Effects of The Industrial Revolution Essay

The Industrial Revolution was a major event in our world’s history and has had a big impact on society. The industrial revolution has been cruel to humanity. People suffered greatly just so life would be easier. Before the industrial revolution everything was hand made. People were never in wonder of where their clothing and food came from or who died making it.

The industrial revolution came with many tragic effects including child labor and poor living conditions. A negative effect of the industrial revolution includes the factories. People worked long hard hours cramped in a small space. There wasn’t much light, which made it harder to see what they were doing. Due to the lack of light many often people fell into the machines. Especially the smaller ones. If a person fell into a machine they were often injured terribly or even died. When a factory worker was injured they would lose their job and source of income. Without pay there was no way to support a family. During the Industrial Revolution wages were low. Child labor was common in the industrial revolution.

Families needed money to make a steady income, therefore they sent their children to work so that they wouldn’t starve. Factory owners employed children because they saved money because children worked at a lower income. Often young children would work on large dangerous machines. If a child was wearing loose Kolb 2 clothing they faced the risk of getting sucked into the machine.

A good example of this is when Robert Blincoe, a former child laborer, witnessed a young girls’ apron getting sucked into the machine followed by the girl. The reason this occurred was because children were often starving and their clothes would not fit them right and would be loose. Loose clothing made it easy to get stick on a machine.

In the Industrial Revolution there were no laws regulating the age children had to be to work. Children as young as age four worked. The smaller the child was, the easier it was for them to fit into small spaces. Their small bodies could especially fit through small spaces in the coal mines better than adults. Adults were too large and did other work.

Nowadays there are laws regarding the certain age one has to be to work. Still, at age 15 all a child can really do is be a bagger at Price Chopper. Child labor was a horrible addition to the Industrial Revolution. Many children suffer from working long excruciating hours in stuffy hot factories. Little children never got the joys of living the life like a little one in the twenty first century. Another horrifying effect of the industrial revolution includes living circumstances. Due to the abundance of people crowding the cities looking for jobs, living quarters became snug.

The living quarters were polluted and infested with sickness. Large families would often live in small spaces. Since people were living so close to each other sickness was rapidly spread. Since the industrial revolution was so long ago, the medicines we have today were not known than. Death was highly common. Since the population was rapidly growing neighborhoods became filthy and gross. Pollution was also a huge problem in the city. Since most people didn’t have indoor plumbing all the waste was spread out into the streets. The air was often smoggy because the Kolb 3 factories used coal which would send out smoke into the city. Life in the city during the Industrial Revolution was difficult for the working class. The Industrial Revolution ultimately harmed humanity as soon as it began because of child labor and poor living conditions.

So many lives could have been saved if it hadn’t been for the industrial revolution. While not all of the outcome of the Industrial Revolution were terrible, it definitely could have had different methods to getting started.

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