg)
"I tell you," said Augustine, "if there is anything that is
revealed with the strength of a divine law in our times, it is that
the masses are to rise, and the under class become the upper one."

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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