Industrial Revolution DBQ

The industrial revolution was a time when countries such as Britain and France began to modernize and develop more goods for the general public. This innovation of manufacture led to a large demand of goods by the general public. This demand could only be accomplished by enforcing a large workforce to do the labor of creating the manufactured products. Although this large workforce resulted in modernization of the country as well as an economic boost, the industrial revolution also caused horrid working conditions and the mistreatment of women even though they dominated the workforce. Documents 3, 4, and 5 show how workers in the industrial revolution were placed in working conditions that were unbearable. A Meiji government report (Doc 3) states that workers had to work from 4:30 in the morning to 7 or 10 at night with only a total of 40 minute breaks each working day.
These large work periods could cause problems to the workers since they are being overworked and a lack of sleep is caused. Document 5, a statement made by Lord Ashley, goes on to explain the problems of long work hours and how it is a burden. He states that the work in itself is light, but only if it is done within a few minutes. However, the workers are working for 14 or 15 hours making the workload heavy and problematic causing negative working conditions in the form of hours. Document 4, By Friedrich
Engels, states that the factory owners increased working conditions to such vast extents that workers only got three to four hours of sleep within the span of days. His point of view is from the view of a successful person from a non working class. His insights provide information that factory workers are being pushed into harsh working conditions as a viable source from the ranks equal to that of the factory owners. A document that could help prove that industrial workers faced the social problem of harsh working conditions could be an experimental report