The Downside of the Industrial Revolution

            When people think of the Industrial Revolution, they often think of many of the inventions involved in it. Cars, computers, mass-produced clothing, processed foods, and even things like paper were made possible by this revolution, but such inventions didn’t come without a price. Terrible conditions, hours, food, illness, and accidents were all characteristic of factory work at the time, and in some cases still are today. While these conditions existed in both England and America, England most certainly had it worse. While the English seemed to turn a blind eye, the Americans at least made an attempt to address such issues.

            Many of the inventions in the early Industrial Revolution made transportation and access to goods significantly easier. This access caused a huge population growth. However, England only had limited space, and most of it was already used up. This overpopulation caused people to lose jobs and sometimes houses, and so when factories opened up people were desperate for work, and could be hired at little pay. Orphans, with their population growing as well, were sometimes hired for no pay. Their food was atrocious and innutritious, children could often be beaten, sometimes within an inch of their lives; near non-stop work could cause multiple deformities, such as losing the arches of their feet, and there were several accidents where people could break their neck, be crushed, scalped, or sometimes even deformed so much that they could hardly be identified. Even with the knowledge of all this the English government did nothing to try to stop it, seeing as it was them getting all the money.

            While significantly better than England, America was certainly not exempt from their share of problems. The Lowell experiment, an attempt to create an industrialized town without all the issues found in England, did succeed somewhat in creating better conditions, but the conditions there weren’t the most desirable either. The same population boom that existed in England also happened in America, except that America had the space to support the population. Thus the factories had to make work desirable. They pandered to younger girls, and while they did inflate what work in the factories was actually like it was still better than England. The girls got breaks for lunch, and had time on Sundays and in evenings, and did get paid decent though not amazing wages. When the wages started dropping the factory girls actually went on strike in order to raise them back up. The first time they struck the factory owners were able to hire new girls, but the second time not enough were left, and the factory workers were forced to raise wages. And unlike England, America did have regulations on child labor and working conditions, though they weren’t enforced that strongly. While both England and America had bad working conditions, it was clear that America had a much safer and more humane work setting.