Industrialization DBQ

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The Industrial Age, appearing ingenious and uncannily beneficial in the long run, bore times of terror across a span of a couple hundred years. Though many don’t realize, industrialization still flourishes among society in present day, only more humanely. Throughout the 1700s and 1800s an industrial life came about excruciatingly slow moving, sustaining a prolonged amount of laborious struggle among urbanized families. In modern day we view the effects positively, but to live in the hardships ensued during this time was nothing something one would wish upon themselves to experience. Industrialization proves significantly more negative to the community for women and children were prominently disregarded, housing and cities lacked sanitary precautions, …show more content…

As a matter of fact, a young girl from the textile mills states, “I am at work in a spinning room tending four sides of warp which is one girl’s work” (Document 1). It was more desirable to hire women and children for they were less to pay for the equal amount of work a grown man could accomplish. These children had no say in this injustice for some groups were often locked in the room as to eliminate the chance of them escaping. Additionally, another particular girl who testified for the labor she experienced in the flax mills confided, “C: What were your hours of labour in that mill? B: From 5 in the morning till 9 at night, when they were thronged” (Document 7). Not only were children forced to work if they hoped to support their feebly existent families, but to exert themselves for as long as the sun hung in the sky. Under such demanding circumstances, many were deprived of any education as well as a normal childhood. Similarly, as depicted in this poem, “[Before] dawn my labor drives me forth ‘Tis night when I am free; A stranger I am to my child; And he one to me” (Document 2). Mothers are rarely exposed to leisure time spent with their family which forms a barrier between relationships. Not only are women expected to work long hours, but to tend to the cleaning and order of the cramped tenements the poor called home. The housing was indeed crowded as …show more content…

According to this child labor testimony, “C: It is very common to have weak ankles and crooked knees? B: Yes, very common indeed. C: This is brought on by stopping the spindle? B: Yes” (Document 7). Throughout the Industrial Revolution, child labor was without question to the employers of blossoming corporations and having health issues so young was frequent. This exemplifies how scarce the safety precautions were and how vulnerable children were in the work area. In addition, “C: And what time did it come on? B: I was about 13 years old when it began coming, and it has got worse since; it is five years since my mother died, and my mother was never able to get me a good pair of stays to hold me up, and when my mother died I had to do for myself, and got me a pair” (Document 7). In such disastrous scenarios such as this one, children sometimes had to fend for themselves if their guardian was injured or deceased. This goes hand in hand with the actuality that if one was wounded so much that they were unable to carry on, their jobs were at risk. Correspondingly, “C: Where are you now? B: In the poorhouse” (Document 7). No doubt, this girl found herself at many deep losses in her well-being, family, and occupation. Company investors and job employers were insensitive and merciless when it came to the potential loss of employees induced by the company’s equipment.

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