History Grade 8
Apa Razeena
Unit 1: Textbook pages 79-91
Transatlantic Slave Trade: slave trade in which people were captured in West Africa
and taken as slaves across the Atlantic Ocean. Bristol (located in south West England)
was an important seaport for the transatlantic slave trade. Companies from the city of
Bristol sent ships to capture slaves in West Africa. Slaves were then sold to America,
where they were forced to work on the cotton and tobacco plantations. Many slaves
died on the ships due to the harsh conditions.
Britain became very rich through this slave trade. Slaves were called “black gold”.
How the slave trade made Britain wealthy:
The slave trade occurred in three stages:



Slaves were captured and traded in West Africa
They were taken across the Atlantic Ocean to America to work on cotton,
tobacco and sugar plantations
The British used the produce form the Black labour to make goods that were
sold in Europe, West Africa and America
The slave trade lasted for 100 years, from the beginning of the 18th century till it
ended in 1807.
The Economy before the Industrial Revolution
Before the Industrial Revolution, most of Britain lived in small farming villages. Farmland
was shared and consisted of open fields which did not have fences or walls. Farmers
grazed their livestock on common land. (land that is shared by everyone).
Things changed however in the 18th century. England became rich because of the
slave trade and there was more demand for food. This demand led to inventions that
improved crop and livestock production. One of the things that changed is farmers no
longer shared the land, and there was a move towards fencing up or to enclose land
which would then belong to only one person. This was called the enclosure system
and was part of the agricultural revolution.
The systems of enclosure were regulated by governments through acts of parliament.
Most of the enclosures were carried out between 1760s and 1770s. Most farms in
England were enclosed by 1800.
1
There was no longer common land. Common land became private property. Small
farmers and farm labourers were left poor and homeless. They had to leave the rural
areas to find work in the industrial areas.
Cottage Industries, are handicrafts that were done at home, by people who lived in the
farming villages. Most of the people involved in the cottage industry were the wives of
farm labourers. They needed to earn extra income to supplement their husband’s
wages.
 The Woollen cloth Industry- One of the oldest cottage industries in England
was the making of woollen cloth for clothing. This industry used several
different crafts and people specialised in different parts of the process.
The 5 processes to make a woollen item are:
1)
2)
3)
4)
The merchant or trader would buy the raw material (wool) for the farmer
Women would prepare the wool using strong brushes
Women called spinsters would comb and spin the wool into thread
A man, called a fuller would trample the cloth in a kind of clay, called Ffuller’s
Earth” to shrink and soften the cloth
5) The merchant paid the different craftspeople for their work. He would then take
the finished cloth and sell it for a profit.
What the Industrial Revolution was
The Industrial Revolution was a period of time, between 1750 and 1850, when
Britain changed from an agricultural society to an Industrial Society. The industrial
Revolution started in Britain and then spread through Western Europe throughout
the rest of the world.
Changes during the Industrial Revolution (5 changes)
1) Machines: The first machines that were invented were invented for the
manufacturing of cloth-woollen cloth from sheep’s wool and cotton cloth from
cotton grown in the slave plantations
2) Factories: the machines were too big to fit in people’s homes so factories had to
be built. People then had to leave their homes and go to factory to work .
3) Power and energy: An engine that used steam to power a machine was first
invented in the early 1700s. In 1770 James Watt improved the technology of the
steam engine. To boil water to make steam, coal was needed. To make
machines that could withstand the heat from the steam, iron was needed.
2
4) Mining: Since there was a greater need for coal and iron (due to the invention of
machines), there was an increase in mining. Steam pumps were built so that
miners could dig deeper. Factories were also built near the mines.
5) Transportation: goods made in factories had to be transported to seaports.
Before the Industrial Revolution, people and goods were transported along dirt
roads, but Jon MacAdam invented “tarmac roads” (roads we still use today) and
by 1830 roads were everywhere between factory towns and seaports. Railway
travel also became faster during this period and it was the main way that
unprocessed goods such as cotton, sugar, coal and iron was transported.
Social Changes during the Industrial Revolution: (changes that occirreed
with people in society)
Urbanisation is the movement of people from rural areas to the towns and
cities. People who were pushed off the land by farm enclosures moved to live
near mines and factories to find work. In this way, towns grew.
These towns were not pleasant places to live. Factory owners built small houses
for their workers. The houses were crammed close together, bear the factories.
Each street had only one water pump and a sewer ran down the middle of the
street. Towns were very dirt and diseases spread quickly.
The lives of lives of families who had been farmers and part of cottage industries
changed completely. People became part of the factory system. Factory workers
worked long hours at machines. Wages were so low that men, women and
children had to work to buy food to live. Children were the worst paid. Factory
workers became rich but the workers lived in poverty.
Workhouses existed in Britain to help the very poor. In exchange for food and a
place to sleep, people worked for no pay. Workhouses were not comfortable
places. Only people who had nowhere else to go went to a workhouse. Factory
owners sometimes used orphan children from workhouses in their factories.
The mines and factories- child labour in the mills and mines.
Mines: Coal mines were dangerous places to work. Because they were small,
children and women were employed to pull and carry coal along tunnels to the
surface. Before the passing of the Mines Act of 1842, even children under the
age of 10 were employed in the mines.
3
Factories: Thousands of children worked on factories. Factories that process
raw materials like cotton and raw materials like cotton and sugar are called mills.
Some mills employed children as young as 5 years old.
Labour, resistance, the trade union movement and working class
organisations
Swinging Riots (agriculture)
For thousands of years, farm workers separated the grain from wheat by hand.
Threshing machines were invented in the late 18th century, which did the wrk of
many men and left farm workers without jobs. Farm workers wanted to draw
attention to their unemployment.
The leaders of the protests used the name “Captain Swing” to keep their real
names a secret to avoid being arrested. “Captain Swing” wrote intimidating
letters to farmers and other machine workers. In the 1830s and 1840s laws were
passed that helped both factory and farm workers.
Luddites
The factories cost many craft workers their jobs. For example, many weavers
became unemployed because of inventions like the power loom. Weaving
machines could be operated by few unskilled people-this meant that specialised
weavers were not needed anymore.
A man called Ned Ludd was well known among factory workers for breaking
machines in 1779. In 1811, weavers and other workers began destroying
factories and machines. They became known as the “Luddites”
Grand National Trade Unions (1833)
Workers first rioted and protested against bad working conditions, and then later
began orgainising and working together. The idea of trade unions grew rapidly.
At first the unions were called “Friendly Societies”. Workers from the same
factory or industry came together to save money for times of illness and
unemployment. Workers also demanded shorter working hours and an end to
child labour.
The unions united in 1833 when the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union
was formed.
Increased power and wealth of Britain and Western European Countries.
4
Britain was the first industrialised nation. In the first half of the 19th century.
Western European countries, using British inventions and technologies, started
to industrialise more and more. In the second half of the 19 th century, some
European countries, like France and Germany started to compete with Britain.
Unit 2: Southern Africa by 1860 (Textbook pages 92-101)
British Colony of Natal
The British took over Natal as a colony in 1843. The soil and the warm climate in
Natal was good for growing sugar cane. Sugar was in great demand in Britain
and other parts of the world. Sugar was used to sweeten drinks and food. In
the1850s some British farmers from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius arrived
in Nata to grow sugar cane.
India as a British colony
India was not a united country, but a collection of many states. Fro, early in the
18th century, the British East India Company controlled the trading ports of
Madras and Calcutta in India. In 1784, by means of the India Act, the British
government took direct control of the Indian land ruled by the British East India
Company. In 1858, all these states together became known as the colony of
‘British India’ and Queen Victoria of Britain became ‘Empress of India’
Reasons why Labour was imported: Zulu Kingdom still independent.
Plenty of labour was still needed to grow, harvest and prepare the sugar for
crushing and boiling. There were also other jobs on a big plantation. The Zulu
people of the Zulu Kingdom and Natal kept cattle and grew crops for their own
needs. They were not interested in working for the colonists. The sugar farmers
suggested getting indentured labour from India, as was done in Mauritius and
Caribbean islands, after the end of slavery.
An indenture is a labour contract. People in India signed contracts and
indentured themselves to emigrate to Natal and work for small wages. After a
period of 5 years indenture, workers could reindenture or get discharge
certificates, and become “free”
Reasons foe demand for sugar in Britain
Sugar cane originally comes from Inia and South eastern Asia. Spanish explorers
took sugar cane to the Caribbean in the 16th century. Sugar was introduced to
5
Britain when Britain became involved in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Until the
18th century, honey was used to sweeten food and most British people had never
even tasted sugar.
Conditions under which indentured labours worked:
Houses: Employers had to provide their labourers with a free house. Some
workers were given thatched huts. Others lived in corrugated iron structures.
Later brick houses joined together were built for workers.
Food: Employers had to provide food rations. The sample food in India is rice.
Rice did not grow in Natal so it had to be imported. Mealie meal was sometimes
given to the workers instead. But workers went on strike because they wanted
rice. To compensate, employers provided land for garden plots. Workers were
then able to grow the vegetables, fruits and spices that they used in India.
Passenger Indians 1869 onwards
Besides the Indentured workers who came to Natal, there were other immigrants.
They were called passenger Indians because they paid for their passage on
ships to Natal themselves. They came mainly from Mauritius and from Westen
India. They were mainly Gujarati speaking and Muslim.
Passenger Indians came specifically to trade and open shops. Some became
very wealthy merchants and business people. In the 1870s and 1880s, after the
discovery of diamond and gold, many traders moved inland. Businessmen from
India moved to the coal fields of northern Natal and set up business near the
diamond fields and in the Witwatersrand.
6
7