Manchester England, From 1750-1850

As cities rapidly grow and develop, new problems arise that did not previously exist. This is certainly the case with Manchester, England. This is evident when comparing the map of Manchester in 1750 to its map in 1850. The size of the city easily quadrupled in size over a relatively short period of time, and the population increased nearly twentyfold. These modernizations and immense sizes bring with them new complications.  The environment and living conditions in Manchester were wretched according to many writers of the time, in fact as Robert Southey said, “A place more destitute than Manchester is not easy to conceive.” Not only was Manchester a terrible working environment, the area also had a negative impact on the health of the workers and general citizens. The citizens had considerably lower life spans than their counterparts in rural districts, and even those in other industrial districts, as was published in the British Medical Journal in 1843. Manchester did have some positive aspects. It has been called the Workshop of the World by businessmen of the time, but do these industrial benefits justify the loss of life, or as Flora Tristan said “Can progress be bought only at the cost of men’s lives?”

Manchester is both an accomplishment of man and a grim creation. As Alexis de Tocqueville said, “Here humanity attains its most complete development and it’s most brutish.” Industry turned Manchester into a city from which “pure gold flows” but at what cost of human life and decency? In the time period that Manchester industrialized, industrial technology was at an interesting era of development. Ecology and living conditions were not advancing and benefiting the public as fast as industrial technologies were advancing and taking advantage of lower class workers. The workers would work for up to fourteen hours a day and “They are all wizened, sickly and emaciated, their bodies thin and frail, their limbs feeble, their complexions pale and their eyes dead.” This is a harsh contrast to the healthy, muscular farmer living in the rural areas. Conditions in factories debilitated human beings, and it again raised the enlightenment question of what good is technological advancement when people are miserable? Public health reformer Edwin Chadwick said that not only are more deaths caused from filth than from wounds and modern wars, it turns the adult population “short-lived, reckless, and intemperate.” The city is a powerhouse of industry. As is seen in an 1870’s image, smokestacks dot the horizon and a drain spews sewage into the nearby River Irwell. Care for the environment is clearly not exhibited in any aspects.