Chapter 7 Section 3Hardships of Early Industrial Life

Lesson Objectives

• Compare and contrast the industrial working class and the new middle class

• Understand how the factory system and mines changed the way people worked.

• Analyze the benefits and challenges of industrialization.

Life in the new industrial city

• Industrial Rev. brought rapid urbanization (movement of people to cities)– Movement of farmers to the city – Soaring population growth– Increasing demands for workers in factories – Small towns grew around iron & coal mines

Manchester, England

• Manchester, England – 17,000 people in 1750– 40,000 people in 1780– 70,000 people in 1801

Tenements

• Tenements (multistory buildings divided into crowded apartments)– No running water– No sewage or sanitation

systems– Waste & garbage– Diseases like cholera spread

like crazy

• Wealthy & middle class lived in pleasant neighborhoods

Factory System

• Factory system changed the way people lived – The factory was the heart of the industrial city– Rigid discipline, unvaried, monotonous work– Strict schedule of long hours, 12-16 hours a day– Exhausted workers suffered accidents - loss of

limbs, even lives• Coal miners - lungs destroyed• Textile workers – breathed in lint• Workers got sick or injured, often lost jobs

Women Workers

• Women workers– Preferred by employers– Adapted more easily to

machines– More easily managed– Able to pay less for same

work– Away from home 12+

hours• Return to tenements –

feed, clean for & clothe families

Child Labor

• Parents let their children work because families needed the money– Textile mills– Small fingers changed spools– Crawl under machines to fix parts

• Children worked in coal mines– Pushed carts– Climbed into narrow spaces to chip minerals off mine walls

• Parliament slowly passed laws to regulate child labor

Working Class

• Developed sense of community• Forbidden to:– Organize groups– Bargain for better pay or working conditions– Strike– Protestors were repressed or crushed

Luddites

• Protests led by the mythical Ned Ludd– Resisted “labor-saving” machines, were costing

their jobs– Smashed machines, burnt factories

Methodism

• Spread of Methodism – religious movement founded by John Wesley– Promised forgiveness of

sin, better life to come & gave workers some comfort

– Studied the Bible, learned to read & write

– Turned workers away from revolution & toward reform

New Middle Class

• Benefited the most from Industrial Revolution – Were entrepreneurs (business owners) who began

Industrial Revolution – Felt poor factory workers were responsible for

their own poverty & misery• Came from several sources

– Rose from rags to riches– Merchants – invested growing profits in factories– Inventors – created new technologies

Middle Class Women

• “Ladylike” activities – drawing, embroidery, playing piano

• Did not work outside the home or do their own housework

Reformers

• Reformers pressed for laws to improve working conditions– Labor unions (worker’s organizations) won right to bargain

with employers for better wages, hours, & working conditions

– Working class men gained right to vote & political power• Material benefits

– Demand for mass-produced goods > new factories > more jobs

– Wages rose > extra $$ for reading material & entertainment– Cost of rail travel fell > people able to travel