Download Life in the Industrial Revolution

Life in the Industrial
Revolution
1800 - 1900
This age is often called the
Victorian Time
● After Queen Victoria
of England.
● Ruled 1837 – 1901
● Queen when she was
18 and England was
still mostly agrarian.
● By the time she died,
England was an
industrial power and
industrial barons ruled
– not the blue bloods.
The Cause of the Industrial
Revolution
● “Surplus Population”
● There was a population
boom in the early 1800s.
● More efficient agriculture
meant more food, but less
need for workers.
● Extra workers turned to
“cottage industries” like
weaving.
● That gave rise to the
factories.
The Rise of the Industrial
Revolution
The invention of the
steam engine.
Powered equipment
and transportation.
James Watt
Mining, chemicals,
machine tools, textile
manufacturing, and
metalurgy all started
because of the steam
engine.
Social Effects?
● Money was now to be
earned in industry –
not by land.
● Nobility and gentry
became poor.
● The rise of the
industrial barons and
the middle class.
● Businessmen,
bankers, industrialists.
The New Middle Class
● Supported the
“PROTESTANT
WORK ETHIC”
● Hard work and thrift is
what got you ahead.
● Didn’t particularly
value higher education
unless it created
money.
● Little charity for those
that didn’t succeed.
Life in the Factories
● 14 hour shifts
● Children as young as
8 could work.
● But younger than 9
were restricted to 10
hour work days.
● Under 18 restricted to
12 hours a day.
● NO safety precautions
for workers either.
The Rise of Poverty with
Urbanization
● Huge shifts of
population – skilled
and unskilled to urban
areas.
● Housing was scarce
and overcrowded.
● More workers than
jobs meant that
wages were
SUBSISTENCE.
Child Labor
● Children were expected
to contribute to family
income.
● Young children had jobs
like:
● Chimney sweeps
● Scrambling under
machinery to pick up
dropped parts.
● Pulling coal through
tunnels too tiny for adults.
● Making and selling
matches, blacking, flowers.
The Worship of Money
● Almost everything
was tolerated if it
gained profit.
● Profit was the sign of
success and “God’s
Grace” on your life.
● CONSPICUOUS
CONSUMPTION was
encouraged!
If one couldn’t make money?
● There was a moral fault
with you.
● The Poor House might
“cure” you.
● A prison for those who
were in debt.
● You lived in slave
conditions until you were
ransomed out by your
family / friends or you might
“work” your way out.
● RARELY happened.
● SLAVERY.
Charles Dickens and Social
Reform in Victorian Times
● Writing novels and in
the magazines –
serials – he
encouraged people to
think that they have a
duty to help those
less fortunate than
themselves.
A Christmas Carol
● Dickens loved to
particularly attack
three abuses he saw
in his time:
● Child abuse
● Lack of power of
children.
● A bad education
system
● Bankers and
industrialists
A Christmas Carol – A look at
Victorian Morality
● For most Victorians –
they would’ve approved
of Scrooge’s behavior.
● But three ghosts put a
mirror up to Scrooge and
he finds he doesn’t
measure up to people
that were considered
“less” than him.
● His clerk, Bob Cratchett
● His nephew, Fred