1. Conditions of the Working Class in England

2. Urbanization Shift from rural to city life
Factory growth people looking for work to cities
Cities grow near energy sources (coal & water)
Cities double (or even triple) in size!

3. Conditions of the Working Class
Working Conditions
Factory System
14hr work days/6 days a week
Unsafe
Dangerous machinery
Little ventilation
Child Labor
Low wages
Harsh punishments
No laws to protect workers
Mind-numbing, repetitive work
Living Conditions
Overcrowded, dirty 1-room tenements
Lack of Sanitation
Air Pollution
No running water
No sewage system
Lack of education
Lower life expectancy in the slums

4. Factory Life

5. English Factory System
A method of manufacturing
1st adopted in England in the 1750s
Involved mass producing goods by machines - usually run by water or steam
Low & unskilled workers running machines, or moving materials
Lowered costs of goods

6. Child Labor Why do you think factories wanted to hire children?
Cheaper - pay them less than adults
Smaller - crawl under machinery & to work in coal mines
Easy to bully/intimidate – adults were bigger, so they were less afraid

9. A Children’s Home in London for kids who lost limbs working in the factories or mines

10. “Breaker Boys” – separate impurities in the coal, by hand for 12-14 hours a day.

12. Worst Jobs in History Coal Hurriers Transport coal Usually children
YouTube clip

13. What does this cartoon tell you about child labor in todays world?

14. Factory Reform Legislation
Throughout this period, several commissions investigated working conditions in factories.
Politicians, academics, & doctors wrote books, pamphlets, speeches, & newspaper articles in support of or against regulating the country’s growing factory system.
The Factory Act of limited the weekly hours for children to 60 & daily hours to 10.5.

15. Living Conditions

16. Industrial Society (social classes)
Industrial revolution brought new social classes:
New, rich middle class
Factories = wealth for wealthy merchants & factory Owners
Upper Middle Class
Government employees, doctors, lawyers, managers
Lower Middle Class
Factory overseers, and tool makers
Wealth did not trickle down to the lower classes
Lower Class workers remained in poverty while middle class got richer
Resentful mobs rioted

18. What is the message of the picture?
What does the skeleton represent?
What does this tell you about living conditions in industrial cities?

19. What are 3 threats to health?
“During the 1st decades of Victoria’s reign, baths were virtually unknown in the poorer districts and uncommon anywhere. “
“Most households of all economic classes still used pots; bathrooms with flush toilets were rare.”
Sewer seepage was considerable “Sewers had flat bottoms & …drains were made out of stone. If, as was often the case in cities, streets were unpaved and they might remain ankle deep in mud and human waste.”