Bellringer
1. Why did the Industrial Revolution begin
in Britain? List and briefly describe the
key factors.
2. List one invention, its inventor, and briefly
describe its impact on the Industrial
Revolution.
6 minutes
New Industrial City
• The Industrial Revolution brought rapid
urbanization, or the movement of people
to cities.
• Small towns around coal or iron mines
grew into cities.
• Other cities grew around the factories built
by the entrepreneurs.
City Growth
• British market town of Manchester
population 17,000 in 1750’s
• Population 40,000 by 1780
• Population 70,000 by 1800
• Lower class lived in tenements or
multistory buildings with tiny apartments
• No running water and no sewage system
Hard Work
• Long shift 12-16 hours
• Everyone worked- men, women, children
• Exhausted worked suffered accidents with
no safety devices
• Coal dust destroyed lungs of miners
• Textile workers breathed lint filled air
• Sick or hurt workers lost their jobs
Women and children
• New jobs took them out of their homes
• Women paid less for same work
• Children changed spools in the mills, push
carts
• Wages earned helped keep families from
starvation
Working Class
• Many people felt lost when they moved to
the new cities with no community ties
• Weavers and skilled artisans protested
because machines were taking their jobs;
some smash machines and burned
factories in protest
Methodism
• Mid 1700’s – John Wesley founded the
Methodist church
• Stressed need for personal sense of faith.
He urged sobriety and good morals
• Hymns and sermons promised forgiveness
of sin and better life to come
• Sunday school taught the Bible and how to
read and write
Middle Class
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Lived in well furnished homes
Ate and dressed well
Women were encouraged to be “ladies”
Hired maid servants
Hard work and determination to “get
ahead”
Reform
• Reformers pressed for laws to improve
working conditions
• Labor unions won the right to bargain
with employers for better wages, hours,
conditions
• Working class men won the right to vote
Industrial Revolution
• Despite social problems- low pay,
unemployment, bad working conditions the
age did bring material benefits
• Mass-produced goods grew and factories
opened creating jobs
• Wages rose and travel expenses fell
allowing for family travels