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Describe the working and living conditions of the working class.

Describe the working and living conditions of the working class.

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Describe the working and living conditions of the working class.
The laboring classes (aka the working class): The overwhelming majority of Britain's nineteenth-century population-some 70 percent or more-were, of course, neither aristocrats nor members of the middle classes. They were manual workers in the mines, ports, factories, construction sites, workshops, and farms of an industrializing Britain. Although their conditions varied considerably and changed over time, the laboring classes were the people who suffered most and benefited least from the epic transformations of the Industrial Revolution. Their efforts to accommodate, resist, protest, and change those conditions contributed much to the texture of the first industrial society. The laboring classes were shaped primarily by the new working conditions of the industrial era. Chief among those conditions was the rapid urbanization of British society. Liverpool's population alone grew from 77,000 to 400,000 in the first half of the nineteenth century. By 1851, a majority of Britain's population lived in towns and cities, an enormous change from the overwhelmingly rural life of almost all previous civilizations. By the end of the century, London was the world's largest city, with more than 6 million inhabitants. These cities were vastly overcrowded and smoky, with wholly inadequate sanitation, periodic epidemics (sickness), endless row houses and warehouses, few public services or open spaces, and inadequate water supplies. This was the environment in which most urban workers lived in the first half of the nineteenth century. Nor was there much personal contact between the rich and the poor of industrial cities. The industrial factories to which growing numbers of desperate people looked for employment offered a work environment far different from the artisan's shop or the tenant's farm. Long hours, low wages, and child labor were nothing new for the poor, but the routine and monotony of work, dictated by the factory whistle and the needs of machines, imposed highly unwelcome conditions of labor. There was direct and constant supervision and rules and fines aimed at enforcing work discipline. The ups and downs of a capitalist economy made industrial work insecure as well as difficult. Unlike their middle-class sisters, many girls and young women of the laboring classes worked in mills or as domestic servants in order to supplement insufficient family incomes, but after marriage they too usually left outside paid employment because a man who could not support his wife was widely considered a failure. Within the home, however, many working-class women continued to earn money by taking in renters, doing laundry, or sewing clothes.
Transcribed Image Text:The laboring classes (aka the working class): The overwhelming majority of Britain's nineteenth-century population-some 70 percent or more-were, of course, neither aristocrats nor members of the middle classes. They were manual workers in the mines, ports, factories, construction sites, workshops, and farms of an industrializing Britain. Although their conditions varied considerably and changed over time, the laboring classes were the people who suffered most and benefited least from the epic transformations of the Industrial Revolution. Their efforts to accommodate, resist, protest, and change those conditions contributed much to the texture of the first industrial society. The laboring classes were shaped primarily by the new working conditions of the industrial era. Chief among those conditions was the rapid urbanization of British society. Liverpool's population alone grew from 77,000 to 400,000 in the first half of the nineteenth century. By 1851, a majority of Britain's population lived in towns and cities, an enormous change from the overwhelmingly rural life of almost all previous civilizations. By the end of the century, London was the world's largest city, with more than 6 million inhabitants. These cities were vastly overcrowded and smoky, with wholly inadequate sanitation, periodic epidemics (sickness), endless row houses and warehouses, few public services or open spaces, and inadequate water supplies. This was the environment in which most urban workers lived in the first half of the nineteenth century. Nor was there much personal contact between the rich and the poor of industrial cities. The industrial factories to which growing numbers of desperate people looked for employment offered a work environment far different from the artisan's shop or the tenant's farm. Long hours, low wages, and child labor were nothing new for the poor, but the routine and monotony of work, dictated by the factory whistle and the needs of machines, imposed highly unwelcome conditions of labor. There was direct and constant supervision and rules and fines aimed at enforcing work discipline. The ups and downs of a capitalist economy made industrial work insecure as well as difficult. Unlike their middle-class sisters, many girls and young women of the laboring classes worked in mills or as domestic servants in order to supplement insufficient family incomes, but after marriage they too usually left outside paid employment because a man who could not support his wife was widely considered a failure. Within the home, however, many working-class women continued to earn money by taking in renters, doing laundry, or sewing clothes.
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