Chapter 17 - The Industrial Revolution
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England had been on the forefront of the Enlightenment, with relatively progressive social values. They held science, invention, and commerce in high esteem. Other nations,
notably China, were more traditional, isolationist, and conservative. There was no stigma attached to England's growing middle class, unlike France's bourgeousie.
Britain, as a series of islands with large inland rivers, had geography and navigability to its advantage.
Coal and iron ore were native to the islands, and her American Colonies were a source of commodity crops like cotton, tobacco, and sugar.
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The middle classes generally benefited economically from the industrial revolution. There was, increasingly, money to be made in professional and commercial fields.
Someone with enthusiasm, a great idea, and some capital could make their way well in the burgeoning economy. Middle class women were encouraged to be keepers of the
domestic arena. Whether this was to their benefit or detriment is open to debate. Women of the lower classes often had no choice but to work to feed themselves and
their families; indeed, they were even sometimes reduced to prostitution. Children also were also pushed into the workforce, and, in more desperate situations, into
petty crime.
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As farming in the new Industrial Age became more mechanized, farm workers were no longer needed. Often, emigration to the new industrial city centers was seen as the
only way to find employment. The reality in these cities was harsh, crowded, and dirty for these unskilled people. Their labor was a commodity in constant flux, and
even when there was demand, the work was arduous, dangerous, and paid very little. Disease spread quickly because of the lack of sanitation provisions and the
misunderstanding of the causes. People who could not find work resorted to stealing what they could. Life was nasty, brutish, and short for the working classes of
the industrial revolution, but the times had changed and there was no longer a viable place in the pastoral agricultural context that was left behind.
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Middle class women in newly industrialized Britain were expected to stay home and tend to their breadwinning husbands and offspring. They took care of the social and
religious direction of the family unit. Occasionally middle class women took positions as secretaries or schoolteachers, but this was seen as a preamble to a married
life. Men were supposed to be the overseers, providers, and protectors of their middle class families. Working class families could seldom afford the gentility of
such nicely defined gender roles. Women and their children were pressed into the moneymaking role more often than middle class propriety would allow.