The Industrialism in Manchester

·         Homes built right next to rivers which when they overflow they cause flooding in the homes especially where there are small sewers.

4.       If I was a historian researching the social effects of industrialism the most important comment made by the housewife would be “they subscribe a penny a day to a funeral society for the children”. The importance of this comment is that with such bad housing, horrible working conditions, inadequate food and lack of medicine there was rare hope for hard working children during this time. Although there was a lot of growth and progress in industry, there was also a lot of poverty amongst working families.

5.        |CHILD LABOUR DURING THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION|

During the industrial revolution children were a source of cheap labour to both factories and mines. From early on in their lives children were used in industry. Because of the availability and large numbers of child workers employers could pay them very low wages for the work they did.

Children as young as nine were employed in factories. Their small size meant they could get into narrow spaces and clean machines. Some children would work so hard one day that the fatigue would suspend them from work for up to several weeks. The children’s fingers were more sensitive that adults thus making them very useful in the cloth industry. Children would use their small and sensitive fingers to join broken pieces of thread together. The children working in these factories would work for long hours under harsh conditions. Some employers would beat children just to keep them awake!

The children working in mines had a great risk to their health and well being. There were large numbers of children looking for work in the mines so wages were very low. In some areas of England children were introduced to the mining industry form as young as four years old. Apart from the occasion of passing and re-passing of coal, children working in these mines would work without companionship. The pushing and dragging of carriages full of coal or rocks started with children that were as young as six years old.

In the busy time children would start work at three in the morning and would finish at ten, or later, at night. In the regular time children had to start work at six in the morning and would finish at half past eight at night. They could not be late for work, a quarter of their pay would get taken off if they were just five minutes late. When children started working slowly due to tiredness they would be strapped by the employer to make them speed up. If children worked overtime to get more money they would not get paid much at all for the extra hours they worked.

The effect that industrialism had on children varied. Some children worked so hard that they died at an early age, others went on to become rich, and it all depended on the child’s luck and their ability.  Some parents would supply a penny a week to a funeral society, this shows that children were expected, even by their parents, to die at a young age.