The Impact of the Industrial Revolution on British Working-Class Citizens

Every great town has one or more slum areas into which the working classes are packed… Generally, however, the workers are segregated in separate districts where they struggle through life as best they can out of sight of the more fortunate classes of society. The slums of the English towns have much in common— the worst houses in a town being found in the worst districts. They are generally unplanned wildernesses of one- or two-storied terrace houses built of brick. Wherever possible these have cellars which are also used as dwellings. These little houses of three or four rooms and a kitchen are called cottages, and throughout England, except for some parts of London, are where the working classes normally live. The streets themselves are usually unpaved and full of holes. They are filthy and strewn with animal and vegetable refuse. Since they have neither gutters nor drains the refuse accumulates in stagnant, stinking puddles. Ventilation in the slums is inadequate owing to the hopelessly unplanned nature of these areas. A great many people live huddled together in a very small area, and so it is easy to imagine the nature of the air in these workers’ quarters. However, in fine weather the streets are used for the drying of washing and clothes lines are stretched across the streets from house to house and wet garments are hung out on them…

First, as to the extent and operation of the evils which are the subject of the inquiry: …That the formation of all habits of cleanliness is obstructed by defective supplies of water. That the annual loss of life from filth and bad ventilation are greater than the loss from death or wounds in any wars in which the country has been engaged in modern times. That of the 43,000 cases of widowhood, and 112,000 cases of destitute orphanage relieved from the poor’s rates in England and Wales alone, it appears that the greatest proportion of deaths of the heads of families occurred from the above specified and other removable causes; that their ages were under 45 years; that is to say, 13 years below the natural probabilities of life as shown by the experience of the whole population of Sweden. . . .

Consolidation of the working class by means of a tight, solid, and indissoluble Union. Representation of the working class before the nation through a defender chosen and paid by the Workers’ Union, so that the working class’s need to exist and the other classes’ need to accept it become evident. Recognition of one’s hands as legitimate property. Recognition of the legitimacy of the right to work for all men and women. Recognition of the legitimacy of the right to moral, intellectual, and vocational education for all boys and girls. Examination of the possibility of labor organizing in the current social state. Construction of Workers’ Union palaces [buildings] in every department, in which working-class children would receive intellectual and vocational instruction, and to which the infirm and elderly as well as workers injured on the job would be admitted. Recognition of the urgent necessity of giving moral, intellectual, and vocational education to the women of the masses so that they can become the moral agents for the men of the masses. Recognition in principle of equal rights for men and women as the sole means of unifying humankind.

Sadler: What is your age? Cooper: I am eight and twenty. Sadler: When did you first begin to work in mills? Cooper: When I was ten years of age. Sadler: What were your usual hours of working? Cooper: We began at five in the morning and stopped at nine in the night. Sadler: What time did you have for meals? Cooper: We had just one period of forty minutes in the sixteen hours. That was at noon. Sadler: What means were taken to keep you awake and attentive? Cooper: At times we were frequently strapped. Sadler: When your hours were so long, did you have any time to attend a day school? Cooper: We had no time to go to day school. Sadler: Can you read and write? Cooper: I can read, but I cannot write.

I have visited many factories, both in Manchester and the surrounding districts, and I never saw a single case of corporal chastisement inflicted on a child. They seemed to be always cheerful and alert, taking pleasure in the light play of their muscles… As to exhaustion, they showed no trace of it on emerging from the mill in the evenings; for they began to skip about… It is moreover my firm conviction that children would thrive better when employed in our modern factories, than if left at home in apartments too often ill-aired, damp, and cold.

You are surrounded, as we have constantly shown you throughout this book, with an infinite number of comforts and conveniences which had no existence two or three centuries ago and those comforts are not only used by a few, but are within the reach of almost all men. Every day is adding something to your comforts. Your houses are better built, your clothes are cheaper, you have an infinite number of domestic utensils. You can travel cheaply from place to place, and not only travel at less expense, but travel ten times quicker than two hundred years ago.

7. Gustave Dore, Dudley Street, Seven Dials, from London: A Pilgrimage, 1872