Factory Workers In The 1800s
1) Read either the Report on Child Labor or Factory Rules and briefly explain/outline a day in the life of a factory worker in the early 1800s and the challenges they faced
The majority of factory workers in the 1800’s lived in dismal conditions, tight quarters unfit for living. Regardless, work always began at “6a.m. precisely and ends after the usual break of half an hour for breakfast, an hour for dinner, and half an hour for tea at 7p.m. and it shall be strictly observed” (Perry, 2014. p. 147). All factory workers were held to a very specific daily regimen once they were at work and on the clock; they were expected to maintain a productive workload. All workers were held to a strict work environment that was deemed the most productive. Workers were expected to maintain clean workstations and working tools that would ensure efficiency during work. At the end of the day workers were expected to clean their specific workstation, and when the bell sounded …show more content…
The Families were no longer nucleus, individualization became a predominant aspect of culture, there was no longer time to care for ill family members, and no one was at home to care for the children that were too small to work in factories. According to Kay, “Besides the negative results—the total abstraction of every moral and intellectual stimulus—the absence of variety—banishment from the grateful air and the cheering influences of light, the physical energies are exhausted by incessant toil, and imperfect nutrition” (Perry, 2014, p. 145). Kay suggests that factory work is exhausting, and difficult work both morally and intellectually. Kay further suggests, “The neglect of all religious ordinances, we conceive to afford substantive evidence of so great a moral degradation” (Perry, 2014. p. 145). Thus, according to Kay, factory work was undermining the traditional beliefs and values socially maintained and practiced unto that
The majority of factory workers in the 1800’s lived in dismal conditions, tight quarters unfit for living. Regardless, work always began at “6a.m. precisely and ends after the usual break of half an hour for breakfast, an hour for dinner, and half an hour for tea at 7p.m. and it shall be strictly observed” (Perry, 2014. p. 147). All factory workers were held to a very specific daily regimen once they were at work and on the clock; they were expected to maintain a productive workload. All workers were held to a strict work environment that was deemed the most productive. Workers were expected to maintain clean workstations and working tools that would ensure efficiency during work. At the end of the day workers were expected to clean their specific workstation, and when the bell sounded …show more content…
The Families were no longer nucleus, individualization became a predominant aspect of culture, there was no longer time to care for ill family members, and no one was at home to care for the children that were too small to work in factories. According to Kay, “Besides the negative results—the total abstraction of every moral and intellectual stimulus—the absence of variety—banishment from the grateful air and the cheering influences of light, the physical energies are exhausted by incessant toil, and imperfect nutrition” (Perry, 2014, p. 145). Kay suggests that factory work is exhausting, and difficult work both morally and intellectually. Kay further suggests, “The neglect of all religious ordinances, we conceive to afford substantive evidence of so great a moral degradation” (Perry, 2014. p. 145). Thus, according to Kay, factory work was undermining the traditional beliefs and values socially maintained and practiced unto that