Life in an Industrial Factory: Challenges and Choices for a 15-Year-Old Worker

1. Bellwork 3/14/14 • You are a 15 year-old living in England where the Industrial Revolution has spurred the growth of thousands of factories. Cheap labor is in great demand. Like millions of other teenagers, you do not go to school. Instead, you work in a factory 6 days a week, 14 hours a day. The small pay you receive is needed to help support your family. You trudge to work before dawn every day and work until after sundown. Inside the workplace the air is hot and foul, and after sunset it is so dark it is hard to see. Minding the machines is exhausting, dirty, and dangerous. • Would you attempt to change your working conditions in the factory? Which conditions? • Would you join a union, go to school, or run away?

2. 25.2 Industrialization The factory system changes the way people live and work, introducing a variety of problems

3. Industrialization Changes Life • Factory Work • Factories pay more than farms, spur demand for more expensive goods

4. Industrial Cities Rise • Urbanization—city-building and movement of people to cities • Growing population provides work force and a market for factory goods • British industrial cities: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool Manchester Before… …and After

5. 1. What do you think was the reason for the jump in population from 1700-1900?

8. Living Conditions • Sickness widespread; epidemics, like cholera, sweep urban slums • Life span in one large city is only 17 years

9. Living Conditions • Wealthy merchants, factory owners live in luxurious suburban homes

10. Living Conditions • Rapidly growing cities lack sanitary codes and building codes • Cities also without adequate housing, education, and police protection

11. Working Conditions • Average working day is 14 hours for 6 days a week, year round • Dirty, poorly lit factories injure workers • Many coal miners killed by coal dust

12. Class Tensions Grow • The Middle Class • Middle class—skilled workers, merchants, rich farmers, professionals • Emerging middle class looked down on by landowners and aristocrats • Middle class has comfortable standard of living

13. Class Tensions Grow • The Working Class • Laborers’ lives not improved; some laborers replaced by machines • Luddites and other groups destroy machinery that puts them out of work • Unemployment is a serious problem; unemployed workers riot

14. The Luddites Named after Ned Ludd, who was a laborer who destroyed the new machines in protest. Beginning in 1811, Luddites attacked whole factories and protested – they wanted their skills and labor to be needed.

15. Positive Effects of the Industrial Revolution • Immediate Benefits • Creates jobs, enriches nation, encourages technological progress • Education expands, clothing cheaper, diet and housing improve • Workers eventually win shorter hours, better wages and conditions • Long-Term Effects • Improved living and working conditions still evident today • Governments use increased tax revenues for urban developments

16. Case Study: Manchester • The Mills of Manchester • Manchester has labor, water, power, nearby port at Liverpool. • Poor live and work in unhealthy, even dangerous environment • Business owners make profits by risking their own money on factories • Eventually, working class sees its standard of living rise some

17. Case Study: Manchester • Children in Manchester Factories • Children as young as 6 work in factories; many are injured • 1819 Factory Act restricts working age, hours • Factory pollution fouls air, poisons river • Nonetheless, Manchester produces consumer goods and creates wealth

19. The Day of a Child Laborer, William Cooper