English Textile Factories

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.

“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

Textile factories are not safe for working class families. Working condition in the factories were not safe or healthy for the children working. A doctor named Dr.Ward says “. . . We could not remain ten minutes in the factories without gasping for breath.” He also says “ There were forty-seven injured . . .” (House of Lords Committee interview Dr.Ward). Joseph Herbergam was once working in the factories as a kid. Herbergam says “ My leg muscles do not function properly . . .”. He also talks about how he may die in a year because all the fumes he inhaled as a child. (Testimony of Joseph Herbergam to the Sadler committee). Dr.ward is a doctor so he is aware of what is harmful to breath in. It was unhealthy for many reasons but one reason

The other large part of English child labor was inside of textile factories. Michael Sadler, chairman of the UK parliamentary committee looking to pass a bill to limit child labor in Britain, interviewed factory workers to showcase what happened inside the factories to the British Parliament, in hopes of laws being passed to stop this. In The Sadler Report, he interviews Mr. Matthew Crabtree. Crabtree describes the brutality of his working environment where he was a blanket maker. According the interview, he started working in the factory at age eight, and at that point he would work from “ six in the morning to eight at night,” with one break for lunch at noon. When the factory was busier, he would work sixteen hours. Due to the extreme hours, Crabtree reports extreme exhaustion, and loss of appetite. On top of being kept extremely unhealthy, punishments were doled out often. Crabtree reports that a regular occurrence at the end of the day would be the factory administrators would beat the fatigued children who were too tired to keep up with production. He himself describes being beaten with at piece of the machinery called a “billy,” saying, “I had been struck[...] so much so as to knock me down.” Sometimes, he saw other children 's head’s be opened

During the industrial revolution in Britain, the usage of child labourers dramatically increased as it became a cheap and easy form of labour. This lead to the continued abuse of many children in textile factories. In 1833, the Factory Act of 1833 was put forth which dictated that no children under the age of nine would work. Children ages nine to thirteen wouldn’t work more than nine hours a day and children ages thirteen to eighteen wouldn’t work more than twelve hours a day. In addition it introduced the circulation of four factory inspectors who were to enforce the new legislation. They were to certify whether children had received their compulsory education of two hours each day and report conditions to the government. This act brought forth attention and sparked debates from the public which made stronger note of the working conditions for children.

In the 19th century, America saw major expansions and technological advances that paved way for the grand expansion of agriculture that boosted the nation’s economy. Regardless of the fact that Great Britain had tried to keep secrets regarding machinery and inventions, most of America’s advances were propelled by inventions such as the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793, steel plow by John Deere, railway, steamboats, telegraph, and canals. In addition, technology’s profound effect on agriculture also led to the rise of the textile industry whereby factories produced materials such as cotton thread and cloth. Many of these initial factories are recognized in historical texts, but the Lowell factory system is one that is famous – precisely the

During the early 18th century Britain, Britain was in the middle of Industrialization. Factory workers were also paid low wages and had to endure harsh workers conditions. Accidents were common since machinery was very new at this point and were not safe. The factory workers during this time were forced to put up with being exploited because the owners of the factories and the workers themselves knew that there would always be someone else willing to take their job if they quit. To these factory workers, low wages was better than having no income at all. Factory wokers in Britain during the early 18th century were paid low wages such as how cotton textile workers were also paid low wages during the mechanization of the cotton industy in Japan and

In the Report on the Conditions of the Laboring Population of Great Britain, Edwin Chadwick discussed diseases, filth, overcrowding, bad ventilation, and short lives of the laboring classes (Doc 5). Furthermore, individuals spoke against safety and health conditions in factories across Europe. Illnesses were widespread and children suffered from disease as well. Tocqueville (Doc 3) and Tristan (Doc 6), a guest and a ladies' rights advocate from France respectively, remarked on the “physical and moral degradation of this class of the population”, claiming that the factories were creating harmful pollution to the environment and poisoning the people with unsafe contamination; however, the conflict between the French and the English might just have made them enhance and amplify this issue, exaggerating the actual health problems the factories produced. Similarly, Chadwick was plagued and daunted by the foul, filthy work regions of the laboring classes (Doc 5).

Dangerous factory conditions also had a negative effect on society. Although the factory system positively helped to advance technology, its environments were horrendous. Firstly, these horrible conditions brought on multiple types of health risks (Document 3). Due to epidemics spread from factories, workers could be subdued to respiratory problems and could gain permanent deformities on their body. Secondly, when workers

Textile factories were not safe for working class families for the reason that the people were injured and unhealthy. A few people entered into the textile factories unhealthy which could´ve made their health issues worse. The interviewee , Dr. Holme says that the people employed were in great health. He also said that the children he had seen were all in health and that the hours they worked were not injurious to their health. John Birley says that they had good food and good beds. He also says that they were treated kindly. Dr . Holme says that Mr. Pooley employed 401 people and 363 people were in good health. Dr. Holme also said that the factories were as healthy as any other part of the working classes of the community. His conclusion was

The working conditions of the average laborer during the industrial revolution were oftentimes harsh and dangerous as seen in documents in 1,2,3 and 5. According to the Sadler Committee of 1832, men were forced to work excessively long hours and were whipped to stay awake. (Doc. 1) Additionally, the Sadler Committee revealed that many workers have suffered from infections, disease and muscle problems. (Doc. 2) This shows that industrial factory owners oftentimes exploited their laborers for profit. Andrew Ure’s The Philosophy of Manufactures reveals that children in the factory

Despite not having the same physical strength and stamina as men, women (and children) were forced to crawl on their hands and feet and drag a bucket of coals (Betty Harns). They suffered long hours everyday only to receive little pay. The common people had to endure this barbaric work just to end up dying at a young age from disease and other health issues. Also, according to Child Labor in Factories, the work was very dangerous, injuring or killing children on the job. These poor kids were always at risk of dying to, also, receive little to no pay. It is worse for the orphan children, though. They sometimes did not even get paid at all, and the employers justified their absence of payroll by claiming they fed and housed the children (source 11). The children were beaten if they were found sleeping on the job and were forced to walk the streets naked if they were late to work. If a worker was ill and had to leave work, they were shown no remorse and not paid. All these working people were treated like less than humans for what? Better products? The life of a human is worth far more than the Industrial Revolution ever

In England during the industrial revolution there was a lot of poverty and pollution, especially in the main towns where the mass unemployment and people often had to go into the work houses. The conditions that they were made to work in were overcrowded. There was no sanitation or anywhere to clean, and there was a large amount of pollution. These all led to diseases among the workers. Some of the jobs that the children were made to do were chimney sweeping or selling matches. Adults had to do bone crushing for fertilisers, working in kitchens and doing the laundry for rich people.

The confinement to his cabin for six weeks of the Edinburgh-born John Miller, the fifth officer on board the East India Company ship Marquis Camden, by a tyrant of a ship’s master seems an unlikely starting point to a project on the Norwich textile industry, especially as Miller had nothing to do directly with the city’s trade. Sometime after the publication in 2008 of Captain Miller’s autobiography Chronometer Jack which I co-edited when working in Glasgow, Geoffrey and Margaret Nobbs, volunteers at Great Yarmouth’s Time and Time Museum, contacted me to say they had transcribed the Marquis Camden’s log book which recorded Miller’s detention. Later, they enthusiastically told me about the German-born Norwich master weaver John Christopher