Factory and Social Reform Flashcards
When did the Industrial Revolution start around?
1750
What were the main products being made in factories in Britain during the Industrial Revolution?
Textiles such as woollen and cotton cloth.
Why were factories built during the Industrial Revolution?
The new machines that made production more efficient, cheaper and quicker were too big for people’s homes.
Children as young as what worked in some factories?
6
What was common in factories?
Accidents, in which young people might lose limbs, and in extreme cases, their lives.
Which places provides jobs for the whole family?
Coal mines.
What did men and women do in coal mines?
Men: They manually cut the coal away from the coal seam
Women: They worked as bearers carrying the coal to the surface
What did children do in coal mines?
They had jobs that matched their age.
Older boys: Would push the coal in carts from the coal seam to the bearers.
Children as young as 4: Would work as trappers; they would have to sit in the dark for up to 12 hours a day, opening the door for the carts and to provide ventilation.
What happened to many young children in coal mines?
Many lost their legs when carts ran over them.
How did the public react when they heard about the conditions people worked in?
They were horrified.
Where did reports start to come from?
Inspectors and from those who supported the reform of working conditions.
Name one supporter of the reform of working conditions:
An MP called Michael Sadler.
What 2 things did Sadler’s report show?
That factory children were being caught under machines and injured, and were being mistreated by factory owners.
What was the 10 hour movement?
Michael Sadler suggested those those under 18 years old should not be allowed to work more than 10 hours a day.
Other reports highlighted girls were carrying what in coal mines?
Baskets of coal weighing up to 150kg.
Other reports highlighted women were doing what in coal mines?
Dragging carts of coal on their hands and knees.
Name another keen reformer other than Sadler:
Lord Shaftesbury.
What did Lord Shaftesbury make his personal mission?
To improve the lives of children both at work and socially.
What led Lord Shaftesbury?
His Christian beliefs, and what he felt was the humane way to treat people, regardless of their social status.
What movement did Shaftesbury give support to?
The 10-hour movement.
Shaftesbury was an important supporter of what act?
The Mines Act of 1842.
What was Shaftesbury also a campaigner for?
More education for children who worked in factories.
What other important campaign was happening at the same time?
The abolition of slavery.
With the abolition of slavery happening at the same time, what did people start to refer to factory workers as?
‘White slaves’.
Why were many people against reform?
Because of laissez-faire politics.
What was laissez-faire politics?
This was the belief that politics should not be involved in people’s personal lives.
What had laissez-faire politics have to do in terms of factory reform?
It was believed that working conditions were a private arrangement between a person and his or her employer.
What had laissez-faire politics have to do in terms of social reform?
There was a belief that people were poor because of their own bad choices.
Why did many workers not support the factory reform acts?
As they limited the amount of money coming into a household.
Give 3 problems with the factory reform acts:
-They limited the amount of money coming into a household
-They did not cater for all workers and all factories
-They put poor people at a disadvantage and the existing poor relief did not support everyone
What did the existing poor relief not supporting everyone lead to?
The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834
How had the Poor Law Amendment Act increased the pressure on workers?
If they could not make enough money they were put into the dreaded workhouses. Families would be separated and lives ruined.
What was the group of individuals called behind reform?
Philanthropists.
Who were the 4 philanthropists behind factory and social reform?
-Robert Owen
-Edwin Chadwick
-Elizabeth Fry
-Josephine Butler
Give 2 biography facts about Robert Owen:
-He had run a successful mill in Manchester where he had treated his workers well.
-In 1800, had become manager and part-owner of his father-in-law’s mill in Scotland, called New Lanark
What is Robert Owen’s famous quote?
‘Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.’
What political group was Robert Owen?
He was a socialist - this meant he was not led so much by profits, but more about the wellbeing of his workers. He believed in a more equal society.
What did Owen realise that could give him better business?
He was aware that happy workers would work better, and then he would have a better business.
What was Owen’s connections with religion?
He was not driven by religion motivations but did receive funding from a Quaker.
What are Quakers?
Quakers were renowned for their desire to help the most vulnerable people in society.
What had Owen introduced by 1810?
An eight-hour day (decades before the success of the 10-hour-day).
What did Owen open and when did he open it?
He opened a school in 1816 and all children had to have a certain number of hours of education, depending on their age.
Owen’s New Lanark had what for workers?
A social club and meeting areas for workers to visit in their time off.
What was banned in New Lanark’s social club?
Drinking alcohol and swearing.
Who visited New Lanark?
Members of the royal family and MPs.
What did everyone agree about New Lanark?
That it was a successful town.
Give 3 biography facts about Edwin Chadwick:
-He was from a progressive family
-He studied law at University
-His father was a newspaper editor and was involved in progressive politics
What was Chadwick’s involvement in politics?
He made friends with people who were political philosophers; they were interested in social reform.
What reform was Chadwick responsible for?
He was responsible for the reform of the Poor Law that resulted in record numbers of people entering the workhouse in the 1830s.
What did Chadwick’s reform of the Poor Laws make him?
Very unpopular.
Chadwick wrote a report called what?
‘The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population’.
What did Chadwick’s report show?
That there was a link between the poor housing and sanitation of the factory workers and the outbreaks of killer diseases such as cholera.
What groups of people blamed the workers themselves for outbreaks of killer diseases?
Middle and upper class people.
Give 3 biography facts about Elizabeth Fry:
-She was born into a Quaker family
-Her mother helped various charities
-Her father was a well-respected Quaker who owned a factory
What was Fry’s involvement in politics?
She was a social reformer who believed in the poor being helped; she also believed in prison reform.
What was Fry’s religion?
She was a strict Quaker.
What had shocked Elizabeth Fry?
The conditions she had heard of in Newgate Prison. She saw hundred of women and children huddled on the floor in two cells. They had to sleep, cook and clean themselves in the cell. Children, there with their arrested mothers, sometimes had to share cells with murderers.
What did Fry do with Newgate Prison?
She visited it regularly and soon established a school and a chapel.
What was Fry’s brother-in-law?
An MP.
What did Fry’s brother-in-law do?
He raised the issue of prison reform in parliament, as a result, prisons were reformed, as were the conditions for women on transportation ships.
Give 2 biography facts about Josephine Butler:
-She was from a family of social reformers
-Her father was involved in the abolition of slavery
What was Butler’s involvement in politics?
She was a social reformer; her second cousin was Earl Grey.
What was Butler’s religion?
She was an evangelical Christian.
What issue was Butler concerned about?
The issue of child prostitution.
What did Butler do in response to the issue of child prostitution?
She campaigned for the age of consent to rise from 13 to 16.
What appalled Butler?
The way women were treated when they were arrested for being prostitutes.
What did society regard prostitutes as?
Ungodly and unworthy of help.
What 2 things did Butler see prostitutes’ problems as?
-Poor wages
-Men
What act did Butler’s campaigning see the repeal of when?
The repeal of the Contagious Disease Act in 1883.
When was the Contagious Disease Act introduced?
1869.
What was the Contagious Disease Act?
A way of keeping sexually transmitted diseases away from the armed forces. Any women could be examined by a police officer if she was thought to be a prostitute.
