The Industrial Revolution Hardships of Early Industrial Life

The Industrial Revolution brought great riches to most of the entrepreneurs who helped set it in motion. For the millions of workers who crowded into the new factories, however, the industrial age brought poverty and harsh living conditions.

The New Industrial City The Industrial Revolution brought rapid urbanization, or movement of people to cities. Cities grew up around coal or iron mines, and around factories. The British market town of Manchester had 17000 people in the 1750s, but because of the textile industry it soared to 40000 by 1780 and 70000 by 1801. Visitors described the “cloud of coal vapor” that polluted the air, the pounding noise of the steam engine, and the filthy stench of the river.

The New Industrial City A gulf divided the urban population. The wealthy and middle class lived in pleasant neighborhoods. The poor however struggled to survive. They lived in tenements, multistory buildings divided into small crowded apartments. Tenements had no running water, no sewage or sanitation systems, and waste and garbage rotted in the streets. Cholera and other diseases spread rapidly in these parts of the city.

The Factory System: The heart of the new industrial city was the factory. There the technology of the machine age imposed a harsh new life on workers. In factories, workers faced a rigid schedule set by the factory whistle.

A Day in the Factory Start Time: 4:00am End Time: 7:30 pm No windows for ventilation and no heating in the winter. Little light. No safety devices on machines: WATCH YOUR FINGERS!! BEWARE CAVE INS!! If workers were injured they were fired. WHAT NO WORKERS COMP?? Workers felt lucky to have a job!!!

Women Workers Employers preferred to hire women workers. They thought women could adapt more easily to the machines than men. More Importantly: They could pay women less for the same amount of work. They worked 12 to 14 hour days, and then went home to take care of their families.

Children of the Industrial Revolution Factories and mines also hired many boys and girls. Children were often given the jobs of piecers and scavengers. A piecer had to lean over the spinning machine and piece thread back together while the machine was running. (It is estimated that a piecer walked about 20 miles per day.) Scavengers had to pick up the loose cotton from under the machinery. This was extremely dangerous as the children were expected to carry out the task while the machine was still working.                        

Children of the Industrial Revolution Because children helped with farm work, parents accepted the idea of child labor. The wages children earned were needed to keep their families from starving. Employers often hired orphans with no families.

An Account of an Accident (4) John Allett started working in a textile factory when he was fourteen years old. Allett was fifty-three when he was interviewed by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on 21st May, 1832. Question: Do more accidents take place at the latter end of the day? Answer: I have known more accidents at the beginning of the day than at the later part. I was an eye-witness of one. A child was working wool, that is, to prepare the wool for the machine; but the strap caught him, as he was hardly awake, and it carried him into the machinery; and we found one limb in one place, one in another, and he was cut to bits; his whole body went in, and was mangled.

Child Labor Regulations In the 1830s and 1840s, British lawmakers looked into abuses in factories and mines. Government commissions heard about children as young as five years old working in factories. Some died others were stunted in growth or had twisted limbs. Slowly, Parliament passed laws to regulate child labor in mines and factories.

Children of the Industrial Revolution

Children of the Industrial Revolution

Children of the Industrial Revolution