Industrial Revolution

Day 4: How did People Live During the Industrial Revolution

Do Now
What are some of the ways working in a factory differed from work under the cottage system? Why did the textile mills put the cottage industry workers out of business?

GALLERY WALK
Visit each station Complete corresponding questions in your packet

Station 1: Working Class Homes & Neighborhoods

Filth & Disease
No running water or toilets Human & factory waste emptied into waterways Diseases like cholera, typhus, smallpox and dysentery spread due to poor sanitation

One Room Apartment for Entire Family

Built fast & cheap Located near factory
Chimney smoke, waste from factories

Dark, Narrow Streets

Unsafe

Station 2: Life as Coal Miner

Dangerous
Flooding Gas Explosions Mine Collapse

Diseases
Respiratory Illnesses

Women & Children Workers

Vulnerable population

Dr. Ward, 1819: "Last summer I visited three [textile factories]. [I] could not remain ten minutes in the factory without gasping for breath. How it is possible for those who are doomed to remain there twelve or fifteen hours to endure it? If we take into account the heated temperature of the air, and the contamination of the air, it is a matter of astonishment to my mind, how the work people can bear the confinement for so great a length of time." Mill Worker: "I commenced working in a worsted mill at nine years of age." By the age of twenty-five he was severely disabled: "I was a healthy and strong boy, when I first went to the mill. When I was about eight years old, I could walk from Leeds to Bradford (ten miles) without any pain or difficulty, and with a little fatigue; now I cannot stand without crutches! I cannot walk at all! Perhaps I might creep up stairs. I go up stairs backwards every night! I found my limbs begin to fail, after I had been working about a year. It came on with great pain in my legs and knees. I am very much fatigued towards the end of the day. I cannot work in the mill now."

Station 3: Life as a Mill Worker

Diseases & Injuries
Fumes, chemicals, heat Standing in one place damages bones & joints No safety equipment (i.e. Guard Rails)

Child Labor
Employ orphans dont have to pay them

Station 4: Middle Class

Social Class of Skilled Workers Time & Money Available For:

Professionals, business people & wealthy landowners Enjoyed Comfortable Standard of Living
Leisure activities Education (Gender Differences) Domestic help Better diet Fashion, housing

Women Lack Rights

Cant: own property, divorce, vote, write a will

Station 5: A Modest Proposal

Satire
Plight of Tenant Farmer in Country Response to Anti-Irish / Catholic Sentiment Mocks the Heartless Approach to the Poor
Lack of a Social Safety Net

Station 6: Art & Literature

Romanticism
Optimistic view of new technology
Changes would elevate society

Realism

Encouraged individualism, freedom, and emotion Images Reflect Emotional & Ideal view Anti-Romanticism Images Reflect Truth and Accuracy Poor / Working Class Were Subjects
Often depicted people at work

Station 6: Art & Literature

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Gothic Novel: Extension of Romanticisms celebration of emotion
terror as the most extreme form of emotion

Death and destruction monster wreaks symbolizes the negative impact of industrialization
Frankensteins obsession with science is motivated by his desires for fame and profit - he fails to consider the consequences of his actions

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Calls attention to negative impact of the Poor Law, child labor, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of 'street children'

New Poor Law (1834)

Send poor to workhouses to prevent all but the very hopeless from seeking assistance
Many illegitimate or abandoned children were sent to the workhouse

Poverty was the fault of the individual who should be punished

Inmates paid little & forced to work hard; conditions were terrible