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Daniel Herguth
Mr. Hawkins
World History
30 October 2013

The Positives and Negatives of the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution gave birth to a new way that much of the world operated.
However, not all the changes were good. While bringing advantages in transportation,
production, and labor, increase in luxurious goods, and overall economic prosperity, the
Industrial Revolution was also the dawn of an age that included injustices such as child labor,
poor working conditions, and problems for less fortunate people.
While the dawn of the Industrial Revolution brought economic prosperity to the rapidly
expanding United States, certain measures were taken such as child labor, to ensure that wealthy
landowners and factory owners made their quarterly profits. During the Industrial Revolution,
with the rise of urbanization and enclosure of large farms, many people relocated their lives to
the bustling, coal powered, factory towns and cities. With the promise of work, many families
were lured to these cities in hopes of finding work in the factories. However, many of these
families were poor, having left their farms, and needed another source of income. To fill that
absence of flowing income, many children were forced to help sustain their families and avoid
starvation. Along with living in very poor-kept tenements, thousands of the children that worked
in these productive factories were treated very poorly by their bosses. A cartoon drawn during the
Industrial Revolution portrays a large, wealthy- looking man riding in a Roman chariot, pulled
by weary, ill-looking children (Document 10). Although its a cartoon, this was an accurate
depiction of how many factory owners treated the children employed under them. Often working
six-teen hours or longer, these brave children were allowed very few breaks. Factory owners
were able to pay children much less than men and even women and thusly, many believed that
child labor was their ride to wealth. Along with being treated poorly and exploited, the
working conditions in the factory were often terrible for children. The machines that weaved the
textiles into spools were large, dangerous, and usually completely unsafe. Children and other
workers often were injured while operating the machines and many lost their lives.
According to Joseph Hebergam, an employee that worked at a factory during the
Industrial Revolution since the tender age of ten, told a member of the Sadler Committee, I have
damaged lungs. My leg muscles do not function properly and will not support the weight of my
bones. I have been told that I will die within a year due to the infectious disease in my lungs
derived from the poor air ventilation in the factory in which I work. Hebergam also stated, At
the factory where I was last employed, a boy was caught in a machine and had both of his thigh
bones broken and from his knee to his hip, the flesh was ripped up the same as it would be if he
had been cut with a knife. His hand was bruised, his eyes were nearly torn out and his arms were
broken. His sister, who ran to pull him off, had both her arms broken and her head bruised. The
boy died. I do not know if the girl lives. The accident occurred because the shaft was uncovered
(Document 14). Obviously the working conditions were extremely horrendous and dangerous

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for all employees, especially children, but the majority of the factory owners didnt care because
they had a large amount of unemployed people looking for work. Due to atrocities such as this,
governments around the world were obligated to step in, take charge, and pass laws that made
child labor illegal. Along with the formation of labor unions, over time, factory life was much
improved for factory owners and their prospective employees.
Life as a factory worker was hard in and out of work. While at home, families struggled
to survive while living in crowded, ill-ventilated tenements with no sewage. The streets are
usually unpaved, full of holes, filthy, and strewn with refuse. Since they have neither gutters nor
drains, the refuse accumulates in stagnant, stinking puddles. The river in Manchester is quite
typical. The main river is narrow, coal-black and full of stinking filth and rubbish which it
deposits on its bank. One walks along a very rough path on the river bank to reach a chaotic
group of little, one story, one-room cabins. In front of the doors, filth and garbage abound
(Document 11). Without the modern advances in technology, sewage, and medicine, many citydwellers fell gravely ill and if they were too ill to return to work, they often lost their job to
another eager worker in search of a job. So as well as having poor conditions at home, workers
lives were even harder at work.
While at work, workers were frequently worked to the point of exhaustion with little to
no breaks. According to a testimony by William Cooper, an employee in a textile mill, work in
the mill was very hard. I am twenty-eight, and have been employed in the mill since I was ten.
Our usual hours were 5 in the morning to nine at night. We had just one break at noon for lunch.
At times, we were frequently strapped (whipped with a belt) to keep us awake and attentive. We
had no time to go to school; I dont even know how to write (Document 1). Men, women, and
children like Cooper worked long, hard hours for very little pay and often had their pay cut for
the day, week, or however long the owner would deem appropriate, if they were even one minute
late. Along with that, life as factory owner was harder still for women. After waking up before
the break of dawn and working for many, grueling hours, women were still expected to feed,
look after, and raise children and their families.
Women were often favored as employees by factory and mill owners because they
adapted better and faster than women and were much easier to manage and command than men.
Many factory owners abused and raped women into submission so that they would not refuse to
do as they were told. As well as being easier to manage, factory owners could pay women less
than men, thus, saving the factory owners money. Although life was hard for women, the
Industrial Revolution was not a complete curse for them. Advances in medicine and agriculture
resulted in production of more and better food. People lived longer, and women had stronger,
healthier babies. An excerpt from Manchester in 1844 reads that, Mr. T. Ashton employs 1500
work people in his factories. The young women are well and decently clothed, the houses
inhabited by the work people form long, large streets. Mr. Ashton has built 300 of them, which
he rents for 75 cents per week. Everywhere is to be observed a cleanliness which indicates order
and comfort (Document 8). This shows that not all women were treated badly. Some wealthy
factory owners genuinely cared for their workers and had their best interests at heart. Many
believed that if the owners showed respect and thankfulness for their employees work, that the
workers would respond with good attitude, work ethic, and excellent work. While countless men
and women had found jobs and opportunities at the mouth of the Industrial Revolution, advances
in transportation and comfort made it easier still.

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The Industrial Revolution was an explosion of scientific ingenuity. Inventors from around
the globe flocked to cities and foreign countries to proclaim their products to the world.
Advancements in transportation made shipping goods from place to place much easier and
luxuries such as the telegraph and Model T car revolutionized the way that people operated in
everyday life. You are surrounded, as we have constantly shown you throughout, with an
infinite number of comforts and conveniences which had no existence two or three centuries ago
and those comforts are not used only by a few, but are within to almost all men. Every day is
adding something to your comforts. Your houses are better built, your clothes are cheaper and
more abundant, and you have an infinite amount of domestic utensils. You can travel cheaply
from place to place, not only as less expense, but travel ten times quicker than two hundred years
ago (Document 5). Many inventors and scientific minds became exceedingly wealthy and
powerful during this time. Henry Bessemer, and inventor from Great Britain, developed a way to
extract the impurities from iron and smelt steel. Bessemer racked in millions of dollars as his
improved building material backboned the soaring skyscrapers of young industrial giants such as
New York City and Chicago. Improving on the original steam engine, George Stephenson
developed a steam engine that could pull locomotives along steel rails. Travel times between
major cities were massively reduced. In 1750, travel time between Manchester and London was
75 hours. By 1850, with newly developed railroads and trains, the time was 5 hours.
Although the Industrial Revolution was like a beating heart of economic prosperity,
pumping money and advancements along steel rails like veins, not all men were concerned with
the material aspect of the Revolution. Contrary to the vulgar belief that men are motivated
primarily by materialistic considerations, we now see the capitalist system being discredited,
dethroned, and destroyed all over the world, even though this system has given men the greatest
material comforts (Document 2). A lot of people saw the Industrial Revolution was an
opportunity to help those who were less fortunate than themselves. Wealthy landowners often
employed poor farmers to work their enclosure and paid them by granting them a plot of land on
which they could grow their own food and pay in farming profits. The village contained about
1500 inhabitants of whom all who are capable of work are employed by Mr. Dale. Of these, there
are 500 children who are entirely fed, clothed, and educated by Mr. Dale. The others live with
their parents in the village and have a weekly allowance for their work. The healthy appearance
of these children attracted the attention of the traveler. Special regulations, adopted by Mr. Dale,
have made this place very different from others in this kingdom. Out of the nearly 3000 children
employed here from 1785 to 1797, only fourteen have died (Document 6).
By the beginning of the second Industrial Revolution, with buildings scraping then sky
and electricity powering the thrum of an industrious economy, life as a factory worker had
greatly changed. With the implications of labor laws and labor unions majorly empowered the
working class to demand higher pay and fewer, easier hours. Order, organization, cleanliness,
and sewage provided for a better, healthier work area. By this time, very few women worked in
the factories and child labor had been forbidden (Document 4). Men were dressed well for work,
and were normally content with their lot as an employee. Women mainly worked in smaller, less
dangerous environments such as sewing. In an orderly, clean, safe factory, many women worked
as seamstresses or secretaries (Document 9). No longer could factory owners legally assert their
dominance over women and children.

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In closing, the Industrial Revolution was a spotted quilt of positives and negatives, with
atrocities such as child labor and uncleanliness and advancements such as locomotives and
factories; it brought an age of overall economic prosperity that has lasted for hundreds of years.
Genius minds like George Stephenson and Henry Bessemer ushered in an era of industrial power.
Although it wasnt the most clean cut and orderly process, the Industrial Revolution was the
slingshot that catapulted the world into what it is today: a global machine of industrious
economy.