Social Consequences Of The Industrial Revolution
Social Consequences
The First Industrial Revolution is the name given to the years between 1780 and 1850 when agriculture was replaced by industry as the main wealth source in the Western world. With this major shift also came considerable societal disadvantages. I will justify my choice for the two most significant social consequences, the changes in family life and the penalties of child labor
The role of the family was forever changed during the Industrial Revolution. When agriculture was the primary source of survival families worked the land together tending to the fields. The women would raise children as well as crops. Mother, Father, and child all played a role in producing food for the family and to sell for household needs. The Industrial Revolution separated the family unit and emphasized the roles of the sexes. Fathers now left their homes to go and work in factories and earn money for their families. Mothers no longer had a role in the family’s financial well-being, …show more content…
Children had helped out around the farm before the Industrial Age, but their roles were always appropriate for their age. Now young children went to work in the factories where they were exploited by their bosses and given dangerous tasks. R.D. Fitzgerald writes in the article titled The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution “The most dangerous assignment for children in the factories was unjamming the great textile machines that wove cloth. Since their hands and arms were so small, they could reach into small spaces where the fabric tended to jam. The foreman would not turn the machine off but would insist the child reach in to dislodge the jam. If he were not quick enough, his hand or arm would become caught in the mechanism, and this could result in severe damage to the child. Children were eventually looked upon as interchangeable parts.” This was the case until the Factory Act of 1833 (Fitzgerald,
The First Industrial Revolution is the name given to the years between 1780 and 1850 when agriculture was replaced by industry as the main wealth source in the Western world. With this major shift also came considerable societal disadvantages. I will justify my choice for the two most significant social consequences, the changes in family life and the penalties of child labor
The role of the family was forever changed during the Industrial Revolution. When agriculture was the primary source of survival families worked the land together tending to the fields. The women would raise children as well as crops. Mother, Father, and child all played a role in producing food for the family and to sell for household needs. The Industrial Revolution separated the family unit and emphasized the roles of the sexes. Fathers now left their homes to go and work in factories and earn money for their families. Mothers no longer had a role in the family’s financial well-being, …show more content…
Children had helped out around the farm before the Industrial Age, but their roles were always appropriate for their age. Now young children went to work in the factories where they were exploited by their bosses and given dangerous tasks. R.D. Fitzgerald writes in the article titled The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution “The most dangerous assignment for children in the factories was unjamming the great textile machines that wove cloth. Since their hands and arms were so small, they could reach into small spaces where the fabric tended to jam. The foreman would not turn the machine off but would insist the child reach in to dislodge the jam. If he were not quick enough, his hand or arm would become caught in the mechanism, and this could result in severe damage to the child. Children were eventually looked upon as interchangeable parts.” This was the case until the Factory Act of 1833 (Fitzgerald,