Chapter 17 Documents pp. 862-877

From document 17.1 I learned about the experience of an english factory worker. There may have been a technological breakthrough during the Industrial Revolution but there was also a transformation in the organization of work that was demonstrated in the factory. What was different form an artisan's workshop was that the factory concentrated human labor to a single place and would separate workers from final products since they would assign workers specialized and repetitive tasks. The owners and managers would impose strict discipline in their factories and regulated workers lives according to clock time they said for efficiency and productivity. A worker was dependent on modest and uncertain income for economic survival since they were wage earners.  A person who was this type of worker was Elizabeth Bently who was a twenty three year old woman. Bentley would testify in 1831 mills. She would testify against William Harter who was a mill owner. Due to this occurring the result of the investigation, would cause the legislation in 1833 to limit the hours of employment for both women and children. Within the Testimony lot Elizabeth Bentley who was a factory worker we read about the harsh hours that she was given which was form five in the morning till nine at night. She had to endure these hard hours for around half a year. The punishment for Bentley if she was late or slacked a little was that she got strapped. Both boys and girls were given the same punishment of being strapped severely. The result of being strapped was that girls would have black marks on their skin and the parents could not speak out against the factory owner because they were afraid of losing their own job. Bentley couldn't even eat her food in the factory for she did not have much to eat and was always covered in dust. Bentley talks about how the factory workers were not allowed to go home for dinner and would dine in the mill. Many people lived far from the mill, like Bentley who lived two miles away. Bentley talks about how the girls were never beaten for being late; however there was a punishment for the boys. Bentley also talks about at the end of her testimony how she would be up at 2 o'clock in the morning waiting for the mill to open even when it was streaming down with rain. The harsh conditions that women and children had to endure was very painful and many suffered until finally there was change. Even with harsh conditions the women and children could not complain in fear of loosing their job which meant they could not make any money to take home. Although the industrial revolution brought about advancements in life not everyone was given equal treatment and people learned that they needed to speak out for what was right.