Working Conditions in the Industrial Revolution

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.

While industrial workers were not subjected to the true hardships of slavery, working conditions were often grueling and fraught with real danger in the early decades of industrialization. (Misa, 2011, p. 90). Indeed, working conditions of industrial workers in Europe was such that some slaves in the American South seem to have been better off.

Comparing the daily lives of Industrial workers and Slaves is quite fascinating. Looking at two documents from that era Plantation Management, a set of rules for the direction of overseers written by a wealthy plantation owner, and Factory Rules, an early employee’s handbook, we can see many similarities in the schedule and management of industrial workers and slaves. Both had to adhere to a strict schedule. Rising early in the morning and working until late in the night (Factory Rules in Berlin 1844). Both worked in groups under the direct supervision of an overseer or foreman (Factory Rules in Berlin 1844)....

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...better their lives and that of their children through their laboring but a slave had no way of improving his lot.

Slavery and industrial workers bear similarities because of the necessity for a hierarchy when managing large groups of people. Living with that hierarchy is a part of the price that must be paid to achieve the benefits of industrialization. However, in the long run, the trade-off has proven to give more freedom than ever before to people at all levels of society.

The organization structure of slaves and industrial workers are similar because of the nature of collective work. Having a collection of people working together means that they must be supervised and motivated to combat the free rider problem. This causes a stratification of society between the labor and management, but the benefits that this hierarchy allows far outweighs its costs.