Map of Upper Silesia: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Map_of_Upper_Silesia.png
Description from periodical of Landowners in Upper Silesia:
Finally, we must consider the relationship between the rural population and the larger landowners [...]. I can be brief on this point, as it has already been discussed repeatedly and with great truth in the public press. More than in any other part of the eastern provinces of Prussia, Upper Silesia is home to an aristocracy with enormous landholdings, and more than in any other part of Prussia, this aristocracy keeps itself far from its estates, following the example of the Irish nobility. In the capital cities (Breslau, Vienna, Berlin, etc.) or outside Germany, a large portion of them squander enormous sums of money, which are continually being taken away from the country. But where is the development of prosperity supposed to come from in a country that constantly gives away only the fruits of its labor? A portion of the rural population had already been relieved of their most oppressive burdens against the large landowners by earlier legislation, and this group is indeed in a more favorable material situation. However, the largest part of the very poor, especially the large number of so-called cottagers, had to endure all manner of hardship until just a few years ago. These poor people were obligated to perform manual labor for the landlord five or six days a week, and scarcely a day remained for them to tend to their small field, their house, and their families. (Cf. Breslauer Zeitung [marginal note: “a very reliable source”17] 1848, No. 59, Supplement I.) What could they possibly acquire in one day of the week, in 52 days of a year? What they gained in the week, in the year, was barely enough to satisfy the most basic needs of the week, of the year. But what can one expect from a people who for centuries struggled for their existence in such profound misery, who never saw a time when their labor paid off, never knew the joy of ownership, never the satisfaction of their own earnings, of the wages for arduous work, who always saw the fruit of their sweat fall only into the coffers of the landowner? It is quite natural that such an unfortunate people had given up the very idea of lasting possessions, that they, not for tomorrow, no, only had learned to provide for himself today. After so many days of work, done solely for the prosperity of others, what could be more natural than for him to use his day off for rest, idleness, and slumbering on his beloved stove? What could be more natural than for him to perform the work for the landlord, which brought him nothing, carelessly, and only be spurred on to energetic activity by special encouragement? Such encouragement was provided in particular by schnapps, to which he was passionately devoted, finding in it a source of forgetfulness and momentary joyful elation. All the accounts of the locals agree that when this remedy was also removed along with the vow of abstinence, indolence increased and all joy vanished from the people [marginal note: “thus judged after all”18]. [...] What else could a people accustomed to devoting their free time solely to idleness do but devote their now entirely free days to idleness, laziness, and indolence? No one was there to support, instruct, or guide them in their first steps on this new path, acting as their friend, teacher, or guardian; no one to show them the meaning of freedom and independence, to teach them that prosperity and education are the daughters of labor and the mothers of well-being. [...] Once the abolition of manual labor was complete, there was no longer any material reason to prevent impoverishment and hunger. Everyone just looked out for themselves! For the fraternization of strength presupposes the fraternization of interests!
Description of Upper Silesia
Nearly 700 years have passed since Silesia was separated from Poland; the greater part of the region has been completely Germanized through German colonization and the power of German culture. Only for Upper Silesia have 700 years not been enough to strip its inhabitants of the Polish national character that their brethren in Pomerania and Prussia so completely lost. Certainly, they have been enough to destroy the consciousness of their nationality, to corrupt their language, and to break their spirit, so that the rest of the population has given them the contemptible name of "Water Poles," but their entire appearance, which is described to me as quite similar to that of the Polish population on the Lower Vistula, still clearly shows their ancestry. Nowhere does one see that peculiar facial features of the Russians, which one so often hears described as truly Slavic and which so strongly reminds us that these representatives of Asiatism are the neighbors of the Mongols. Everywhere one finds beautiful faces, fair skin, blue eyes, blond hair, admittedly altered early by worries and dirt, but often present in children with a rare loveliness. Their customs, too, everywhere remind one of the true Poles. Their clothing, their dwellings, their social interactions.
Source: Jahrbuch für Schlesische Kirchengeshichte, Vol. 95.