Conditions During The Industrial Revolution

Conditions During The Industrial Revolution

Sean Conroy

9-16-14

G Block

If I were to wake up around 250 years ago, I would get up at 4:00 am to go to my dangerous and hazardous workplace, and then come home right around 9:00 pm and then go to bed to get ready for work again tomorrow. The Industrial Revolution began in the late 18th Century and and ended around the 1820’s. The Industrial Revolution happened in both the United States, and Great Britain. It was one of the most important things to happen to the United States. Everything we do has to do with the Industrial Revolution; technology, cars, tap water, plumbing, EVERYTHING! The Industrial Revolution happened in both the United States, and Great Britain. But even though it was so important, times were very hard for people during the Industrial Revolution, including young children. Children had to be at work at 5:00 am, would work until 12:00 pm where they would have a short lunch break, would eat dinner while still working at the machines, and then they would finally leave sometime between 9:00 pm and 11:00 pm. So, were the conditions for the workers during the Industrial Revolution inevitable? Absolutely not, but the child labor was most certainly necessary.

In the Background Essay, Dickens talks about how much he wants the British factories to be like the American factories. In the Background Essay, Dickens talks about how terrible the conditions were in the British Factories. So in American Notes, Document A, Charles Dickens talks about the upside of the conditions for the workers. He talks about how the girls looked healthy and clean, and the rooms they were staying in were always nice and neat. In Document A, it says “They were healthy in appearance, many of them remarkably ao, and had the manners of young women: not of degraded brutes of burden.” He is trying to talk about how much better the American Factories were, so that maybe Great Britain would change their ways. In Document A, he mentions how they did not have too many children working, how they had a church, and how clean and nice the rooms were. So clearly conditions did not to be so dangerous, but they could still allow children to work and get the job done.

As if the conditions for the girls weren’t enough, the girls also had to leave their families in order to work there. It wasn’t easy for the girls to leave their families to go work until they’re about 21 years old. In Document B, it says “I cannot but fear the taking such young persons from the eyes of their parents.” This quote was said by one of the masters at the factories, so even they understood how rough it must have been for these girls. This Document also talks about what the “Bobbins Girls” had to do. It talks about how these girls would work on these machines all day without any intermissions. So not only were these girls forced to leave their homes, but they would be working all day non stop. Also, when I say left, I mean left. These girls would be at these factories from whenever they arrived, until the age of 21! So this proves my point because these girls definitely could have gotten their work done, but also had time to visit home.

The conditions of the factories lead to many deaths, not only by accidents, but by illnesses. The terrible quality food, unsanitary surroundings, and lack of sleep slowly killed these children overtime. Document C consits of a series of letters from a girl who worked at the factories namd Mary. Mary wrote these letters to her father to check in. Throughout these letters she discussed things like payments, things happening at the factories, and her health. But when she adresses her health, she talks about how it was fairly good. But at the note in the bottom of the page, it says “She claims her health has been ‘pretty good.’ In reality it had been failing for 3 years.” This shows that she was unaware of her health at the time, but it had been decreasing over time. So it is defintely possible that the factories could have changed their ways to check for health or change their food so that the workers would have the neccesary nutrients so that they could perform this work all day.

The conditions themselves were bad enough in these factories, but the masters made them even worse. If children started to fall asleep while working, they were constantly beaten and abused. The masters were very strict and were always on the workers’ case. They left no slacking time, they didn’t even allow the children to eat away from their machines. In Document D, a 16 year old girl named Hannah Goode’s talks about how they had little to know free time, and how aggresive the masters were. She says “William Crookes is overlooker in our room; he is cross-temprered sometimes. He does not bet me; he beats the little children if they do not do their work right.” So she is talking about how this man will beat small children if they mess up while working for 14 hours a day. This strongly proves my point because the masters could have easily treated the children better when they were doing their work.

The Industrial Revolution was one of the most important things in the United States history, but the condition were just disgusting. They would force these children to work around 14 hours a day and would get to leave once which was for dinner, other meals would be eaten while working. Accidents would happen a lot, and these accicedents weren’t just your average scrape; limbs being torn, bones being crushed, lives being taken. Their frood consisted of little to no nutrients, so they would have no energy in their system to be able to work these kind of hours. Children were being beaten if they weren’t doing their work correctly, or if they were falling asleep on the job. The conditions were not inevitable at all, they could have had better conditions while still getting the work done, but they needed that child labor to do what they did.