Negative Effects Of The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution not only transformed the everyday life of people in a positive way but had an overall negative affect to the people who lived and worked in Britain. Young children were made to work long, tiring hours in very unsafe work environments for little to no benefits. This was also a time period for new inventions, overcrowded cities, diseases, and social change. During the time period of 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840, the era known as the Industrial Revolution occured. This was a time period in which underlying changes began to happen in agriculture, textile, metal manufacturing, economic policies, social structure, and transportation (Dickens 1). The start of the Industrial Revolution began in the early 18th century when people in Britain began to lack lumber in which they were using to build buildings and put into their ships for heating (Allen 1). “In their search for something else to burn, they turned to the hunks of black stone (coal) that they found near the surface of the earth” (Allen 2).

“ In the space of a single century, the Industrial Revolution ushered in new machines and technology, rich new sources of energy, and lucrative new forms of business and commerce” (Hillstrom 10). In 1776, James Watt designed an engine in which burning coal began to produce steam

The West Midlands became known as the ‘Black Country’ because of its landscape of dark foundries, and a smoky atmosphere (Pettinger 1). Overall, working-class neighborhoods were bleak, crowded, dirty, and polluted (Factory Act 1). “From 1880 to 1990, over 35,000 industrial workers were killed annually, and another 536,000 suffered injury” (Hillstrom 58). Injured workers would typically lose their jobs and receive no financial compensation to pay for their much needed health care (Factory Act