their families had tilled the commons for millennia until the invention of "capitalism" and the enclosure of the commons for sheep.
the "commoners" had no choice but to migrate to the cities to look for work in the new mills and industry of the cities.
the lower class you describe was the result. from the london streets it was a short walk to the poor house or debtors prison, where they were scooped up and sentenced to the colonies.
"democrats" had nothing to do with it. the problem was the parasitic aristocracy and the economic system designed to pay for dynastic warfare of the time.