Heres a brief picture of what a village would look like before the Industrial Revolution, people travelled by horse back, and never travelled far outside their village for trade. Wool was spun by hand to make clothing, almost everything you see was handmade.
One of the first and most important key development in weaving in the early Industrial Revolution, was the Spinning Jenny, a multi-spindle spinning frame. Invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves in Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. The Spinning Jenny reduced the amount of work needed to produce cloth, with a worker able to work eight or more spools at once.
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The power loom which was steam powered had embraced the textile facotries to hire thousands of new workers and made enormous profit. This lead to an urbanization of cities.
With the invention of water powered machines this brought about new transportation and thousands of workers came from all over to work in these new textile factories. You can see in the photo the train cars filled with workers headed towards the factories.
This picture is the inside of a cotton factory. Since this attracted thousands of workers, factory owners were enjoying the profit but at the cost of the workers health due to deffeciant ventilation and poor sanitation of the factory. There was one other problem than the garbage on the foor and the unsanitated setting. Children, working on the factory floor.
The most effeciant ways factory owners made profit was through child labor, a most horrible stratagy. Children were either forced to work by their parents or payed by their service. At a young age the human mind is still developing and are expected to work in harsh conditions. Large machinery could injure a man, but can easily kill a child. Its revealed in the picture that most of the children are bare foot, and on the floor there are scraps of metal that can pierce their skin.
Women during the Industrial Revolution played one of the most important roles in the revolution. They regularly worked the textile mill or mines. Women worked similar hours as the children. The conditions in the factories where the women worked were ruthless as well. Certain women worked the factories all day then came home.
With the treatment of workers along with low wages and long tiring hours, men, women, and children formed strikes against factory owners demanding to be treated equally, given a higher wage, and to work less hours. Strikes were extremely important but not all strikes were successful because factory owners had alot of power over the workers.
The Music Lesson
The Music Lesson or Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman by Jan Vermeer, is a painting of young female pupil receiving the titular music lesson. [more]
