In the 1750’s the Industrial Revolution changed the way goods were produced and how people lived their lives. The Industrial Revolution started to bring more jobs for people, but being that it was so new at the end of the 18th century there were no laws or regulations that allowed children to work in dangerous conditions such as coal mines and factories. The working conditions were horrible and the days were long. Children were being killed from machinery and toxic fumes. During this time Free-Market Capitalism was going on and only the wealthy people could vote. From these terrible work conditions it leads to the Combination Act’s, Urbanization and England to rise. The civilizations were being moved closer to the factories so the workers would be closer. In a way the workers owed everything to their boss. The Industrial Revolution also led to the development of Socialism. The Industrial Revolution was a great turning point in the history of man-kind; it had positive and negative aspects. It led humanity to great technological advancements and also great losses. This revolution changed world history dramatically forever.
Starting with no laws or regulations on working conditions, new industries would hire 7-8 year old children boys and girls and send then out into the coal mines and factories. Little boys were used more for the coal mines because they were small and their hands were small enough to work in that
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area. Many children died from these harsh conditions. Children working in factories would be abused for being late. The employees of these industries did not care about how their workers felt about the working conditions, wages or hours they would need to work. Henry Mayhew once stated “There is barely sufficient work for the regular employment of half of our labourers, so that only 1,500,000 are fully and constantly employed, while 1,500,000 more are employed only half their time, and the remaining 1,500,000 wholly unemployed.” This means that there are people out in the world wishing they would be able to find a job and work, so their employees should feel “proud” in a sense to have a job. If not they could easily be replaced. Wealthy people in Great Britain were only able to vote. In 1799 and 1800, the British Parliament passed the Combination Acts, which made it illegal for workers to form a union or become a group and ask for better conditions to work in. These people would work 10-14 hour days, 6 days a week, no vacation for little pay. If they were to get hurt on the job they would lose their job and be left with no pay. During the Industrial Revolution in 1834 The Poor Law invented poorhouses that were made to let the workers live on the same premises of the work place. Husband and wives were separated along with children. It was like a little civilization of the work place. Located on this property was grocery store, activities etc. This was all owned by the “boss” of the factories. The little money being paid out to the employees would always be circulated back to the industry owners. The workers use to be their own “boss.” They would maybe own their own farm and cattle. They would grow their own crop and then trade or sell them for money or other goods. Urbanization was caused by this revolution because cities were on the rise.
This was happening because all the new industries that were opening up and workers were moving into the poorhouses and closer to the work place. The big changing point in the industrial revolution was child labor. Children were heavily employed in the workplace. They were paid 1/10th of what a working man would be paid. Doctor Turner Thackrah started to observe the children that would be leaving the cotton mill’s very ill looking, pale and sickly. Observations of these kinds
slowly Found its way to the British government. In the1830s the British Parliament started to investigate the working conditions. Michael Sadler started a group in 1832 which sent out investigators to factories to find out information and interview children in these work places. Sadler passed a law through the Parliament to reduce child labor and to change the factory work days to 10 hours. The Factory Act of 1833 was the start to protect workers. Such as; “children 8 or younger can’t work in factories, employers needed to have a certificate of the children’s age, children between 9-13 can only work 9 hours a day, 13-18 years old can only work up to 12 hours a day, children could not work at night time, and there were factory inspectors to enforce this act.” The Industrial Revolution enhanced technology, healthcare etc. Today doctors use stethoscopes, these came into role back in 1850’s. Improvements of manufacturer industries were a positive change for the industrial revolution. Instead of using animal and water powered machines, people were replacing them with steam powered machines. James Watt improved the steam engine and Matthew Boulton worked to introduce the rotative engine which was in need for industrial production. Richard Arkwright invented the spinning wheel for cotton, which improved textile mills tremendously. The metal industry flourished a great amount. The enhancement of nuclear weapons and military weapons changed drastically. Being able to shoot a straight bullet out of the barrel without thinking it might hit your friend in front of you. By these changes, workers were getting paid a reasonable amount, able to go out and enjoy events. Participate in games and spend money on things they were never able to buy before. Agriculture expanded from the fact that machines abilities were growing and farmers were able to grow a lot more crops. The prices started to rise and continued to incline. Women rights were improved with the Industrial Revolution. Women were always at home with their children. They were “suppose” to be home cooking, cleaning and catering to their husband. Women would be pressured into marrying a man at a young age and starting their lives. By women being able to work and help they were contributing to the growth of the world. Since the woman rights have improved drastically, women don’t feel pressured to get married at such a young age. Now that women gained rights and all act’s that passed so women and children did not have to be working in such harsh conditions, they were able to realize how bad the conditions really were. “Document 3: The Rise of Labor Unions,” the membership of labor unions grew from about 500,000 in 1898 to an astounding 270,000 a short 20 years later!” (The Positives of Industrialization on U.S. Society in the Late 19th Century/ Early 20th Century) By the industrialization flourishing the 19th century, it let the country upgrade and produce more goods. “This is largely because the factorial increase in productive capacities made possible by the technological shift in power supply simultaneously entails a wide range of accompanying transformations in the social relations of work, trade, communications, consumption and human settlement patterns and so, inevitably, also implies profound cultural, ideological and political change.” (Industrialization and health) The community was feeling the change and starting to be considered equal. Trade was increasing, production of goods increased along with human life. Since this revolution was the best thing for the world to go through. There were many losses due to the Industrial Revolution. One negative impact of the Industrial Revolution was political corruption. This corruption lead to a really rich class who were able to buy their way into and out of anything. Another negative impact was exploitation. This was because jobs were being created but there were no rules or regulations to determine how much a worker can be paid. The conditions were so harsh, workers were dying and nobody cared. The third negative impact was environmental damage. The damage was caused by the pollution from the factories. The pollution being put into the soil, there were only certain ways to remove and put in new resources. The Industrial Revolution was a great turning point in the history of man-kind; it had positive and negative aspects. It led humanity to great technological advancements and also great losses. Without this revolution and these civilians going through these hard times, we would not be where we are today in the United States. Today, minimum wage here in New York is $10.00. Children are not allowed to work at all. In today’s world you need to be 16 years old with working papers. Still with that you can only work a certain amount of hours per week. Women have equal rights to men. They are able to apply for any job a man applies for. Women don’t need to marry at a young age. Some religions today still believe in arranged marriages. The manufacturer industries still using machines instead of human and animal power. Still to this day we deal with environmental damages. There is still air pollution and water pollution. Without this Industrial Revolution we would not be where we are today.
The Parliament tried to change these conditions through the Factory act of 1833. This act restricted the starting age limit of child workers to have to be at least nine years old to work. It also put restricted hours on child labor. Kids from nine though twelve were only allowed to work eight hours per day. From ages thirteen through seventeen they were allowed to work up to twelve hours per day. Mining conditions were even worse than factory conditions. People were constantly getting diseases and dying from working in mines all day long. To change this, they came up with the Mine Act of 1842. This stopped woman and children from working in the mines. They also put a ten-hour work limit which limited the work day for people who worked in the mine with the Ten Hour act of 1847. This was a big deal for workers who were used to working eighteen hours per day. This slowed down mining but saved many lives in the
The kids under the age of fourteen were sent to go assist with the textile workers. They then would beat and verbally abuse the child. And if children would show up late, they would be weighted. Weighted means to put a very heavy weight on the child's back and have them walk up and down the factory aisles for hours, so other children can learn from it. This then resulted in back and neck injuries. (“Child Labor in Factories”) While this all seems really cruel, there were many positives that came out of child labor. Children were still able to contribute to their families. Money was a big struggle, and it had a major impact for poor families. Children were also getting a wide range of opportunities and work experiences for the future ahead. Although it might not be the best way to get experience, they were still helping out there families and showing respect towards them. This shows that during the Industrial Revolution, children were used harshly for labor, and the positives and negatives out of
In the agricultural industry the children would harvest crops and sewing. If the children were working in the mining industry it was very dangerous. The conditions were very poor, it was very dirty and not pleasant. The boys were called “Breaker Boys” they broke down raw coal into different pieces for certain furnaces. The coal bearers would carry coal on their shoulders, and the smallest children worked as trappers, they would open trap doors in the mines to move the coal. As for the manufacturing industry, the children would work in dark and dirty conditions. They worked around sharp tools and and machines, which caused a lot of injuries to them.
The labor conditions that children faced were very demanding for a human being from such a small age. For example “In the Manayunk district of Philadelphia, children as young as seven assisted in spinning and weaving of cotton and woolen goods” (Wolensky 2). The children working in the factories had their childhood freedom taken away from them. “In 1830 in a sample of 43 Manchester mills, 22.3% of the workforce was under 14 and 32.4% under 16” (Cunningham 412). This means that about 50% of the workforce in the mills were made up of children under the age of 16 and in today in the United States, a person cannot work until the age of 16. “And it is a hard thing for small children to be confined in a tight close room all day long. It affects their growth, makes them pale and sickly” (Nason). The time these children spent in the factories prevented them from spending time with their neighbors, friends, and family. The fact that young children had to work in these textile mills, created changes to American culture on how childhood years are supposed to be spent.
In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s big business began to boom. For the first time companies were developing large factories to manufacture their goods. Due to the new mechanics and cheap labor, factory owners could now produce their goods at a cheaper rate. As big businesses brought wealth and capitalism, it also widened the gap between the wealthy elite and the poor. One class in particular was horribly affected by the growth of big factories. This class was the poor working class. According to the article “Child Labor in the United States” written by Robert Whaples, a big proportion of the labour work force was made up of children: “In 1820 children aged 15 and under made up 23 percent of the manufacturing labor force of the industrializing
The Industrial Revolution was an important time in the United States, but it costed many children to sacrifice their childhood. With the booming industries
How people worked, the nature of their interaction with society, was one of the fundamental changes brought on by the demands of the industrial revolution. Taking advantage of the benefits obtained by the division of labor and scale of production required that people work together in large groups. This new paradigm of working collectively under the factory system had no contemporary parallel – except for the working conditions of slaves who also labored in large groups. An examination of the lives of factory workers and slaves shows that there are many similarities between the way slaves were managed, and the management of industrial workers. The very nature of the administration of large groups required a similar organizational structure to effectively run a larger scale operation.
...rphans also started to work in factories, since they had no one to care for or about them. They also had no one to complain, making it easy to exploit these children, knowing that there was no one to regulate safety and conditions. Since population kept increasing, unemployment was on the rise so many people had to work in factories for long days and in brutal conditions.
The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change and increased efficiency. No more would be goods be produced by sole means of farming and agriculture, but now by the use of machinery and factories. Technology was beginning to increase along with the food supply as well as the population. However, this increase in population would greatly impact the social aspect of that time. Urbanization was becoming much more widespread. Cities were becoming overwhelmingly crowded and there was an increase in disease as well as harsh child labor. Although child labor would be reduced somewhat due to unions, the Industrial Revolution still contained both it’s positive and negative results.
The Industrial Revolution was a major factor involving child labor. It was during this time that America had entered a great boom of prosperity, and there was an excessive demand for many products that steadily became cheaper, the more that was produced. Because of supply over demand, there was a great increase in available jobs within factories. The new stream of child workers was matched by a tremendous expansion of American industry in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. This led to a rise in the percentage of children from ten to fifteen years old who were profitably employed. Although the official figure of 1.75 million significantly understates the true number, it indicates that at least 18 percent of these children were employed in 1900. In southern cotton mills, 25 percent of the employees were below the age of fifteen, with half of these children below age twelve. (Irwin, Yellowitz. "Child Labor." Child Labor. History.com, n.d. Web.) In addition, the horrendous conditions of work for many child laborers brough...
Child Labor and England’s Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution in nineteenth-century England brought about many changes in British society. It was the advent of faster means of production, growing wealth for the Nation and a surplus of new jobs for thousands of people living in poverty. Cities were growing too fast to adequately house the numerous people pouring in, thus leading to squalid living conditions, increased filth and disease, and the families reliance upon their children to survive.
Imagine waking up at five in the morning to walk over a mile to a factory where you work until noon where you get a half hour break for lunch, then it’s back to work until nine or ten at night, when you are finally allowed to go home and you are only eight years old. Today that seems unimaginable, but during the early 19th century it was the everyday life of thousands of children whose ages range from as young as five until you died. During the Industrial Revolution many children were required to work dangerous jobs to help their families.
The factories could kill them or give minor injuries. On top of all of this the children are barely making any money and work longer than grown men at times. Another place children were put into labor were in mines, and according to historylearningsite.com, “In one unnamed coal mine, 58 deaths out of a total of 349 deaths in one year, involved children thirteen years or younger.” In most coal mines children pushed carts full of coal or made sure coal did not pile up when getting transported. Children were often used as a way to get to small places that adult men could not.
How would you feel if your boss cut down your work paycheck just because he wanted a better life for them self? The men, women and children that worked in factories during the 18th and 19th centuries were brutally mistreated causing poverty, injuries and pallid body types (Thompson). At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, working was incredibly unsafe because there were absolutely no labor or safety laws. Working conditions back then were extremely different from those that are in place today. The unbearable working conditions caused a vast amount of labor laws and rights.
Firstly, were the children’s diminutive wages and long hours of working. The kids worked long, harsh hours every day with little breaks and little pay. In “Child labor in Factories During the Industrial Revolution”, the text states, “Children sometimes worked up to 19 hours a day with a one-hour total break”. The factory owners would push them to the extreme and sometimes get away with paying them nothing at all for all the hours they have worked. They would say that giving them food and shelter was good enough.