Workers During the Industrial Revolution
By: Bekah Lambert

PROBLEMS

• Children had to work in factories to earn money for their families
• They worked instead of getting an education
• This was the case for most children

PROBLEMS

• Factories had terrible conditions
• People worked long hours
• Little to no pay every day
• Adults had to deal with this too
• 18% of American workers were under 16

GOALS

• Make/set a minimum age people had to be to work
• Minimum wage/salary
• Better working conditions
• Reasonable work hours

KEY PLAYERS

• Henry Ford
• ( made assembly line to mass produce cars and goods )
• John Kay
• ( invented flying shuttle that allowed weavers to work twice as fast )
• The Luddites (protested against newly developed labor-replacing machinery)

KEY PLAYERS

• Robert Owen
• ( helped lead first national union in England )
• ( despised use of children in factories )
• Edmund Cartwright
• ( invented power loom which is a wool combing machine )

WHERE AND WHEN

• Started in Great Britain
• Spread to Western Europe
• Then spread to the USA
• Lastly spread throughout the world

WHERE AND WHEN

• Europe: around 1750 to 1850
• USA: problem worsened in the 1900s to around the 1940s

KEY EVENTS

The Great Depression (1929-1939)
- changed political attitudes
- began after stock market crash in October 1929
- consumer spending dropped causing declines in industrial production

- rising levels of unemployment
- companies and employers laid off workers
- people got jobs in factories

The New Deal (1935-1943)
- recovery from the Great Depression
- gave permanent jobs to 8.5 million people

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
- set minimum wage
- maximum work hours
- minimal work age
- limitations on child labor

Many new inventions
- Henry Ford established the assembly line to help mass produce items and created cars that ran up to 25 mph.

RESOLUTION

Today, child labor has been substantially eliminated. Although, it still is a small problem in some areas of the world. Nothing to an extent that it can not be controlled.

Enforcement varies from state to state. But altogether I think that the U.S. is proud to say that in result of everything that occurred during the Industrial Revolution

such as working conditions, salaries, and overall employment has improved rapidly since then.

HOW DOES THIS IMPACT ME?

Without everything that took place during the industrial revolution and without all of the laws that were established, who knows if even today children and adults would be working

in factories with all of the same disadvantages. So, to me this topic is a big deal considering the impact it had on the world today.

WORKS CITED

Source One:
History.com Staff. “Child Labor.” History.com. A+E Networks, 2009. Web. 12 Jan. 2015. . This website helped me because it listed important events that occurred during the industrial revolution and stated important people who contributed during the time period.

Source Two:
“The Luddites.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 July 2004. Web. 12 Jan. 2015. . This source helped me find information about an activist group called the Luddites that played a role during the Industrial Revolution time period.

Source Three:
Pettinger, Tejvan R. “Famous People of the Industrial Revolution.” Biographyonline.net. Oxford, 12 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Jan. 2015. . This website helped me find information about important people that impacted on the world during the Industrial Revolution.