The Conditions Of Working Class Children During The Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution caused the conditions of the working class to worsen, especially for the working class children who had to quickly get jobs. Before the Industrial Revolution, children worked closely with their families on farms. This simple lifestyle soon became unlivable when there wasn’t need for farm hands, the cost of necessities became more than the average person could afford, and the only call for jobs was in factories or mines, miles away. “The workers are segregated in separate districts where they struggle through life as best as they can out of sight of the more fortunate classes of society” (Engels 135) writes Friedrich Engels, a German who recently moved to Manchester, getting an outside look on

The employers outlooks would affect the work environment, with railroad manager Samuel Smiles believing that any man could make something of themself. “Whatever is done for men and classes, to a certain extent takes away the stimulus and necessity of doing it themselves” (Smiles 139). With employers’ outlooks such as these, it would make the working conditions hard. People at the time were born into their classes, rarely ever did someone move out unless they were a priest, but being a priest didn’t ensure that a person had money. Smiles’ view on working was probably a common one, it just wasn’t feasible for the time. With families being on the brink of poverty, both women and children had to help. Labor as a whole became unbearable. The job no longer required specific skills so all job security was lost, meaning that most men actually had to rely on their wives and children to make the money since they paid and fired less. This was a time when parents were having more children to earn money to feed the ones that were already alive. Child labor became a pattern, as they would grow up poor, they would have children only to be able to feed themselves. Well Smiles was successful, it was mostly from a connection that was not available to everyone, meaning that his standpoint of

The management, employers like Smiles, that the children were working under was dictating them to work “from 6 in the morning to 8 at night” (Sadler 130), commissioner Micheal Sadler found when interviewing previous mill children. Although Sadler is questioned on whether he can be considered a trusted source, as he could be pulling the extreme cases to get more votes for the upcoming governmental election, it’s safe to say that his intentions were most likely in the right spot with trying to expose the dangers of child labors. With the Industrial Revolution, children had to work fourteen hours a day, with little rest inbetween. For a child, much less an adult, working these long hours became a strain as these hours left little time for sleep. These hours also don’t include the walk to and from their place of employment, as well as eating. Working these long hours also affect the physical well being of the children. From their lack of sleep and food, it left them feeling “fatigued… and often so sick often that [they] could not eat, and what [they] did eat [they] vomited” (Sadler 131), as well as “disregards the distinguishing appetites and habits of his species. He neglects comforts and delicacies of life” (Kay 133), writes Sadler and physician James Philip Kap. Kay’s assumption on how the body reacts to the amount of extreme labor, day in