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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
1
Roger B. Beck et al., Modern World History Patterns of Interaction (Boston: McDougal Littell, 2003),
259.
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.
Sarah Lyons Watts, “Edward Potter,” (1842) http://www.wfu.edu/~watts/w04_industr.html.(Accessed
November 8, 2007)
3
Sarah Lyons Watts, “Testimony of William Harter before the Ashley Committee on the Conditions in
Mines. 1842.”, http://www.wfu.edu/~watts/w04_industr.html.(Accessed November 8, 2007)
2
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
“Thomas Wilson, Esq., owner of three collieries,” Testimony before the Ashley Committee on the
Conditions in Mines (1842).
4
they are. These hardships that gripped the working class gave birth to better, more ethical
working condition standards.