Preview

Living Conditions During The Industrial Revolution

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
541 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Living Conditions During The Industrial Revolution
Because of the tremendous availability of natural resources and great geography, the birth of the Industrial Revolution began in England. It was also where new inventions that forever changed the agricultural world. This led to the low demand for farmers and many people were moving to cities to find work in factories, which spearheaded the industrial movement. The Industrial Revolution was a negative for society because of the poor factory jobs, dangerous coal mines, and horrible living conditions. The people of England who lived in the more rural areas had to move to the cities due to the inability to find work in the countryside. However, they would soon discover that factory jobs were a living nightmare! The average work week was comprised of twelve to fourteen hour work days six times a week, which is more than double the average workweek in America today. Also, the conditions of the factory were even …show more content…
Factory workers lived in housing that was run-down and unsafe. Even though the new idea of apartment buildings was introduced, they were dirty, unstable, and very small. Moreover, the streets were teeming with orphans who could not find a suitable place to live. It was very crowded in the cities too, which led the spread of many diseases. Also, with everyone trying to make money thieves became rampant in the streets. Conditions became so terrible that the life expectancy of a person in England went from thirty-eight to seventeen. Many people modern day find it hard to believe how the Industrial Revolution really was like, and it absolutely had a negative affect on society because of the gruesome factories, treacherous mines, and the unbelievably bad living conditions. The Industrial Revolution created an century of people slaving away to feed themselves while others became rich on their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The life of a working class family during the Industrial Revolution was very much dictated by the factory in which they worked. Employees would spend nearly all day in these horrid environments; most would start…

    • 1313 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Industrialization- As American factories grew, they no longer needed to employ skilled workers who had spent years learning their particular trade. Instead, they could hire unskilled laborers who performed simple tasks and worked for lower wages. As a result, American factory work became "deskilled" after the Civil War.…

    • 784 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Because of the rise of urbanization, many cities in America, whose outdated infrastructure system could not keep up with the extremely fast population growth, were being overcrowded with people who were looking for jobs. England's major cities and towns lacked decent housing, had literally no sanitary codes, novice education systems, and inefficient police protection. Many of the workers in the working class had to live in small, dirty shelters where sickness was common and widespread. With the introduction of the steam industry, factory working conditions became even worse. Machines commonly injured the workers. Many factory owners only cared about getting the cheapest labor possible. In order to do this, factory owners hired specific workers, which was mostly women and children because they did the most work for the cheapest pay, so they could work strenuous long hours for little to nothing wages. The working class saw little to no improvements in living and working…

    • 1852 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    who made up 80% of society and had little or no bargaining power with their new employers. Since population was increasing in Great Britain at the same time that landowners were enclosing common village lands, people from the countryside flocked to the towns and the new factories to get work. The working conditions were terrible during the Industrial Revolution. As factories were being built, businesses were in need of factory workers. With a long line of people willing to work, employers could set wages as low as they wanted because people were willing to do work as long as they got paid.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Although the Revolution created many jobs, there were still many people left unemployed. This created a loss of bargaining powers for the employees because if they were to argue that their pay was too low, or any other complaint, the factory owner could easily fire them and hire someone else to take their place (“Effects of the Industrial Revolution”). The common worker had “a 12 to 14 hour day, six days a week, 309 days a year, with only three holidays” (Mack). They were constantly working and had very little opportunity to enjoy free time due to the fact that they were generally tired when they got out of work. Additionally, due to no safety laws, many of the work places were extremely dangerous to be in, especially when rushing around in it. It was very common for factory workers to get injured and possibly killed while working. If a worker got injured, there was no such law as workmen’s compensation and they would generally lose their job because they are not fit to work (“Effects…”). However, the injustice to the common worker did not stop at terrible working conditions but also leaked into their living conditions and home…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Because of this, it was also the first country where the nature of children’s work changed so dramatically that child labour became seen as a social problem and a political issue. Often families were very large and therefore the parents could not support all their children. Child labour is a harmful process. Underage children are forced to work for a very long hour and in terrible conditions. Source A is an extract from the Parliamentary Inquiry into the “State of Child Labor in Manufacturing in the United Kingdom”, 1816. In this source, it is stated that children between the ages 5-8 were mostly found working in a factory, although they are well fed and clothed, this does not stop the children from growing in a non-standard way. Source A also indicates that a shocking number of 500 children were found by Robert Owen, working at the mill. The second source which is Source B is an extract from data provided to both Houses of Parliament regarding children in cotton mills, 1818. This data provide us with information about the average working hours for children. It is stated that “The average working hours per day, during which these children are made to work, is from six o’clock in the morning to eight o’clock at night…”, which is startling considering that these children (commonly ages 5-10) are made to work for 14 hours per day. This could cause them to stop growing properly and stopping them from gaining new knowledge from school or other…

    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Children had no working rights and were put to do the most dangerous tasks such as fixing the inside of machines or mining because they were small and could fit into small areas and were often severely injured or killed. Living conditions were also the epitome of all things. There was no sanitation at that time and basic plumbing which meant streets became dirty and stunk with human excrement and trash. Housing was small and people often lived in crowded conditions in small houses with cold stone floors they'd be lucky enough to have to share a less crowded living space. This connects to the idea of how the industrial revolution had negative effects on the people living in England at the time because of the poor living conditions and working environments people endured it is best said that there were ravishing effects left upon citizens living in these towns and…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Industrial Revolution was a period filled with drastic social and economic changes. The transformation between hand-made tools and goods to machine-manufactured products changed not only the economy, but also the lives of the workers. The first changes began in Great Britain in the 1780’s and spread across Europe and North America by the 19th century leaving a profound effect on the entire world. The Industrial Revolution effected every aspect of human society including the nature of work, child labor, and health conditions of the workers.…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The living conditions of a worker during the industrial revolution was horrible. Throughout the course of the industrial revolution, the population was increasing rapidly because of more people moving in, so apartments became more crowded…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A typical shift lasted 12-16 hours. They were easily fired if they complained, got sick, got hurt and could no longer to work. Lives were so tough that a third of poor familly was without a male breadwinner, either as a result of death or desertion. 2.1 Children labour With the mechanisation, the traditional cottage industries lost their position and many people became unemployed. Consequently, more and more poverty-stricken workers moved to cities and they often brought their family with them including their children.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A lot of people thinks that the industrial revolution was a disaster for the working classes. It led to a rise in the standard of living.…

    • 1873 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Manchester Essay

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Even more people moved to cities to work in factories, but they worked under horrible conditions. These factories were unsafe, and most factory owners only cared about making money. In Source 1, a factory inspector describes a young girl being whirled around a carding-machine. The source says that her leg was found ‘some distance away’. From the Source, we can tell that the machines were unsafe and were not inspected, and accidents happened very often. Factories were very dangerous and the factory owners didn't really care about the workers. Factory rules were strict and unfair. Source 4 lists some factory rules in the1840s, one of them being ‘If any hand in the mill is seen talking to another, whistling or singing, he shall be fined 6d’.…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Steam Engine

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In contrast with the middle and upper classes, the "working" class was not well off. In the working class, many were replaced in factories by machines. But on the other hand, many also gained new jobs in factories working with machinery. The average adult worker worked quite often: five to seven days of the week, for more than half the day per shift. Children as young as fifteen worked for minimal wages. Some of the children became deformed or crippled due to their work, which was often. Most workers worked for relatively low wages due to their incapability to produce goods.…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain the mid-18th starting with the transition from handmade goods to machine made goods. They also made the transition from making these goods in their homes to factories which increased the population density in larger cities. At this point rural life began to dissipate because everyone started moving into the cities looking for work. Once people had begun moving out of these rural villages into developing cities they became large industrial towns and cities thriving with factories and ores to supply the demand of the people. Amongst all the progression with machinery and production, the Industrial Revolution also triggered the population explosion along with the agricultural and energy revolution.…

    • 1130 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Third, there were unsafe working conditions. It was easy for something like hair or an apron getting caught in the machinery (Document I). A person could get sucked up and whirled around in the machines. Also most people that worked were poor and did not have shoes so there was a risk of cutting their feet on something sharp. Last people worked for a long time. Usually eight to twelve hours. When you’re only getting minimum wage, it sucked being a worker in the industrial revolution.…

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays