1. Effects and Responses to the Industrial Revolution
Progress vs. conflict

2. Population Growth
Increased agricultural production = increased population.
Lower death rates (less famine and epidemic disease-especially early in life)
Overpopulation a problem
Massive wage deflation
Europe--140 million in 1750; 187 million in 1800.
Congested cities

3. Great Hunger Ireland--1845-1851
1 million died; 2 million emigrated to US and England
Only country to have a declining pop.
Caused by…?

5. The British government has been accused of using the famine as a form of genocide.
In the very least, it purposely slowed its process of assisting famine victims--a case of neglect.
Emerging “Social Darwinism”

6. The Industrial Working Class
New patterns of work
Order
Discipline
Schedule
Much different than previous work--family, natural rhythm

7. Working Class Living Conditions
Miserable living conditions
Working class live in squalid tenement houses
-- Five to a bed
1 toilet for 10 families
Open sewers
Coal smoke filled skies
Stench of rotting garbage and sewers
Food fraud
Toxic chemicals used in production
Watered down
Lead pepper?

9. Working Conditions 12-16 hour days Six days a week No minimum wage
Cotton mills:
unbearably hot
Dirty
Dusty

10. Average weight of males in factories
Average weight of males not in factories
Average weight of females in factories
Average weight of females not in factories 9
51.76
53.26
51.13
52.40 10
57.00
60.28
54.80
54.44 11
61.84
58.36
59.69
61.13 12
65.97
67.25
66.08
66.07 13
72.11
75.36
73.25
72.72 14
77.09
78.68
83.41
83.43 15
88.35
88.83
87.86
93.61

11. Coal mines
Dangers of--cave-ins, gas fumes, explosions.
Cramped, dark, dusty, damp
Deformities and lung disease

12. Pauper apprentices--especially egregious
Women and children=2/3 of cotton industry’s labor.
Most women did NOT work on factories—only 20% in Great Britain
Domestic labor-think North and South
“The oldest profession”
Some reform with Factory Acts
Poor Laws + Middle Class values
Assumption that the poor were responsible for their conditions
Punished for poverty

13. Emergence of Middle-class
Move beyond the Dutch Netherlands
Common cultural values
Distinct childhood
The ideal of social mobility
Achieved status vs. inherited status

15. “My workers should be constantly harassed by need, for then he will not set his children a bad example and his poverty will be the guarantee of good behavior.“
1830

16. Child Labor Children more easy broken (manipulated)
Could do tasks that adults could not
Cheap
Abundant supply
Desperate parents
Children often worked 15 hours a day, six days a week

17. Labor Unions Emerge in spite of Combination Acts Better wages
Conditions
Hours
Tool=strike

18. Robert Owen Social reformer
Believed in voluntary associations that showed the benefits of cooperation instead of competition.
Eight hour work day
No real success at large unionization at this point (Grand National Consolidated Trades Union)

19. Luddites (1811-1816) Violent actions
Attacked machines that put skilled craftsmen out of work
Didn’t stop progress, but did show that people would resort to violence

20. Chartists
British workers who aimed to achieve political democracy (used the language of the Enlightenment)
Universal male suffrage
Payment for members of Parliament
No property requirement for Parliament
Got 3 million signatures
Did not achieve goals, but did show new consciousness of the working class

21. Reform Factory Acts 1802--limited child labor Sadler Commission 1832
9-16 year olds only 12 hours a day
No one under 9
Some education
Sadler Commission 1832
Public outcry but little immediate legislation
Factory Act 1833
9-13 only 8 hours a day
hours
Two hours of education
1842 Coal Mines Act
No women at all and no boys under 10

22. Did the Industrial Revolution Improve the Standard of Living?
Debatable (That’s why we’re having a debate!).
The first generation paid the price
Profits and investments “required” cheap labor (some argue)
Working class gains would come later

23. Widening gap between rich and poor
1% of population controlled 25% of wealth in 1801.
1% of population controlled 35% in 1848.
What is it in the US today?
Real gains made by middle class

26. Middle Class
Industrial middle class (bankers, factory and mine owners).
Constructed factories
Bought machines
Found markets
Had: initiative, vision, resourcefulness, ambition--entrepreneurs

27. Lived in suburbs (away from the working class).
Amassed great wealth
Gained political power along side the old aristocracy