Primary Sources of Industrialization

Industrialization has certainly changed the modern world. It has given us the middle class, political restructure, technology, and new economic principles: communism and capitalism. People of all ages contributed to Industrialization. This included children. During the Industrial Revolution there were no child labor laws or any labor laws in place to protect the workers. In Elizabeth Bentley's testimony of 1831, she states that she started working at a factory at just 6 years old. I remember being that young. I was in school playing on the playground riding my bike learning my shapes carefree. Imagine at such a young age to be working like a 45 year old adult today. It's amazing how legislature and culture has changed so much since then. Without laws protecting children from working, I think in greed people would subject others below them of the middle class to this treatment. Middle class was not easy to reach. It was quite difficult but soon the dream came, one could start at the bottom and later be on top in upper class. In the document of Only a Weaver, it perfectly describes how endless the struggle towards upper class really was. This weaver worked and worked everyday alongside many others with the same dream. They would get the same small wage with long hours with no end in sight. It was unfair. So to combat this capitliastic ideal, Karl Marx decided to come up with a new idea communism. In The Communist Mainfesto, it describes how the classes actually tore apart the industrialized countries. Communism brought everyone down on an equal playing field. Without industrialization there would be no such thing as communism or capitalism. All the primary documents provide a small window into the life of a regular person in the Industrial Revolution. There are good and bad things that came from the Industrial Revolution. We especially in America like to highlight the positive parts of history and the Industrial Revolution is no exception. Instead of constantly talking about how great it was that capitalism came about, we should start talking about the embarrassing parts like child labor, harsh treatment of workers, and pollution that came. This way we can learn not to make these mistakes again especially in our new technological revolution.