Efficiency, Technology... and Slums?: The Not-so-Positive Effects of the Industrial Revolution.

To many, the Industrial Revolution was a new and exciting time filled with big changes and new technologies, and for the most part, it was.  However, what most don’t know is that living conditions reached an all time low as efficiency reached a new high.  In fact, you could say that Great Britain was more like “Not So Great Britain” to the many workers and poor people who lived during the Industrial Revolution. My group’s museum project was all about the unfortunate conditions that many people faced.  For our documents, we had two pictures, one depicting a Victorian slum, and the other showing a view of Manchester.  Another document was Professor Michael Faraday’s opinion on the filth of the Thames River. There were also two opinions on Industrialization, along with a map of the large Industrialized cities in Great Britain, and a table showing the income versus the cost of living.  We came up with our title, “Not So Great Britain” because we thought that it emphasized how living in Great Britain at the time was very difficult.  I hope that visitors learn the negative effects of Industrialization.  The factories were mostly along the Thames River, and they dumped all the waste into the river.  This caused the river to become extremely polluted.  I also hope that visitors learn about the overcrowding in the poor sections that created slums.  The mills were dirty and dangerous, but the streets were even worse.  

Group A’s topic was weaving.  I learned that while spinning looms were improving, London became the first city to reach a population of one million.  A quote on their poster was “...textile mills became over crowded with workers and big machinery causing an extremely dangerous workplace…”.  Group B taught us about railroads and their impacts on everyday life.  In order to expand railroads in certain areas, the land was blown out to create a flatter terrain.  Railroads also made travelling easier, and let people go to different parts of the country easily and quickly.  “The Devastation of Child Labor” by group D depicted the harsh reality of child labor.  Shockingly, 50% of the children working in factories were under the age of ten, and most children were sent away by their parents at eight years old.  Group D also showed how children were treated like animals, with heavy loads and hard work conditions.  The final group, “Products of a Dark Time” also wrote about slavery.  The Industrial Revolution made slavery a big problem, because many companies used slave labor to create materials without paying anyone.  Texas actually had around 3,500,000 slaves, which shows how large the problem really was.