Social Education And Religious State Of The Manufacturing Factory Analysis

This document is an excerpt from the novel Social, Educational, And Religious State of the Manufacturing Districts. It was written by Edward Baines and published in 1843, in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. The publication date of the novel matched with the second stage of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was a period of great changes in several fields, as in the labour sphere with the spread of mechanisation in factories and as in the political field with a lot of reforms and acts, led by many involved people, as, for instance, Edward Baines. Edward Baines (1800-1890) was the director of the Leeds Mercury, a nonconformist (liberal) newspaper published in Leeds, and a Member of Parliament. He was a Liberal and he supported some liberal measures, as the repeal of the Corn Law which was increasing the food price. But, he was against the factory legislation and the state education. The factory legislation asked for better working condition for the children, as the decrease of the hours done per day and as the obligation to go to school. In response to that legislation, he wrote Social, Educational, And Religious
In this sentence, we notice the prominence of names. These names refer to the main inventor of the industrial revolution. They revolutionised the work. For instance, the Spinning Jenny (1764) of Hargreaves does the work of ten people. But, the prominence of names doesn’t really mean anything here. Baines adds value to the machines and the productivity they bring, not the people: the adjective “splendid” qualifies “inventions”, not Arkwright or Hargreaves. This idea can be also seen on the vocabulary he employs when he talks about the people who work in a factory “healthiest body” (l.28). Baines words dehumanize the workmen. There are like tools of the factory system. This idea is part of