2. LEQ: What were the social effects of
the Industrial Revolution?
3. Background:
The Industrial Revolution brought great riches
for entrepreneurs. Millions of workers, however,
lived in povery. As standards of living increased,
all of society benefited from industrialization.
Until then, working people suffered in dangerous
and unsanitary conditions, overcrowded
housing, and unrelenting poverty.
4. • urbanization – the movement of people to cities
The Industrial Revolution brought rapid
urbanization.
• Changes in farming, rising population, and the
need for workers led people to migrate to cities.
• Overnight, towns and cities near coal or iron
mines mushroomed.
• Manchester grew from 17,000 people in the
1750s to 70,000 in 1801.
5. The rapid growth
of population and
industry changed
the distribution of
two key resources.
People and labor
6. What led to the massive migration of
people from farms to cities?
Changes in farming displaced farmers, caused
population growth, and increased demand for
workers.
7. The Industrial The middle class lived in clean
Revolution neighborhoods with running
created a new water and paved streets.
middle class, Women stayed home to raise
or bourgeoisie. their children.
They included merchants, inventors, investors, and
“rags-to-riches” individuals who were admired for their
hard work and “get-ahead” attitude.
8. • tenement – crowded, multistory building divided
into apartments
The cities where the working class lived were
crowded, dark, dirty, and smoky.
• The poor lived in tiny, crowded rooms in multistory
tenements packed into vile-smelling slums.
• Lack of sanitation left waste and rotting garbage in
the streets, creating a terrible stench.
• Raw sewage was dumped in rivers, contaminating
drinking water and spreading disease.
9. • labor union – workers’ organization
Organizations such as labor unions were illegal.
Frustration at times turned
Frustrated workers
to violence:
tried to organize
secretly, but they • Between 1811 and 1813,
lacked a political textile workers rioted.
voice and were
powerless to affect • Groups called Luddites
change. smashed labor-saving
machines that were
replacing workers.
10. Many workers were comforted by religions such as
Methodism, founded by John Wesley in the 1700s.
Wesley Meetings Methodism
encouraged featured rekindled
self-improve- hymns and workers’
ment through sermons hopes and
adopting sober stressing channeled
and moral forgiveness anger into
ways. and salvation. reform.
11. How did members of the working class
react to their new experiences in
industrial cities?
Changes in farming displaced farmers, caused
population growth, and increased demand for
workers.
12. The heart of the industrial city was the factory.
The technology of
the machine age and
the rapid pace of
industrialization
imposed a harsh new
way of life on factory
workers.
13. Factory workers lived and worked in
unpleasant conditions.
• In factories the work
In rural villages pace was rigidly set.
people worked Shifts lasted 12 to 16
hard, but work hours.
varied by the
season. They • Tired workers were
controlled their easily hurt by machines
own work pace. with no safety devices.
Textile factory air was
polluted with lint.
14. Most early factory workers were women.
• Women could • This created a
be paid half what double burden on
men earned. women.
• They were • After 12 hours of
considered easier work, they returned
to manage. home to care for
• It was believed their families in
they could adapt damp, crowded
better than men. tenements.
15. Working conditions in the mines were even
worse than in factories.
• Crippling coal dust
Miners earned filled workers’ lungs.
more than
factory workers, • There were dangers
but conditions of cave-ins, floods,
were more and explosions.
dangerous.
• They worked long
hours in darkness.
16. Child labor was an accepted practice.
• Most children began work at age seven or eight.
• Nimble-fingered, small, and quick, they crept into
machines to change spools or repair thread.
• They worked in dust- and lint-filled rooms.
• Children in mines worked in the dark and
dampness for long hours, often doing hard labor.
17. Child labor • Children’s workdays
reform laws were reduced to
called “factory 12 hours.
laws” were • Children under eight
passed in the were removed from
early 1800s. the cotton mills.
New laws in the 1830s and 1840s further reduced
hours for women and children, sent inspectors into
factories, and required that children be educated.
18. How did the Industrial Revolution
affect the lives of men, women, and
children?
Men, women, and children worked long hours in
unsafe conditions for low pay. Women also had
to feed and clothe their families, a double
burden.
19. Since the 1800s people have debated whether
industrialization was a blessing or a curse.
The industrial Workers later
age brought gained the vote
great hardship. and political
Pay was low, power. Wages
conditions were rose in time.
terrible, and The cost of new
housing was products and of
dismal. travel dropped.
20. LEQ: What were the social effects of
the Industrial Revolution?
It brought rapid urbanization and created a new
industrial middle class and industrial working
class. It brought material benefits and new
opportunities, but also brought great hardships
to factory work- ers and miners, especially
women and children.
