Historical Investigation
10.3 Industrial Revolution
Overlying Question: Was the Industrial Revolution a blessing or a curse?
Step 1:
Examine the placards and use the information to answer the questions charted on page 20 and 21.
Step 2:
Use IREAD to analyze readings on the I.R. to answer the Inquiry Question - "Was the I.R. a blessing or a curse?"
Complete worksheets on pages 7-8.
I – (In the box)- Ask the overlying question and then assume that each source was answering it by stating their
opinion. Then write what you believe that opinion is.
(Ex: “I believe that the author thinks the industrial revolution was…”)
R – (bullet points) – pick out sentences or fragments that support your opinion within each source.
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
Resources:
Source A: “Leeds Woollen Workers Petition”, 1786”
How are those men…thrown out of employ to provide for their families; - and what are they to put their
children apprentice to, that the rising generation may have something to keep them at work, in order that
they may not be like vagabonds strolling about in idleness? Some say, Begin and learn some other
business. - Suppose we do; who will maintain our families, whilst(while) we undertake the arduous task;
and when we have learned it, how do we know we shall be any better for all our pains; for by the time we
have served our second apprenticeship, another machine may arise, which may take away that business
also…
But what are our children to do; are they to be brought up in idleness?...though we may be thought
illiterate men, our conceptions are, that bringing children up to industry, and keeping them employed, is
the way to keep them from falling into those crimes, which an idle habit naturally leads to.
Source B: “The Steam Loom”, Richard Guest, 1823
Initial advances in the manufacture of textiles used older methods of power provision - water-mills and so
forth. It was the application of steam power which accelerated the centralization of textile production in
factories. The new powered machines also leading to the substitution of women and children for the
previously highly-skilled spinners and weavers. The result was enormous production gains in a very short
period - output increased while labor costs decreased. The skilled workers were, in the meantime, made
poor while the factory owners became wealthy.
Before the invention of the Dressing Frame, one Weaver was
required to each Steam Loom, at present a boy or girl, fourteen or
fifteen years of age, can manage two Steam Looms, and with their
help can weave three and a half times as much cloth as the best
hand Weaver. The best hand Weavers seldom produce a piece of
uniform evenness;
A Steam Loom factory containing 200 Looms, with the assistance
of 100 persons under 20 years of age, and of 25 men will weave 700 pieces per week…
To manufacture 100 similar pieces per week by the hand, it would be necessary to employ at least 125
Looms, because many of the Weavers are females, and have cooking, washing, cleaning and various other
duties to perform; others of them are children and, consequently, unable to weave as much as the men…
Thus, 875 hand Looms would be required to produce the 700 pieces per week; and reckoning the
weavers, with their children, and the aged and infirm belonging to them at two and a half to each loom, it
may very safely be said, that the work done in a Steam Factory containing 200 Looms, would, if done by
hand Weavers, find employment and support for a population of more than two thousand persons.
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
Source C: “Letter from Leeds Cloth Merchants”, 1791
In the Manufacture of Woollens, the Scribbling Mill, the Spinning Frame, and the Fly Shuttle, have
reduced manual Labour nearly 1/3rd, … yet each has contributed to advance the wages and to increase the
Trade, so that if an Attempt was now made to deprive us of the Use of them, there is no Doubt, but every
Person engaged in the Business, would exert himself to defend them.
From these Premises, we the…Merchants, think it a Duty we owe to ourselves, to the Town of Leeds,
and to the Nation at large, to declare that we will protect and support the free Use of the proposed
Improvements in Cloth-Dressing, by every legal Means in our Power; and if after all, contrary to our
Expectations, the Introduction of Machinery should for a Time occasion a Scarcity of Work in the Cloth
Dressing Trade, we have unanimously agreed to give a Preference to such Workmen as are now settled
Inhabitants of this Parish, and who give no Opposition to the present Scheme.
Source D: This cartoon was published in Punch, a weekly British humor and satire
magazine, on July 29, 1843.
‘'It is gratifying to know that though there is such misery in the coal mines, there is a great deal of luxury
results from it'.
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
Source E: Dr. Ward from Manchester was interviewed about the health of textile
workers on 25th March, 1819.
When I was a surgeon in the infirmary, accidents were very often admitted to the infirmary, through the
children's hands and arms having being caught in the machinery; in many instances the muscles, and the
skin is stripped down to the bone, and in some instances a finger or two might be lost. Last summer I
visited Lever Street School. The number of children at that time in the school, who were employed in
factories, was 106. The number of children who had received injuries from the machinery amounted to
very nearly one half. There were forty-seven injured in this way.
Source F: “Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy”, France Trollope, 1840
A little girl about seven years old, who job as scavenger, was to collect incessantly from the factory floor,
the flying fragments of cotton that might impede the work... while the hissing machinery passed over her,
and when this is skillfully done, and the head, body, and the outstretched limbs carefully glued to the
floor, the steady moving, but threatening mass, may pass and repass over the dizzy head and trembling
body without touching it. But accidents frequently occur; and many are the flaxen locks, rudely torn from
infant heads, in the process.
Source G: “A Memoir of Robert Blincoe”, John Brown, 1828
A girl named Mary Richards, who was thought remarkably handsome when she left the workhouse, and,
who was not quite ten years of age, attended a drawing frame, below which, and about a foot from the
floor, was a horizontal shaft, by which the frames above were turned. It happened one evening, when her
apron was caught by the shaft. In an instant the poor girl was drawn by an irresistible force and dashed on
the floor. She uttered the most heart-rending shrieks! Blincoe ran towards her, an agonized and helpless
beholder of a scene of horror. He saw her whirled round and round with the shaft - he heard the bones of
her arms, legs, thighs, etc. successively snap asunder, crushed, seemingly, to atoms, as the machinery
whirled her round, and drew tighter and tighter her body within the works, her blood was scattered over
the frame and streamed upon the floor, her head appeared dashed to pieces - at last, her mangled body was
jammed in so fast, between the shafts and the floor, that the water being low and the wheels off the gear, it
stopped the main shaft. When she was extricated, every bone was found broken - her head dreadfully
crushed. She was carried off quite lifeless.
Source H: Excerpt from “The Wealth of Nations”, Adam Smith, 1776
An analysis concerning the division of labor:
The greatest improvement in the productive powers of Labour, and the greater
skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied,
seem to have been the effects of the divisions of labour…..This great increase
of the quantity of work, which, in consequence of the division of labour, the
same number of people are capable of performing, is owing to three different circumstances; first, to the
increase of dexterity in every particular workman; secondly, to the saving of the time which is commonly
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
lost in passing from one species of work to another; and lastly, to the invention of great number of
machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many…
Was the Industrial Revolution a Blessing or Curse?
Side A:
It was a Blessing.
I.
Side B:
It was a Curse.
Partners Prepare
a. Find evidence to support your side of the argument. Craft position.
II.
Position Presentation
1.
2.
3.
4.
Side
Side
Side
Side
A
B
B
A
presents their position using supporting evidence from the texts.
restates to Side A’s satisfaction.
presents their position using supporting evidence from the texts.
restates to Side B’s satisfaction.
III. Consensus-Building
1. Abandon roles.
2. Build consensus regarding the question (or at least clarify where your
differences lie), using supporting evidence.
3. Consider the question:
How should we judge people from the past?
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
Source: http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/21731
Handout 2: Document Analysis Chart
Position A
Position B
The Industrial Revolution was a Blessing
Evidence 1:
The Industrial Revolution was a Curse
Evidence 1:
Evidence 2:
Evidence 2:
Evidence 3:
Evidence 3:
Evidence 4:
Evidence 4:
Record questions that you have about sources and ideas below.
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
Consensus:
Source A:
Interpret –
Review –
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Source B:
Interpret –
Review –
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Source C:
Interpret –
Review –
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Source D:
Interpret –
Review –
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Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
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Source E:
Interpret –
Review –
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Source F:
Interpret –
Review –
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Source G:
Interpret –
Review –
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Source H:
Interpret –
Review –
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Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
PLACARD A
Agriculture-Plow drawn by oxen / Early tractor
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
PLACARD B
Power Sources for machines-spinning/weaving
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
PLACARD C
Children
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
PLACARD D
Animal Power vs Steam Power
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PLACARD E
Farm vs. Factory
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PLACARD F
Washing Machine
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PLACARD G
Music
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PLACARD H
Shipping
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PLACARD I
Butchers
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PLACARD J
Art
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PLACARD K
Hand Sewing vs Sewing Machine
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
Technology Note-Taking Chart
Directions: For each Placard fill in the chart below with important information based on your observations and discussions.
Describe What you See
What was the Purpose of What Changes were
the Invention?
Created by this
Invention?
Placard
A
Placard
B
Placard
C
Placard
D
Placard
E
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
How did these changes
Effect Common People?
What modernday technology
connects to
this item?
Placard
F
Placard
G
Placard
H
Placard
I
Placard
J
Placard
K
Which of these inventions had the greatest positive OR negative impact on the industrial revolution?
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015
Created by the History Literacy Standards Committee, 8/2015