Eryn Harvey 4-22-13 Professor Mares The Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was a time in which new technology was discovered and new resources. Different forms of transportation were created, as well as machinery such as the spinning jenny. “Just as the French Revolution opened up new possibilities, so did the Industrial Revolution. The rise of new technologies and business practices fashioned the most profound economic change in human history since the invention of agriculture.” (Pavlac 237). In my opinion the Industrial Revolution was mainly a good thing but also bad because women didn’t really gain anything. Factories were created during the Industrial Revolution which was a good thing for businesses. It was not for people because it was faster and took less people to make certain products, so less people were employed. “Observations on the loss of woollen spinning” is an example of how machines were putting people out of work. This article states that “probably one girl turning that wheel, may do the work of One Hundred Hand Wheels at the least.” Also “These Machines then once set up, and the expence of them does not appear very great, 20 Girls do the work of 2,000 Women and Children”. A lot of people were out of jobs because the machines can do your job faster than you could. I think that it was unfair that a lot of people were out of work due to new technology, but it had to be done. If this was not created it would take days to make simple items. Although this article stresses machines taking over jobs, I feel that it needed to be done because our population is always in demand and we need to make things quickly as possible.

“The Life of the Industrial worker in nineteen-century England” links with the Industrial Revolution because it tells you how badly workers were treated in the Industrial Revolution. Because we now have certain machines that make the work a little bit easier, work gets harder on the workers. Mr. Matthew Crabtree clearly states that he had to work long hours and was beaten severely if he showed up late for work. Matthew tells us what happened to him when he was late or work “And if you had been too late you were under the apprehension of being cruelly beaten? — I generally was beaten when I happened to be too late; and when I got up in the morning the apprehension of that was so great, that I used to run, and cry all the way as I went to the mill.” Matthew also stated that he would sometimes with a 16 hour shift with only an hour break. The industrial workers were treated worse than animals. Elizabeth Bentley was only a year older than Matthew and her working conditions were very similar. A few questions from the article, “What time was allowed for your meals? — Forty minutes at noon. Had you any time to get your breakfast or drinking? — No, we got it as we could. And when your work was bad, you had hardly any time to eat it at all? — No; we were obliged to leave it or take it home, and when we did not take it, the overlooker took it, and gave it to his pigs.” I honestly think the animals were treated better than the workers because they didn’t even let the workers eat. This article makes a point across that even though machines produced more items faster, workers were not treated well. The workers were paid poorly and the factory owners didn’t care how they were treated they just wanted to make money and produce items as fast as they can. The Industrial Revolution was good because more items became available. In “Women Miners in the English Coal Pits” women had to work in horrible conditions. They were basically given the same job as a man. This article states that “In many of the

collieries in this district, as far as relates to the underground employment, there is no distinction of sex, but the labour is distributed indifferently among both sexes, except that it is comparatively rare for the women to hew or get the coals, although there are numerous instances in which they regularly perform even this work. In great numbers of the coalpits in this district the men work in a state of perfect nakedness, and are in this state assisted in their labour by females of all ages, from girls of six years old to women of twenty-one, these females being themselves quite naked down to the waist.” It disturbs me that children that were only six years old had to work with naked men. They were also naked down to the waste and no matter what age that isn’t right. You would never see something like this happen right now because it’s wrong. It’s dark in the mines and men can take advantage of six year old girls and women that are twenty-one. I think it was a good thing that women were able to work the same job as a man during the Industrial Revolution, but this job is really too dirty for a man, women, or child to do. The “Texts on the Physical Effects of Factory Work” states that workers would have bone disabilities and the job was unfit for children. The article states “Great numbers of girls and women walking lamely or awkwardly, with raised chests and spinal flexures. Nearly all have flat feet, accompanied with a down-tread, differing very widely from the elasticity of action in the foot and ankle, attendant upon perfect formation.” Women walked awkwardly and had spinal flexures. You shouldn’t inter fear with how your bones grow, or a spinal disease because it’s very painful. Women also got flat feet and had weird formations…which is why children should not have a job like this.

The article also states that “Factory labour is a species of work, in some respects singularly unfitted for children. Cooped up in a heated atmosphere, debarred the necessary exercise, remaining in one position for a series of hours, one set or system of muscles alone called into activity, it cannot be wondered at--that its effects are injurious to the physical growth of a child.” I think remaining in one position for a series of hours would be impossible for a child to do plus the hot temperatures would not be fit for a child. In “The Philosophy of the Manufacturers” article Andrew Ure states his philosophy and his opinions of the Manufacturers during the Industrial Revolution. “When the first waterframes for spinning cotton were erected at Cromford, in the romantic valley of the Derwent, about sixty years ago, mankind were little aware of the mighty revolution which the new system of labour was destined by Providence to achieve, not only in the structure of British society, but in the fortunes of the world at large. Arkwright alone had the sagacity to discern, and the boldness to predict in glowing language, how vastly productive human industry would become, when no longer proportioned in its results to muscular effort, which is by its nature fitful and capricious, but when made to consist in the task of guiding the work of mechanical fingers and arms, regularly impelled with great velocity by some indefatigable physical power.” I think this section in the article is important because Andrew states that basically machines changed the way we work. “When no longer proportioned in its results to muscular effort” is basically saying we don’t do the work anymore, the machines do it for us. I think the invention of the machines were a great thing but also a bad thing. The Industrial Revolution had it’s ups and it’s downs but I generally think it was a good event that happened and changed for the better.

Works Cited 1.

Pavlac, Brian. A Concise Survey of Western Civilization. Maryland: 2011. Print.