Richard Arkwright and the Industrial Revolution

Richard Arkwright was a businessman in the 18th century. Depending on how you read sources from that period he can be portrayed as a good or bad person. There are sources, which back up him being good and bad.

Richard Arkwright can be seen as a good person, this is because he produced lots of work, which was needed at that time. Many of the richer children were treated well, Joseph Farrington said, “I was glad to see them looking, in general, very healthy” he also says that they get a 40 minute break this suggests that he treated his richer children well. Also unlike other companies he created houses and shops for them at no extra charge, although basic these were good homes. Source 5 says that he rewarded workers, with things such as clothes, which encouraged them to work. He was also very kind in the fact that he hosted dances and included holidays, source 5 written by Sylas Neville shows this, “He hosted 2 large dances every year… and weeks holiday at each dance for workmen and wives”. Source 6 shows that he was a success of the Industrial revolution, as he used it to make Britain richer, “Arkwright… did the difficult part of making it useful”. Source 13 show that children aged around 11 received education, “on Sundays they attended a school”. Although working for at least 12 hours, conditions were around the same of that of other jobs at the time.

However Richard Arkwright can also be seen as a bad man, this is because while he was earning thousands his workers were only paid a few pence for there work, source 2 written by a unionist, “could buy up land worth £20,000… his woman must work long hard hours… for only 4 or 5 pence a day.” He was also very harsh to anyone who broke any rules, for instance in source 17 it says< “Any spinner heard whistling find 1s”. He can also be seen as a bad person as he took advantage of unemployment to pay low wages, he also employed children which cut the wages substantially, this is backed up by source 14, “there were 111… all aged 7 to 11”. Lots of his work left people especially children deformed, a report by a parliamentary committee backs this up, “All the children I have seen are made cripples by this work”. He was also a bad person as he stole many of other peoples ideas for this to work, source 3 says, “ Mr Arkwright claims he invented the water frame… what a cheek”. He also allowed the beating and punishment of children, in fact for being late you were beaten with the strap, but some were even more unfortunate. Source 11 shows this, “I have seen the time when 2 handles of a pound weight have been screwed to my ears.”