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The Industrial Revolution. Industrialization. To gain some perspective… 2,000 Kcals recommended daily calorie intake 3,000 Kcal amount of calories controlled by an individual in the foraging age 200,000-12,000 years ago
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Industrialization • To gain some perspective… • 2,000 Kcals recommended daily calorie intake • 3,000 Kcal amount of calories controlled by an individual in the foraging age 200,000-12,000 years ago • 12,000 Kcals: amount controlled by a person in the agricultural age 12,000-250 years ago • 230,000 Kcals: amount controlled by a person today
Why is it called a Revolution? • It changed the nature of work • It changed the institutions of society: schools; transportation, families, social classes • It gave rise to social conflicts and philosophies that would have a profound impact on world history: communism, socialism, fascism, social darwinism “class warfare”
Why is it called a Revolution? • “machine era”: fossil fuels replaced wind, wood and muscle as a fuel source • Enormous productivity; industrial production in Britain increased 50 times (5,000%!) between 1750 and 1900 • Ushered in a new era: “The Industrial Age” after 12,000 years of the Agricultural Age
Sweet Industries/First Factories? • “first factories arose in the colonial, export-oriented world” sugar mills in Brazil and the Caribbean • “colonies lead to industry in England because of capital and markets they provided” -Pomeranz and Topik
Sugar mills of the Americas • “Already in the seventeenth century, sugar plantations involved perhaps two hundred slaves and freemen, with a mill, boiling house, curing house, distillery for rum, and storehouse”. P &T
Beginnings of Industry in England in the mid-1700s Why England? 1. political stability 2. economic stability 3. population growth 4. easy access to fuel and raw materials
Inventions… • Shuttle – John Kay • Spinning wheel/spinning jenny – James Hargraves • Water frame for spinning – James Arkwright
Progression of Production • Cottage industries- people working by hand in homes • Mills- small factories powered by water • Factories powered by steam engines
The big invention: Steam engine • Once designed (James Watt), no need to place factories near water • Change in location, change in dynamics of mill cities
Coal mine1830 to 1850: British coal production doubledBritain produced nearly 10 times as much coal as the next largest European producer (Belgium)
Industrial Revolution spreads to continent of Europe • Belgium deposits of iron ore and good waterways • Germany pockets of industry, with the coal rich Ruhr Valley being connected to other places by railroads
France • French revolutionary laws helped industrialization – destroying local restrictions on trade, protecting private property, abolishing artisan guilds
1800s in Europe • Railroads seemed to be common thread of industry • Global inequalities due to industrialization • Transformation of society
Importance of Railroads • Provided new jobs • Agricultural and fishing products could be transported further • More efficient
Changing countryside“…the fine soot or blacks darken the day, give white sheep the color of black sheep, discolor the human saliva, contaminate the air, poison many plants, and corrode monuments and buildings.”
Social Implications – slums1800 to 1850, London adds 1.5 million people; Glasgow’s population increases 500%; Leeds goes from 53,000 to 721,000
Impact on familiesIn oneslum in London in 1847, 461 people lived in just 12 houses
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Founders of Modern Communism Famous works The Communist Manifesto, 1848 The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844
Marxism: capitalists v. workers • Under capitalism, the proletariat, the working class or “the people,” own only their capacity to work; they have the ability only to sell their own labor. According to Marx a class is defined by the relations of its members to the means of production. He proclaimed that history is the chronology of class struggles, wars, and uprisings. Under capitalism, Marx continues, the workers, in order to support their families are paid a bare minimum wage or salary. The worker is alienated because he has no control over the labor or product which he produces. The capitalists sell the products produced by the workers at a proportional value as related to the labor involved. Surplus value is the difference between what the worker is paid and the price for which the product is sold. `
Child Labor in Washington State • U.S. - $6.55 per hour • Washington State – $8.07/hour, 14- and 15- year olds 85% or $6.86/ hour ; goes up every year • Washington teen hiring laws -http://www.lni.wa.gov/WorkplaceRights/TeenWorkers/HiringMinors/default.asp
Child labor in the 19th Century • With the rise of factories, there were no laws governing work requirements for children • Children under 10 often worked 14 hours a day for a penny an hour.
Job description • It was the job of the scavenger to pick up loose cotton from under the machinery. • Unfortunately, they had to do this while the machine was still working.
First hand account of the work of scavengers • (1) John Brown wrote about Robert Blincoe's experiences in a textile mill in an article for The Lion newspaper (15th January 1828) • The task first allocated to Robert Blincoe was to pick up the loose cotton that fell upon the floor. Apparently, nothing could be easier... although he was much terrified by the whirling motion and noise of the machinery. He also disliked the dust and the flue with which he was half suffocated. He soon felt sick, and by constantly stooping, his back ached. Blincoe, therefore, took the liberty to sit down; but this, he soon found, was strictly forbidden in cotton mills. His overlooker, Mr. Smith, told him he must keep on his legs.
And another more violent tale • (2) Frances Trollope, Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy(1840) • A little girl about seven years old, who job as scavenger, was to collect incessantly from the factory floor, the flying fragments of cotton that might impede the work... while the hissing machinery passed over her, and when this is skillfully done, and the head, body, and the outstretched limbs carefully glued to the floor, the steady moving, but threatening mass, may pass and repass over the dizzy head and trembling body without touching it. But accidents frequently occur; and many are the flaxen locks, rudely torn from infant heads, in the process.
Job description • Piecers had to lean over the machine and repair any threads that broke during the manufacturing process and which might cause a delay in production. • Piecers walked over 20 miles a day!
Recruitment Account 1 • 1) Letter from John Betts to Richard Carlile (24th February, 1828) • In 1805 when Samuel Davy was seven years of age he was sent from the workhouse in Southwark in London to Mr. Watson's Mill at Penny Dam near Preston. Later his brother was also sent to work in a mill. The parents did not know where Samuel and his brother were. The loss of her children, so preyed on the mind of Samuel's mother that it brought on insanity, and she died in a state of madness.
Recruitment Account 2 • (2) Sarah Carpenter, interviewed in The Ashton Chronicle (23rd June, 1849) • My father was a glass blower. When I was eight years old my father died and our family had to go to the Bristol Workhouse. My brother was sent from Bristol workhouse in the same way as many other children were - cart-loads at a time. My mother did not know where he was for two years. He was taken off in the dead of night without her knowledge, and the parish officers would never tell her where he was. It was the mother of Joseph Russell who first found out where the children were, and told my mother. We set off together, my mother and I, we walked the whole way from Bristol to Cressbrook Mill in Derbyshire. We were many days on the road. Mrs. Newton fondled over my mother when we arrived. My mother had brought her a present of little glass ornaments. She got these ornaments from some of the workmen, thinking they would be a very nice present to carry to the mistress at Cressbrook, for her kindness to my brother. My brother told me that Mrs. Newton's fondling was all a blind; but I was so young and foolish, and so glad to see him again; that I did not heed what he said, and could not be persuaded to leave him. They would not let me stay unless I would take the shilling binding money. I took the shilling and I was very proud of it. They took me into the counting house and showed me a piece of paper with a red sealed horse on which they told me to touch, and then to make a cross, which I did. This meant I had to stay at Cressbrook Mill till I was twenty one.
Recruitment • Some parents refused to let their children work in the factories. • If a factory was far from an orphanage, factory owners got creative. • An apprentice house was for young children who were purchased from workhouses and given pay and lodging to work in the factories.
Apprentice House Account • (1) John Birley was interviewed by The Ashton Chronicle on 19th May, 1849. • We then worked till nine or ten at night when the water-wheel stopped. We stopped working, and went to the apprentice house, about three hundred yards from the mill. It was a large stone house, surrounded by a wall, two to three yards high, with one door, which was kept locked. It was capable of lodging about one hundred and fifty apprentices. Supper was the same as breakfast - onion porridge and dry oatcake. We all ate in the same room and all went up a common staircase to our bed-chamber; all the boys slept in one chamber, all the girls in another. We slept three in one bed. The girls' bedroom was of the same sort as ours. There were no fastenings to the two rooms; and no one to watch over us in the night, or to see what we did.
How was health damaged? • Accidents • Deformities • Hours • Punishment • Food • Pollution
Accidents • Frequent and horrific. • Workers were not compensated and were abandoned immediately. • Hospitals saw thousands of injuries and visitors to England were appalled at the sight of legless and armless people in the streets
Accident Account • (1) Dr. Ward from Manchester was interviewed about the health of textile workers on 25th March, 1819.When I was a surgeon in the infirmary, accidents were very often admitted to the infirmary, through the children's hands and arms having being caught in the machinery; in many instances the muscles, and the skin is stripped down to the bone, and in some instances a finger or two might be lost. Last summer I visited Lever Street School. The number of children at that time in the school, who were employed in factories, was 106. The number of children who had received injuries from the machinery amounted to very nearly one half. There were forty-seven injured in this way.
Parliament reacts • Because of the events and conditions that you have seen, England’s Parliament reacted by setting up a commission to look into the situation • Michael Sadler heads up the commission
Hours/Punishment • On 16th March 1832 Michael Sadler introduced a Bill in Parliament that proposed limiting the hours of all persons under the age of 18 to ten hours a day. After much debate it was clear that Parliament was unwilling to pass Sadler's bill. However, in April 1832 it was agreed that there should be another parliamentary enquiry into child labour. Sadler was made chairman and for the next three months the parliamentary committee interviewed 48 people who had worked in textile factories as children. Sadler discovered that it was common for very young children to be working for over twelve a day. Lord Ashley carried out a survey of doctors in 1836. In a speech he made in the House of Commons he argued that over half of the doctors interviewed believed that "ten hours is the utmost quantity of labour which can be endured by the children" without damaging their health. However, Lord Ashley admitted that some doctors that came before his committee did not believe that long hours caused health problems. Children who were late for work were severely punished. If children arrived late for work they would also have money deducted from their wages. Time-keeping was a problem for those families who could not afford to buy a clock. In some factories workers were not allowed to carry a watch. The children suspected that this rule was an attempt to trick them out of some of their wages.
Punishments • Children were whipped, or dunked in buckets of cold water for basic offenses. • Girls were often chained together like prisoners to keep them attempting to escape. • If you attempted to run away or were caught as a runaway, you could be put in prison for your offense.
Punishment • (2) Jonathan Downe was interviewed by Michael Sadler's Parliamentary Committee on 6th June, 1832. • When I was seven years old I went to work at Mr. Marshalls factory at Shrewsbury. If a child was drowsy, the overlooker touches the child on the shoulder and says, "Come here". In a corner of the room there is an iron cistern filled with water. He takes the boy by the legs and dips him in the cistern, and sends him back to work.
Food – Steak and Lobster? • (2) Matthew Crabtree was interviewed by Michael Sadler's Parliamentary Committee (18th May, 1832) • I began work at Cook's of Dewsbury when I was eight years old. We had to eat our food in the mill. It was frequently covered by flues from the wool; and in that case they had to be blown off with the mouth, and picked off with the fingers, before it could be eaten. • (3) Sarah Carpenter was interviewed by The Ashton Chronicle on 23rd June, 1849.Our common food was oatcake. It was thick and coarse. This oatcake was put into cans. Boiled milk and water was poured into it. This was our breakfast and supper. Our dinner was potato pie with boiled bacon it, a bit here and a bit there, so thick with fat we could scarce eat it, though we were hungry enough to eat anything. Tea we never saw, nor butter. We had cheese and brown bread once a year. We were only allowed three meals a day though we got up at five in the morning and worked till nine at night.
