The Ups and Downs of the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was one of the greatest things to happen to our country. It improved so many things, and allowed us to do the things we do today. When we use electricity, drive a car, drink tap water....all of these things are possible because of the Industrial Revolution. But the Industrial Revolution wasn't all good, during this curating project I realized that the effects were great, but times for people who were living during it were awful. Children having to work all day, small amounts of payment, and unsafe environments for the workers. This project is important because it allows us, as students, to learn about all of the parts of the Industrial Revolution. It was also much more of a fun way of learning than having to study and take a test on it. 

This is a picture of my group's poster. Our poster was about how slavery took a huge roll in cotton production, and how they had to increase the number of slaves in order to keep up with all of this mass production. The title was made because it is a perfect way to show that without cotton, there would have been much more freedom. But without freedom, there would have been much more cotton production which was necessary at a time like this. So we put up our sources with a brief note showing how it related to our topic. We wanted our classmates, and anyone else who sees this, to learn just how much slavery helped the amount of cotton production during the Industrial Revolution. But also to learn how terrible it was for the slaves for the Americans to be making money. A great example of that is the picture in the top right corner that shows a slave working very hard and the outcome is the factory making loads of money. 

1.) All Work, No Play 

This poster got its point across very well. It showed me that children were forced into working their entire day in horrible and dangerous living conditions. They had to suffer all day only until they would go home at night to sleep for a small amount of hours, where they would then wake up the next day to do it all over again. They worked like this up until 1833 where the Factory Act was written, this was a document that prevented young children from working in these conditions, and wouldn't aloow any child to work more than 12 hours in one day. 

2.) Spinning Into The Future 

This poster talks about how families had a big part on the industrial revolution. It talked about how the machines weren't only located in factories, but they were also located in homes so that families could do their own work. It also showed how the father's money was huge because if he did not have enough to support his whole family, then the children would work in factories. 

3.) Hot Stuff

This poster shows how the steam engine imp[acted the Industrial Revolution greatly. It shows just how much things like transportation was improved and how the steam engine took a huge role during this time period. But people were very skeptical about this machine, believing that it would not do much for them or that it was just a waste. But those skeptics, were very wrong. 

4.) The Dark Side of the Industrial Revolution

This was a very well put together poster that showed just how many inventions were created during the Industrial Revolution. It also showed how pollution greatly affected the air during this period of time. Smoke filled the air, causing people to not even being able to see the sky. Small areas where people stayed became very overpopulated as well. 

So each one of these projects truly show just how much the Industrial Revolution affected America's pastime. It affected it in a good way because everything we are able to do nowadays is because of the Industrial Revolution. But it also had it's bad affects because of the child labor, pollution, and extremely dangerous work environments. It didn't matter who you were or what age you were back then, you had to work. So I'm really glad we did this project because I have learned so much about the Industrial Revolution, and I got to learn it in a fun way.