1. Hardships of Early Industrial Life
D.B.

2. Setting the Scene
The Industrial Revolution brought great riches to most of the entrepreneurs who helped set it in motion.
For the millions of workers who worked in the new factories, however, the industrial age brought poverty and harsh living conditions.
In time reforms would alleviate many of the worst abuses of the time and people at all levels of society would benefit from industrialization.

3. The New Industrial City
The Industrial Revolution brought rapid urbanization
The movement of people to cities
Some factors that caused people to move to cities were:
Changes in farming
Soaring population growth
Increasing demand for workers
Cities would grow around the factories that entrepreneurs built in small towns.
The British town of Manchester contained about 17,000 people in the 1750s. By 1780 over 40,000 people lived there and by 1801 over 80,000 people lived there.
The wealthy lived in pleasant neighborhoods while the poor struggled to survive in slums.

4. The New Industrial City
The poor would pack into tiny rooms in tenements.
Multistory buildings divided into crowded apartments
No running water
No sewage or sanitation system
Wastes and garbage rotted in the streets
Cholera and other diseases spread rapidly.
In time reformers pushed for laws to improve conditions in city slums.

5. Rigid Discipline
In rural villages, people worked hard, but their work varied according to the season.
Working hours were long.
Shifts lasted from 12 to 16 hours
Machines had no safety devices.
Many workers would lose fingers, limbs, and sometimes their lives.
Coal dust also destroyed the lungs of miners
If workers were sick or injured, they lost their jobs

6. Women Workers Employers preferred to hire women rather then men
Thought women could adapt more easily to machines and were easier to manage
Most important, they could pay women workers less than men.
Factory work was hard for women
Gone from home 12+ hours a day
Then go home and clothe their family, clean, and cook.

7. Child Labor Factories and mines also hired many boys and girls.
Mostly nimble-fingered and quick-moving children were hired for work in the textile mills.
Others crawled through narrow mine shafts pushing coal carts.
Parents accepted the idea of child labor.
Also the wages of the children were needed to keep the family alive.

8. Child Labor (Cont.)
Employers often hired orphans, making deals with officials who were glad to have the children taken off their hands.
Children caught not working were beaten.
Some factories did provide basic education and a decent life for child workers.
But in most factories children, just like their parents, were slaves to the machines.

9. Protests
As the Industrial revolution started weavers and skilled artisans despised the “labor-saving” machines.
Some smashed machines and burned factories.
In a protest in 1819, soldiers charged the crowd killing a dozen and injuring hundreds.
Unions were not allowed and strikes were outlawed.

10. Spread of Methodism
In the mid-1700s, John Wesley had founded the Methodist Church.
He stressed the need for a personal sense of faith.
Urged Christians to improve their lot by adopting sober, moral ways.
Methodist meetings featured:
Hymns
Sermons promising forgiveness of sins and a better life to come.
Methodist preachers took this message of salvation to the slums.
Set up Sunday schools

11. The New Middle Class
Consisted of merchants who invested their money in factories, inventors, or skilled artisans.
Middle-class families lived in solid, well-furnished homes.
The family would hire a maid-servant.
The men of the middle class gained influence in Parliament while the women would draw, play the piano, or embroider.

12. Benefits and Problems The Good The Bad
Reformers pressed for laws to improve working conditions.
Workers’ organizations called labor unions won the right to bargain with employers for better wages, hours, and working conditions.
Eventually working class men gained the right to vote.
Despite the low pay, unemployment, and dismal living conditions, the industrial age was beneficial.
New factories opened
Jobs created
Wages rose
Cost of railroad travel fell
Opportunities increased
The Good
The Bad

13. Review What was life like for women in the Industrial Revolution?
John Wesley
Founder of Methodism
Ned Ludd
Founder and leader of the Luddites
Urbanization
the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger
Tenements
Multistory buildings divided into crowded apartments
What was life like for women in the Industrial Revolution?
Women were paid less than men and still had to cook and clean.
Why did factory owners like to hire women?
They could be paid less.

14. Review (Cont.) What was life like for miners during the I.R.?
Very harsh working conditions that could end in death.
What class of people benefited the most from the I.R.?
The new middle class
What were some reasons children were forced to work during the industrial revolution?
Their family needed the money or they were orphans.