State of Manchester Circa 1800

DBQ: Manchester A city of prowess should be as hygienic as it is regal. Manchester circa 1800 was indeed a city of great proportion, although its cleanliness was in no question due to the lack thereof. A result of industrialization, Manchester’s quality of living deteriorated. Industrial expansion took priority over the inhabitants. To their detriment, modest changes had been made to aid in the effort to further the progress of a better Manchester for all. The Industrial Revolution impaired the health of the people, expanded while harming the working force, and polluted the condition of the city. Maintaining Manchester was no easy feat. Most didn’t bother or care about the upkeep. “People live longer because they are better fed, better lodged, better clothed, and better attended in sickness and these improvements are owing to the increase in national wealth which the manufacturing system has produced.” (Doc 3) Historian and Member of Parliament, Thomas Macaulay, states in his point of view and I believe that as a historian he is a reliable source of information. However his ties to the Parliament cause me to sally between believing and not believing. Manchester also ran rampant with disease and grime that doesn’t seem to be treated. “The annual loss of life from filth and bad ventilation is greater than the loss from death of wounds in modern wars.”(doc 6) Writes Edwin Chadwick, a public health reformer whose firsthand point of view seems rather frank and sordid. “Unless you have visited the manufacturing towns and seen the workers of Manchester you cannot appreciate the physical suffering and moral degradation of this class of the population”(doc 7) Women’s rights advocate, Flora Tristan writes in an earnest fashion. The environment Manchester workers long endured had been an egregious lack of concern for the laborers by the factory owners“If you visit a factory, it is easy to see that the comfort and welfare of the workers have never entered the