SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

PEOPLE MOVE TO CITIES

Urbanization Movement of people to the cities Changes in farming, growing population and

an increasing demand for workers led people to move from farms to cities

Entrepreneurs Became wealthy as a result of the Industrial

Revolution

Workers Exposed to poverty and horrible living

conditions Suffered dangerous working conditions Had unsafe and unsanitary working conditions

NEW SOCIAL CLASSES EMERGE

Industrial Revolution created a new middle class and a new working class

Middle Class owned and operated new machines, factories, mines and railroads and they enjoyed a more comfortable life than the working class

Working Class became workers in the factories and mines and lived in uncomfortable environments

THE INDUSTRIAL MIDDLE CLASS

Came from a variety of backgrounds

(merchants, inventors, rags to riches)

Lived in well furnished and spacious

homes

Wore fancy clothes, worked hard to

get ahead and had little sympathy for

the poor

Women focused on raising the children

INDUSTRIAL WORKING CLASS Lived in foul smelling slums

They were packed in tiny rooms in tenements (multistory buildings divided into apartments)

There was no running water, sewage or sanitation system so waste and garbage rotted in the street

Sewage was dumped into the river so there was a horrible smell and the water became contaminated (unclean) leading

to the spread of diseases such as cholera

WORKERS STAGE PROTESTS

Workers organized groups called labor

unions, although they were illegal many met

in secret

They wished to initiate reforms (changes)

such as increase in pay however they had

no political power and often times their

frustration turned into violence

WORKERS STAGE PROTESTS

1811-1813 groups of textile workers known as Luddites smashed the machines that were taking

over their jobs and they burned factories

LETS WATCH AND YOU DECIDE…

The Luddites

WORKERS AND RELIGION

Methodism

Workers found comfort with this religion

Stressed the need for a personal sense

of faith and encouraged followers to

improve themselves by adopting sober

and moral ways

Had songs and hymns that promised

forgiveness and a better life to come

Helped to channel workers anger away

from revolution and towards reform

What do workers do to deal with their frustration of their

bad working conditions?

THE POWER OF JOURNALISM

Muckrakers

Term is said to be created by Roosevelt because he references the man who “rakes muck” in comparison to the writers

Investigative reporters who shed light on people’s miserable conditions

Targeted trusts, crime, fraud, public health and safety

THE POWER OF JOURNALISM Played a powerful role in bringing about

federal legislation to improve aspects of society

Upton Sinclair Wrote The Jungle “corrupt businessmen who treated the public

with utter contempt and disdain” Told about the filthy conditions under which

meat was packaged all for the sake of profit and greed

Roosevelt set out to prove Sinclair wrong, however when his commission return they report it was worse than what he had written!!

Roosevelt establishes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

WHAT DID YOU THINK???

Create a list of things that shocked you

about the sanitary conditions, or lack

thereof, that existed in the nineteenth

century