1

Baines, Edward. History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain (1835)

“It is alleged that the children who labour in factories are often cruelly beaten by the spinners or overlookers that their feeble limbs become distorted by continual standing and stooping, and they grow up cripples. That they are compelled to work thirteen, fourteen or fifteen hours per day. Views such as these have been repeatedly given of factory labour which have persuaded many to think they must be true. But this is the exception not the rule.”

  1. Explain how the working conditions of the cotton industry during the Industrial Revolution were viewed by some. (Answer in correct format)

______

“The human frame is liable to an endless variety of diseases. Many of the children who are born into the world, and who attain the age of ten or twelve years, are so weakly, that under any circumstances they would die early. Such children would sink under factory labour, as they would under any circumstances they would die early.”

  1. According to Baines, should children be allowed to work in factories? Why or why not? Do you believe children should work in factories? Why or why not? (Does not have to be in proper format)

______

“The noise and whirl of the machinery, which are unpleasant and confusing to a spectator unaccustomed to the scene, produce not the slightest effect on the operatives habituated (familiar) to it. The only thing that makes factory labour trying is that they are confined for long hours, and deprived of fresh air: this makes them pale, and reduces their vigour, but it rarely brings on disease. The minute fibres of cotton which float in the rooms are admitted, even by medical men, not to be injurious to young persons.”

  1. Why is factory labour difficult? (Answer in correct format)

______

“If a spinner can now produce as much in a day as he could last century have produced in a year, and if goods which formerly required eight months to bleach, are now bleached in two days, surely these are the very causes of the amazing extension of the manufacture, and are therefore, subjects of rejoicing, not of lamentation.”

  1. How did the spinner transform the Cotton Industry? (Must be in proper format)

______