Bad Working Conditions During The Industrial Revolution

Children lost many body parts due to working on these machines they’re required to use. Which goes back to why working in factories is very harmful. Although, these kids already knew what they were getting themselves into while working in the factory. They fairly needed the benefits that were provided for the hours they worked. Plus during this time, it was very difficult to come across work during this time era.

(Document 8). The work the children had been assigned was laborious and caused them to endure in long hours. They could easily fall or do something wrong and therefore causing an injury to occur, which would basically put them out of work, unable to continue making money for their family or

“People were forced to work in harsh, dangerous conditions in order to be able to provide for their families” (Document 8). Although most people were grateful to have a job, the conditions that they were forced to work for in order to provide for their families were unfair to them, and their families. Just because they obtained a job one day, doesn’t mean they would have it the next day, for example, if an employee was sick, or injured and had to miss a day of work the employee wasn’t guaranteed to continually have the job after they finally recovered. “I am at work in a spinning room tending four sides of warp which is one girl’s work” (Document 1) working conditions such as these are very harsh for the employees, not only do they have to keep up with the work of four people. Not only do the employees have to keep up with the sea of work, they also have to attempt not to get injured with the very harsh conditions lots of employees did in fact end up with serious injuries. “5 in the morning till 9 at night…” (Document 7) Those were the harsh working hours according to twenty-three year old Elizabeth Bentley. Long hours such as those were very common for factory workers, which made life hard for employees. Not only was harsh working conditions bad, but also the worst consequence that came about through the Industrial Revolution was child

A regular shift for any factory worker was 12-16 hours a day, six days a week. The poem “My Boy” written by a working mother during the Industrial Revolution says that her “labor drives [her] forth…” (Document 2) until “…night when [she is] free.” (Document 2) She is “a stranger… to [her] child and [her child] one to [her].” (Document 2). This was not unheard of during this time. Parents and their children being driven away from each other to provide for the family. However, the mother working at the factory provided better financial opportunities for her family and in turn a higher standard of living. Elizabeth Bentley, a woman who testified on the child labor in Britain, when asked “what time [she] began work at the factory” (Documents 7) responded “when I was six years old” (Document 7). She worked in the mill “for about a year” (Document 7). Long hours and separation of family weren’t the only problem when it came to the Industrial Revolution. The use of child labor was also a significant

5. The work environment in the factories during the Industrial Revolution was awful for many reasons. One reason it was awful was because workers had to work between fourteen and sixteen hours a day for six days a week. This was extremely horrible because workers did not have any time to see their family members. Also, workers usually got minimal breaks during the day and this lead to personal injuries and even death by exhaustion for many of them.

During the 19th century children from ages of 3 onwards were forced into employment, mainly to work in factories. Child labour was extremely popular and played a big part of Britain’s economic success. Adults seemed to

It was common for a child to lose some kind of body part during their working shift. For example, a child could lose fingers, toes, eyes, arms, feet, and in extreme cases their life’s. Children were used to crawl into machines where adults could not reach in order to fix the machine needed to get the jobs done. For example, in large machines it was common for parts to get stuck and prevent the machine from working the proper way. An adults body, even their hands and arms were too big to reach inside the machines. A child would go into or reach for the part that was preventing work from happening and if they were lucky enough to pull back on time, some would come out fine. However, if a child would not come out on time it was almost impossible to be safe. If a child was no longer able to work they would simply throw them out and have them replaced by another child who needed money to take food

However the industrial revolution was not all good. The working class had no other option but to turn up at the factories for work. The factory system resulted in over-crowding and unhygienic conditions and also the development of slum areas. Many factory owners who needed cheap, unskilled labour, profited greatly by using children and women to run the machines and because they were small and could fit in tunnels as well not only that they were more suited for factory life because they could adopt more quickly and easily than men. By the age of 6, many children were already working twelve hours a day in factories. These children had no free time to do anything plus they earned low wages. Hardly any of the children went to school they had to work in factories to earn money. Quite a lot of the people who worked at factories got sick and died because of the toxic fumes in the factories. While others were severely injured because the machines didn't have safety guards so many children got killed by machinery when they fell asleep and got caught up in the machines. Many of the children who were orphans, hired by the employers would

Conditions of factories were not safe for anyone, let alone a small child. Due to these conditions many children died before their prime. Many children “began work at age 5, and generally died before they were 25” (www.victorianweb.org), America was beginning to lose an entire generation due to these working conditions that so many had to endure. Children were hired at an alarming rate. “In 1870, the first time census reported child workers, there were 750,000 workers in the United States age 15 and under, not including those who worked on family farms or in other family businesses” (“Child Labor in America”), these numbers were not something that was looked over, it astonished many. “A cotton manufactory of 5 or 6000 spindles will employ those 200 children” (Bremner 232). The workforce would continuously grow, hiring more and more children each day. Factories were good for using children as a means of their productivity. “Textile factories, for the most part […] were in the forefront of this industrial revolution, and children formed an essential component of the new industrial workforce” (Bremner 232). Many times without these children working some of these factories would not have survived through the revolution.

Since there were no work regulations during this time period, there were no standards for safety or how one had to behave towards others. Accidents in these shops were extremely common. The women wanted to get as much done as they possibly could because they were paid by the piece, and in their rush, their fingers would get caught in the machines. Sadie Frowne talks about the time when she was injured, “Sometimes in my haste I get my finger caught and the needle goes right through it. It goes so quick, tho, that it does not hurt much.” Small children were also working in these unsanitary sweatshops. They were especially needed if a machine stopped working and an adult was unable to reach the broken part;

Often, the children were made to work “from five in the morning till nine or ten at night”, with “no time … for breakfast and no sitting for dinner and no time for tea”. These constant and long working hours not only can lead to mental and physical suffering, but they can also cause an increase in injury rates from working in general due to mental and physical fatigue. Additionally, the superiors of the workers often beat the children mercilessly. According to a firsthand account from John Birley, who was a child laborer at the time, a supervisor once “knocked me down knocked me down and threatened me with a stick. To save my head I raised my arm, which he then hit with all his might. My elbow was broken. I bear the marks, and suffer pain from it to this day, and always shall as long as I live...”. This act demonstrates the cruelty the child workers suffered at the hands of the superiors, due to the utter lack of regulation of these textile mills. In fact, the replaceable nature of their jobs and the Combination Acts essentially forced the children to endure this treatment, as they had no other way to support their families. This account is supported by similar accounts from an unbiased third-party doctor who investigated the mills. He stated that not only were the textile mills “nurseries of disease and vice”, the

The living conditions, some people had to deal with during the industrial revolution is just horrible, cruel, unfair and just plain unbelievable. Families were sometimes crammed into one household and it was very unsanitary.

Factories are unsafe for children because there are many threats to their safety. It was also unsafe because the owners of the factories only cared that they were healthy enough to work. They also did not feed them well for example ,John Birley said ¨conditions were terrible we were paid little and fed mush¨.(House of lords interview with John Birley) Dr.Ward said he witnessed people with flesh stripped off sometimes to the bone and rare occasions limbs were ripped clean off. And they worked from when they woke till they went to sleep for example ¨We had 45 minute breaks for a 16 hour work day¨. Dr.Holmes claimed that the factory he had inspected was perfectly healthy and every child was completely healthy. But he was friends with the owner

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the world. The Industrial Revolution began in the United Kingdom as large deposits of coal and iron were found throughout the land which brought the rise of factories and machines, the idea then subsequently spread throughout the world. It was perhaps one of the greatest moments in human history, as it gave rise to industrialization and the switch from manpower to machine power. It completely revolutionized the world and forever changed the course of humanity. However, many scholars and historians believe that the Industrial

The Industrial Revolution had many negative affects on people. Many people worked from home before the Revolution. Raw materials were delivered to people's cottages and the weavers would process the wool in their homes. This was an advantage for the workers because they would make their own schedules and work at their own pace; however, for these same reasons, they were disadvantages for business owners. The Industrial Revolution made it possible to move the jobs from cottages to factories where they business owners can oversee the workers and account for their time. Some people considered the factory jobs a blessing while others considered it a hardship. The work day was long, conditions were unsanitary and food was sparse.