The Pros And Cons Of Mill During The Industrial Revolution

As the industrial revolution gradually took over England, machinery replaced some jobs which were carried out at one’s home. One of the greatest replacements was the production of wool and cotton, previously made in small businesses, was now created in mills. These mills mass-produced cotton and wool and many people benefited from this change, yet the mills had an incredibly bad reputation. As displayed in William Blake’s poem, the mills were described as ‘Satanic’, meaning extremely bad. He based his accusation of how unsanitary the mills were, how dangerous they were and how smelly and humid they were. These conditions gave mills a bad name, until two men, Robert Owen and Richard Arkwright helped the situation by improving the mills. They had benefits and disadvantages, so were the mills satanic?

They slaved for hours and hours over large machines, working for long hours each week. Workers suffered constantly, weaving and sewing until closing time. Many people perceive that mills were run by greedy owners and in most cases, they weren’t wrong. Mill owners gave workers little pay and little time to eat. Workers were only paid enough to support their homes and they could barely support their family. The air in the mills, filled with cotton dust made people cough and sometimes lead to pneumonia. One benefit was that workers were given their own houses, yet all their family was crammed into one small room and the house was usually dirty and its water supply polluted. To make things worse, the mill owners taxed the worker’s family on how much water they used. To the workers, the mills were satanic and to furnish this idea, the industrial revolution, along with the mills, sparked revolts across the country. The workers considered mills as satanic as there were not many benefits to be pleased