Industrial Revolution Dbq Essay

The Industrial Revolution was a period of great adaptation in manufacturing technology that lasted from about the year 1760 to 1900. It brought about much change, both for the better and the worse. The Industrial Revolution was more negative than positive for Europeans in the 19th century. For much of the Industrial Revolution, working conditions were unhealthy and dangerous for the low-skilled workers and living conditions in the city were unhealthy and unsafe. However, over the course of one-hundred years, the quality of life improved.

Working conditions during the Industrial Revolution were unhealthy and dangerous for the low-skilled workers. This is seen most prominently in Joseph Hebergam’s 1832 testimony before Parliament, where in response

The working conditions were clearly hazardous enough to cause injury, nevermind death. For two dozen children to die during such a short span of time shows the unjustly risky conditions low-skilled workers were exposed to. The factory owners did not care for their workers, leading to inhumane and unjust injuries and casualties. If factory owners had treated their workers more decently, then there almost certainly would have been less death and disfigurement. Another factory worker, William Cooper, also testified before Parliament about the poor working conditions. In 1832, he stated that, “We had just one [break] period of forty-five minutes in the sixteen hour [work day]” (Document 1). Sixteen hours is two-thirds of an entire day, and much of the remaining third would be spent sleeping. To spend this much time working - and in dangerous conditions, too - would undoubtedly cause strain and damage to the worker. These workers had one short break to rest. They must have been exhausted

Professor Michael Faraday tells of the dangers of city life in his letter Observations on the Filth of the Thames to the editor of the Times of London in July, 1855. He observed that, “The whole river was for the time a real sewer” (Document 13). The Thames River runs through London, and several houses and buildings lie on its banks. The residents of these buildings had to constantly be near the brown, fetid waters, and breathe in the stench all the while. Unclean conditions can easily spread disease, as seen also in Medieval Europe, and the sewer-like Thames could easily spread disease considering the mass amount of feculence dumped into it. The widespread disease had the potential to drastically reduce the lifespan of those who lived in the city. The filth spread not only to the river, but to the entire city as well. The British Medical Journal The Lancet reported in 1843, that the average lifespan of those in industrial areas was twelve years less than those in rural areas (Document 9). This statistic includes nothing of the jobs of the people, but focuses instead on their living conditions. If two people have the same job but live in separate places and one still dies sooner, there is plainly something wrong with the location. Because people are dying much sooner in cities than in rural areas, the cities are distinctly more dangerous and unhealthy to live in than less urban areas.