Testimonies During The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution opened a door of opportunity for many people during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It created job opportunities for whole families in a way that had never been done before, but that did not mean that these opportunities did not have costs. In Ashley’s Mines Commission, testimonies of mine workers of all different ages are shared and they demonstrate further detail into some of the costs that are paid for as a result of the development of mine labor progressed. As illustrated in the article, many of the mine owners during the Industrial Revolution were comfortable with justifying their manipulation of workers, specifically children, so long as they could reap benefits from doing so. The utilization of personal testimonies within this particular article provided compelling evidence for how evident the manipulation of the workers was at this time. In both the testimonies of Sarah Gooder and Mary Barrett, the apparent lack of education to children is still unusual and seems to be alarming to several, except for the mine owners (Waldi, 2012). Thomas Wilson, an owner of three collieries, not only seems to not be alarmed by the fact that children are not in school, he gives nothing but excuses for why it was not feasible for the children working in the mines to have an education. He uses unity as a
The cartoon shows a clear division between the upper and working classes, one where the upper class has everything they could ever desire at the tips of their fingers and the lower class works almost to the breaking point (Waldi, 2012). The division created devastation for those in the lower and working classes because they began to resent those who owned and ran the mines in addition to the members of the wealthier