Comparing The Industrial Revolution And Michael Sadler's Report

The Industrial revolution was a time of great change for the world. It was a time where we started replacing homemade products for machine made products. We exchanged quality for quantity and the first time we saw mass production. Along with these changes, also came a change in working conditions and workers. The Industrial Revolution brought on a time where working conditions were miserable, hours were unthinkable, and the ages of children were unreal. In these two reports, both writers are trying to bring attention to their nations of how horrible these situations are; they will fight for the protection of children during this time period, for better hours for those who are of age to work, and to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

Michael Sadler wanted to really bring in the spotlight the horrible things that were going on in Britain. He interviewed over 80 children working in these mills and their stories are devastating. Most stories are the nearly the same, a very far journey to get to their mills/factories where they work, many of the children started working at 6 years old, barely any lunch breaks, and the list goes on and on. Sadler interviewed one woman named, Elizabeth Bentley, she had been working at a factory since the age of six; Sadler wrote, “Could you eat your food well in that factory? –No, indeed I had not much to eat, and the little I had I could not eat it, my appetite was so poor, and being covered with dust; and it was no use to take home, I could not eat it, and the overlooker took it, and gave it to the pigs” (Sadler 6). This is just one of the many instances in which children were given no real chance to eat or get the nutrients they needed. Many would not have lunches at all and only have a small something for breakfast when they awoke at 4 am and would not get to eat again until they were home for dinner near 6 pm. Because Sadler interviewed so many children, this report seems to be a solid piece of historical significance. Most stories the children say sound about the same, making this even more accurate. Sadler was fighting for better hours for workers and if children still had to work, at least better conditions. This report could be seen as faulty to a historical source; because although he did interview tons of children, there were also hundreds more who worked in these factories. He could have just written down the most horrific, saddening, eye-catching stories to get peoples attention. All he wanted was for the hours and conditions to be changed, so all he had to do was get convincing