Overall the working conditions in
both England and America were pretty terrible. Both places did not really value
the children as a normal worker. They treated them more like free labor workers
who would work extremely long hours with extremely low wages. Even though the
conditions were bad in America, they seemed much worse in England. But just
because America wasn’t as bad as Britain doesn’t mean it still wasn’t bad.
In both America and Britain the
workers were predominantly younger women. Girls, who were sent to the big city
to earn money for their family, have fun and return home safely. The mills were
not all they were cracked up to be. In the beginning of the “Lowell Experiment”
things were great. The United States gave the children education and boarding
houses. As well as clean conditions, longer breaks than Britain had; yet no
dinner breaks. In both cases the workers ate while they worked. Which sounds
very productive but it wasn’t. The workers could get distracted and hurt
themselves, others or cause the machine to malfunction. In Britain and America
there was long, long hours which could lead to workers dosing off and hurting
themselves or messing up the work. All these factors led to a multitude of
accidents.
There were many cases of injury and
deformities caused by factory work in both places but an extreme amount in
Britain. The infant mortality rate at that time was getting bigger. In the
factories the hours got longer, wages shorter and more people, thus causing
more accidents. How do you expect a tired, hungry, unmotivated worker to supply
for your company? The food was not nutritious or appetizing and there was a
minimal supply for it so workers fought over it. Another terrible thing that
happened was when a young child worker messed up they were beaten. Or if they
fell asleep on the job they were beaten. And if they tried to tell a boss about
this, their overseers beat them even more because the overseer would get in
trouble if the boss found out. As for the deformities that were caused there
was many of them. Most were repetitive motion injuries from doing the same
thing over and over again. Some others were loss of limbs form being torn off
by a machine. Also kids were pulled in by their hair and cloths and would be
crushed brutally by the machines. If the children got more breaks and rest
these could be prevented. Not only the physical injuries but the mental too.
Seeing a fellow worker sucked into a machine and ground to bits left many
children distraught for the rest of their lives.
But why were things so much worse
in England than in the U.S? Well for starters England had a huge orphaned
population. To keep those children alive instead of giving them money they
would make them work and give them food and housing. So instead of money for working
they get to live. Also The U.S. had a better system. They set up a paternal
system for their workers so the families at home knew their daughters were
being taken care of. The father figure was the company and the overseer. They
set the rules. Church on Sunday, a curfew, the hours of working and a code of
behavior. In the U.S. the workers were proper and well behaved young women.
There was also a mother figure who was the boarding house keeper. She controls
the behavior outside of the mills and helps keep a home environment. So not
only are these girls getting a good days work in but also being taught at home
how to be a respectable lady. Britain had none of this parental system and
their factories were a mess. The workers were not as well behaved as the United
States workers.
It is evident that the conditions
were worse in Britain than in America. Both were places where children were put
to work and had such little pay. At least America had some education forced
upon the children as well as some church goings. America and Britain had boarding
houses, which were owned by the companies they worked for. So the companies
basically weren’t paying the workers. The workers would make money, a predominant
amount went to boarding, and the money went straight back to the company. The
United States Industrial Revolution specifically tried to avoid the mistakes
that Britain had committed. In
doing so America made the Industrial Revolution better for their workers than
the workers in Britain.
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| Depicting the Industrial Revolution in America |
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| Depicting the Industrial Revolution in Britain |
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