Industrial Revolution Effects on Workers

Document Set 1

Document 1a Document 2a
At Work in a Woollen Factory

The Illustrated London News, August 25, 1883 Illustration from Frances Trollope’s Michael Armstrong:
Source: NYS Global History and Geography Regents Exam, June 2006. Factory Boy (1840), a novel about a child laborer.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scene_from_Factory_Boy.jpg
 Working class
Work life
Home life
Middle Class
Work life
Home life
Industrial Revolution Effects on Workers
Document Set 2
The Sadler Committee (1832)
In 1832 Michael Sadler secured a parliamentary investigation of conditions in the textile factories and he sat as chairman on the committee. The
evidence printed here is taken from the large body published in the committee's report. The questions are frequently leading; this reflects Sadler's
knowledge of the sort of information that the committee were to hear and his purpose of bringing it out.
Source: http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111sad.html

Document 2a Document 2b
This is an excerpt from William Cooper’s testimony before the Sadler This is an excerpt from the testimony of Joseph
Committee in 1832. Hebergam to the Sadler Committee.

Sadler: When did you first begin to work in mills? Sadler: Do you know of any other children who died at

Cooper: When I was ten years of age. the R Mill?

Sadler: What were your usual hours of working? Hebergam: There were about a dozen died during the

Cooper: We began at five in the morning and stopped at nine in the night. two years and a half that I was there. At the L Mill where I

Sadler: What time did you have for meals? worked last, a boy was caught in a machine and had

Cooper: We had just one period of forty minutes in the sixteen hours. That both his thigh bones broke and from his knee to his hip .

was at noon. . . . His sister, who ran to pull him off, had both her arms

Sadler: What means were taken to keep you awake and attentive? broke and her head bruised. The boy died. I do not know
Cooper: At times we were frequently strapped. if the girl is dead, but she was not expected to live.

Sadler: When your hours were so long, did you have any time to attend a Sadler: Did the accident occur because the shaft was

day school? not covered?

Cooper: We had no time to go to day school. Hebergam: Yes.

Industrial Revolution Effects on Workers

Document 3
Occupational Distribution in the 1851 Census of Great Britain
Occupational Category Males Females Percent Female
(thousands) (thousands)

Public Administration 64 3 4.5

Armed Forces 63 0 0

Professions 162 103 38.9

Domestic Services 193 1135 85.5

Commercial 91 0 0

Transportation & Communications 433 13 2.9

Agriculture 1788 229 11.4

Mining 383 11 2.8

Metal Manufactures 536 36 6.3

Building and Construction 496 1 .2

Wood and Furniture 152 8 5

Bricks, Cement, Pottery, Glass 75 15 16.7

Chemicals 42 4 8.7

Paper and Printing 62 16 20.5

 Textiles 661 635 49

Clothing 418 491 54

Food, Drink, Lodging 348 53 13.2

Total Occupied 6545 2832 30.2

Total Unoccupied 1060 5294 83.3

Source: B.R. Mitchell, Abstract of British Historical Statistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962, p. 60.
Retreived from http://eh.net/?s=women+workers+and+the+industrial+revolution

Industrial Revolution Effects on Workers

Document Set 4
Document 4a

Source: Created for the New York State K–12 Social Studies Toolkit by Agate Publishing, Inc., 2015. Based on data from Wade Thatcher, Child Labor During the English
Industrial Revolution. http://wathatcher.iweb.bsu.edu/childlabor/. British Parliamentary Papers (BPP) (1818) Minutes of Evidence on the Health and Morals of Apprentices and
others employed in Cotton Mills and Factories. Sessional Papers, House of Lords, vol. 96, appendix. BPP (1919) Minute of Evidence on the State and Condition of the Children
employed in Cotton Factories, Sessional Papers, House of Lords, vol. 110, appendix.

Document 4b
Child Employment in the United Kingdom in 1851

Mining Textiles and Dyeing

 Males under 15 37,300 Males under 15 93,800

Females under 15 1,400 Females under 15 147,700

Males 15-20 50,100 Males 15-20 92,600

Females over 15 5,400 Females over 15 780,900

Total under 15 as % of workforce 13% Total under 15 as % of workforce 15%

Source: Booth, C. “On the Occupations of the People of the United Kingdom, 1801-81.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (J.S.S.) XLIX (1886): 314-436. Data retreived
from: https://eh.net/encyclopedia/child-labor-during-the-british-industrial-revolution/

Effects of the Industrial Revolution on Cities

Document Set 1
Population of Selected British Cities (1801-1891)
Town 1801 1861 1891

Birmingham 74,000 296,000 523,000

Leeds 53,000 207,000 429,000

Liverpool 80,000 444,000 704,000

Manchester 90,000 339,000 645,000

Source: B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics: Europe, 1750-1988, Stockton Press, Third Edition (adapted) from the NYS Global History and Geography Regents Exam.

Population Density: Great Britain, 1801 Population Density: Great Britain, 1851​
 Source: World Civilizations: Sources, Images, and Interpretations, McGraw-Hill (adapted) from the NYS Global History and Geography Regents Exam, June 2006.

Effects of the Industrial Revolution on Cities

Document 2
Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 – August 5, 1895) was a nineteenth century German political philosopher. He
was the son of a textile manufacturer who became a socialist. After observing the appalling situation of British factory
laborers while managing a factory in Manchester, England, he wrote his first major work, The Condition of the Working
Class in England in 1844 (excerpted below). In 1844, he met Karl Marx in Paris, beginning a lifelong collaboration. He
and Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848) and other works.
Source: “Friedrich Engels.” New World Encyclopedia. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Friedrich_Engels
. . . Every great town has one or more slum areas into which the working classes are packed. Sometimes, of course, poverty is to be found

hidden away in alleys close to the stately homes of the wealthy. Generally, however, the workers are segregated in separate districts where they

struggle through life as best they can out of sight of the more fortunate classes of society. The slums of the English towns have much in

common—the worst houses in a town being found in the worst districts. They are generally unplanned wildernesses of one- or two-storied

terrace houses built of brick. Wherever possible these have cellars which are also used as dwellings. These little houses of three or four rooms

and a kitchen are called cottages, and throughout England, except for some parts of London, are where the working classes normally live. The

streets themselves are usually unpaved and full of holes. They are filthy and strewn with animal and vegetable refuse. Since they have neither

gutters nor drains the refuse accumulates in stagnant, stinking puddles. Ventilation in the slums is inadequate owing to the hopelessly unplanned

nature of these areas. A great many people live huddled together in a very small area, and so it is easy to imagine the nature of the air in these

workers’ quarters. However, in fine weather the streets are used for the drying of washing and clothes lines are stretched across the streets from

house to house and wet garments are hung out on them. . . .

Source: Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, W. O. Henderson and W. H. Chaloner, eds., Stanford University
Press from the NYS Global History and Geography Regents Exam, June 2006.

Effects of the Industrial Revolution on Cities

Document Set 3
In 1869, the journalist Blanchard Jerrold (1826-1884) joined forces with the famous French artist Gustave Doré (1832-1883) to produce an illustrated record of
the ‘shadows and sunlight’ of London. As Jerrold later recalled, they spent many days and nights exploring the capital, often protected by plain-clothes
policemen. They visited night refuges, cheap lodging houses and the opium den described by Charles Dickens in the sinister opening chapter of The Mystery
of Edwin Drood; they travelled up and down the river and attended fashionable events at Lambeth Palace, the boat race and the Derby. The ambitious project,
which took four years to complete, was eventually published as London: a pilgrimage with 180 engravings.
Contemporary critics had severe reservations about the book. Doré disliked sketching in public so there were many errors of detail; it showed only the
extremes of society, and Jerrold’s text was superficial. Both were transfixed by the deprivation, squalor and wretchedness of the lives of the poor, even though
they realised that London was changing and some of the worst social evils were beginning to be addressed. Despite these criticisms, Doré’s work has become
celebrated for its dramatic use of light and shade, and the power of his images to capture the atmosphere of mid-Victorian London.
Source: http://www.bl.uk/victorian-britain/articles/the-built-environment#sthash.GnxzDjCL.dpuf

Document 3a Document 3b
Document 3c Document 3d
 Source: London: A Pilgrimage. With illustrations by Gustave Dore, 1872. http://www.bl.uk/victorian-britain/articles/the-built-environment#sthash.GnxzDjCL.dpuf

Effects of the Industrial Revolution on Cities

Document Set 4
In July and August of 1858, hot weather combined with untreated human waste and industrial pollution to turn the Thames River in London into
a disgusting body of water in an event known as “the Great Stink.” The increase in population in the city overwhelmed its sewage system, and
industries along the waterway dumped the byproducts of their production into the water. Though Londoners at the time believed that the foul
stench coming from the river led to epidemics, it was overcrowding and poor sanitation that led to outbreaks of disease like cholera. The political
cartoons below were drawn during “the Great Stink.”

Document 4a Document 4b

The silent highwayman : Death rows on the Thames, claiming the lives of
victims who have not paid to have the river cleaned up, during the Great
Stink.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_silent_highwayman.jpg
Caricature published in Punch magazine at the time of the "Great Stink.” The
River Thames introduces his children – diphtheria, scrofula and cholera – to
the city of London.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Father_Thames_introducing_his_offspring_to_the_fair_city_of_London.jpg

Effects of the Industrial Revolution on the Middle Class

Home life Work life
Document 1
Samuel Smiles was a Scottish writer whose book, Self-Help, was a bestseller in late 19th century Great Britain. The book stresses the importance
of individual perseverance as a way of succeeding in life. It represents how many middle class British people felt in the 19th century.

Excerpt from Self-Help by Samuel Smiles (1882)

"Heaven helps those who help themselves" is a well-tried maxim, embodying in a small compass the results of vast human experience. The
spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of national
vigour and strength….

All nations have been made what they are by the thinking and the working of many generations of men. Patient and persevering labourers in all
ranks and conditions of life, cultivators of the soil and explorers of the mine, inventors and discoverers, manufacturers, mechanics and artisans,
poets, philosophers, and politicians, all have contributed towards the grand result, one generation building upon another's labours, and carrying
them forward to still higher stages...

The spirit of self-help, as exhibited in the energetic action of individuals, has in all times been a marked feature in the English character, and
furnishes the true measure of our power as a nation. Rising above the heads of the mass, there were always to be found a series of individuals
distinguished beyond others, who commanded the public homage [respect]. But our progress has also been owing to multitudes of smaller and
less known men. Though only the generals' names may be remembered in the history of any great campaign, it has been in a great measure
through the individual valour and heroism of the privates that victories have been won. And life, too, is "a soldier's' battle,"-men in the ranks
having in all times been amongst the greatest of workers. Many are the lives of men unwritten, which have nevertheless as powerfully influenced
civilisation and progress as the more fortunate….

Biographies of great, but especially of good men, are nevertheless most instructive and useful, as helps, guides, and incentives to others. Some
of the best are almost equivalent to gospels-teaching high living, high thinking, and energetic action for their own and the world's good. The
valuable examples which they furnish of the power of self-help, of patient purpose, resolute working, and steadfast integrity, issuing in the
formation of truly noble and manly character, exhibit in language not to be misunderstood, what it is in the power of each to accomplish for
himself; and eloquently illustrate the efficacy of self-respect and self-reliance in enabling men of even the humblest rank to work out for
themselves an honourable competency and a solid reputation.
Source: Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), Self-Help (London: John Murray, 1882), pp. v, 1-3,,5-7. 294. http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1882smiles.asp
Effects of the Industrial Revolution on the Middle Class
Document 2
The title page of this instructional manual - The Young Clerk’s
Manual, or Counting House Assistant, published in 1848 - features
a woodcut illustration of office clerks at their desk, flanked by cash and
capital ledgers as though in a heraldic painting.

19th-century Britain saw the growth of what we would now call ‘white
collar’ workers: people paid to oversee, administer and annotate
financial or legal transactions ordered by heads of business. With
Britain’s simultaneous manufacturing and trading boom, the number of
clerks in commercial industries grew enormously. The 1841 census
records only 20,000 commercial clerks in Britain, but by 1871 the
number of ‘clerks, accountants and bankers’ had grown to 119,000.

As the word ‘clerk’ suggests (it is Old English for ‘lettered person’, via
‘cleric’), the job mostly involved transcription. A letter from a manager
would have to be copied and recopied by hand until there were enough
to send to all involved parties; likewise every invoice and account
ledger. A junior banking clerk at the time of this illustration would likely
have earned around £100 a year. A skilled engineer might have earned
double that, but because engineering was manual work and clerkship
was not, the clerk was the one considered ‘middle-class.’
Source: The Young Clerk's Manual; or, Counting-house assistant. Embracing
instructions relating to mercantile correspondence, book-keeping ... etc. ...
and a dictionary of commercial terms. New edition. London, 1848.
http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-young-clerks-manual#sthash.nEhKT6z1.dpuf
Effects of the Industrial Revolution on the Middle Class
Document Set 3
Due to their newfound wealth, time saving machines and conveniences, and white collar jobs with predictable hours and days off, the middle class
in the 19th century enjoyed a luxury that in the past was only available to the rich: money and leisure time (free time). New attractions and activities
catering to the middle class drew crowds.

Document 3a Document 3b

Drawing of Astley’s Amphitheatre in London (1808-1811). Astley’s Amphitheatre is credited

as being the first modern circus.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Astley%27s_Amphitheatre_Microcosm_edited.jpg Drawing of a Lawn Tennis court (1874). Tennis,
and other sports like cricket became very popular
in the 19th century with the middle class.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lawn_Tennis_Court_1874.jpg
Document 3c

A colored photograph of the Blackpool Promenade (ca. 1890). Blackpool was a popular seaside resort that the middle class used to escape
congested and polluted industrial cities if they could afford the train ride.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_promenade,_Blackpool,_Lancashire,_England,_ca._1898.jpg
Effects of the Industrial Revolution on the Middle Class
Document Set 4
In 1856 Samuel Beeton persuaded his wife, Isabella, to be a joint editor with him in a new publishing venture, a monthly paper called The
Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine. This was the first cheap magazine for young middle-class women, and it was an immediate commercial
success, with an advertised circulation of 50,000 copies by 1856.
Isabella wrote domestic management [house keeping] material, embroidery patterns, cooking, dressmaking and all the translations of French
novels that were serialised in the periodical from 1855 until her early death in 1865. The contents also included a range of serial fiction,
biographical sketches, gardening and medical tips (including some useful advice on birth control), and a correspondence page. There was
always a strong emphasis on practical instruction and useful knowledge.
Source: http://www.bl.uk/victorian-britain/articles/the-victorian-middle-classes#sthash.7ATm8Gu2.dpuf

Document 4a
Document 4b Document 4c