Chandler Hood



Chandler Hood

Humanities

Lori Fisher

11-7-07

Industrial Revolution Essay

During the early 1700s, farmers in England began used new methods of farming; this period of time was called the agricultural revolution. This introduction of new machines and methods of farming caused many people to move into the city and change jobs. These people were the working class; they worked in factories doing tedious labor in dangerous working conditions, for up to twelve hours a day. These poor working conditions were the result of companies hiring thousands of people almost overnight, which was something that had never happened before. Although the working conditions for the working class in England during the Industrial Revolution were often very poor, these conditions and the outcry that followed were what lead to better working condition standards.

During the Industrial Revolution, most of the mass production factories had poor working conditions and standards. In “Modern World History Patterns of Interaction, it is stated that “Factories were seldom well-lit or clean. Machines injured workers in countless ways. A boiler might explode or a drive belt might catch the worker’s arm. And there was no government program to provide aid in case of injury.”[1] There were hundreds, possibly thousands of ways that someone could seriously hurt themselves while working in one of these factories, and if they did seriously hurt themselves they wouldn’t be compensated. Factories did not have any safety or sanitation standards to abide by, so if someone was injured on the job it was not considered the factory’s fault. These unethical working conditions brought much protest that would lead to the creation of many workplace standards and regulations.

Although child labor was common during the Industrial Revolution, standards were set to reduce the harsh labor on children. Edward Potter, a coal worker and manager of the South Hetton colliery said “Of the children in the pits we have none under eight, and only three so young.”[2] One of the most dangerous jobs during the Industrial Revolution was working in coal mining mills. It may seem odd but in many other factories children much younger than eight were doing jobs that were just as equally dangerous and rigorous. Eventually standards were set to prevent extremely young children from working dangerous jobs like this.

Even though most of the working class had long hours of work, attempts were made to reduce the number of hours. In the “Testimony of William Harter before the Ashley Committee on the Conditions in Mines,” William Harter was asked, “What effect would it have on your manufacture to reduce the hours of labor to ten?”[3] At the time, there was a debate over reducing the mandatory number of hours for factory workers, form twelve hours to ten. It was realized that the number of hours factory workers had to work were unreasonable. This debate over reducing working hours wouldn’t have occurred if the working class hadn’t experienced the harshness of working twelve hours.

Although children that worked in coal mining factories typically did not receive much education, the government tried to regulate the education they received. In the “Testimony of William Harter before the Ashley Committee on the Conditions in Mines,” Thomas Wilson states, “I should also most decidedly object to placing collieries under the present provisions of the Factory Act5 with respect to the education of children employed therein.”[4] He was opposed to the idea that the government should regulate and observe the education that the children employed in coal mining factories receive. The government was not convinced that the children working in the coal mining factories were receiving a proper education, so they created an act that would improve the education the children received. Acts like these made sure children weren’t being cheated out of their education for their labor.

Even though child labor, lack of education and long working hours were common for the working class during the Industrial Revolution in England, it was these issues and the public’s response to them that eventually lead to different laws and regulations that created better working conditions. We can see many of these laws and regulations for working conditions still upheld in our society today, and even improvements to old standards. For example, child labor is no longer existent in America and full time jobs usually only require you to work 40 hours a week, far less than the number of hours someone in the working class during the Industrial Revolution would have to work. Without the suffering the working class had to endure due to poor working conditions during the Industrial Revolution our working condition standards might not be as good as they are. These hardships that gripped the working class gave birth to better, more ethical working condition standards.

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[1] Roger B. Beck et al., Modern World History Patterns of Interaction (Boston: McDougal Littell, 2003), 259.

[2] Sarah Lyons Watts, “Edward Potter,” (1842) .(Accessed November 8, 2007)

[3] Sarah Lyons Watts, “Testimony of William Harter before the Ashley Committee on the Conditions in Mines. 1842.”, .(Accessed November 8, 2007)

[4] “Thomas Wilson, Esq., owner of three collieries,” Testimony before the Ashley Committee on the Conditions in Mines (1842).

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