English Textile Factory Workers

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In the past, the poor conditions and mistreatments had a negative impact on English textile factory workers, because they got sick, injured, and weren’t fed and cared for correctly. In the factories, the children worked long hours, the air wasn’t clean, the machines were dangerous, and it was filthy. In many of these, the workers worked for about ten to fifteen hours everyday; hours that no kid should ever have to work. The air inside the factories was highly contaminated and it was hot in there, so much that you had to gasp for air every couple of minutes in order to bear staying inside (Ward, 1819). The air affected the health by damaging the lungs, causing asthma, damaging other respiratory system parts, and could’ve caused cancer. In fact, …show more content…

The kids were overworked, some worked from five in the morning up to nine or ten at night. Other days they worked from five in the morning till midnight. Due to the long hours that they had to work, they had no time to sit down and eat a meal properly (Birley, 1849). The workers’ meals consisted of water-porridge with oatcakes and onions for breakfast and more oatcakes with butter and milk for dinner (Birley, 1849). This made them weak because they didn’t have the right amount of food and the nutrients necessary. Also, they didn’t get enough rest, which caused more injuries due to oversights. In some textile factories, possibly not all, the owners would beat their workers, occasionally so harshly that they would become unconscious or they would be severely injured. This was the case of John Birley, who was once a textile worker, the son of the owner tried to hit his head, but “To save my head I raised my arm, which he then hit with all his might. My elbow was broken. I bear the marks, and suffer pain from it to this day...” As seen, the poor conditions and mistreatments that come along with working in textile factories cause the English workers to become sick, hurt, and cared for in an incorrect

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