John Smith
English 2323 – CRN 40738
28 March 2015
Midterm Essay – Topic 1 The Effects of Industrialism Although the modern world as we know it could not have existed without the Industrial Revolution, seldom thought is ever given to the real women, men and children whose lives were directly affected by the innovative technologies that changed labor and social normality’s throughout western civilization. An example of the vast economic and social change brought about by industrialism can be observed in Britain during the Victorian age where the way of life for the common laborer completely changed, as the text describes:
Transformations in the production of textiles led to the first and most dramatic break with age-old practices … by the beginning of the Victorian period, the Industrial Revolution had already created profound economic and social changes. Hundreds of thousands of workers had migrated to the industrial towns … Employers often preferred to hire women and children, who worked for even less money than men (1581).
Prose writer Henry Mayhew and poets Elizabeth Barret Browning and William Morris offer profound insight into the hardships of industrialism and its effect upon the poorest laborers, child workers and socialist political movements during the Victorian era of Great Britain. The poor and common laborer suffered greatly during the progress of industrialism. The advent of technological advances caused a great deal of influx in labor pools, as the text describes: “and increase in agricultural efficiency that released much of the workforce from field labor” (1580). The increase in the labor pool from the traditional agriculturally based economy sent many workers flooding into crowded industrial centers that were unable to house and feed such a surplus in workers from the surrounding country. Prose writer Henry Mayhew whose interviews with London’s poor working class were later publish as “London Labour and the London Poor,” gives profound insight into horrendous social conditions that industrialism brought upon the poor working class, often being paid low wages and having to subsist upon begging and prostitution, as his interview states:
I started without money, and begged my way from Manchester to London, saying I was going up to look for work … I suffered very much on the road … When I got to London all my hopes were blighted … I begged, and slept in the unions … I did know, two that kept young men, their partners, going about the country with them, chiefly by their stealing. Some do so by their prostitution (1602 – 1603).
The displaced and under employed working class poor suffered profound hardships at the cost of progressive industrialism and the children of the era, unfortunately, were not exempted from such hardships. Child Labor Laws and the protections offered therein, are the by-product of the abuses and societies neglectful stewardship suffered upon child workers during the Industrial Revolution. The extent of damage brought upon the poorest and weakest of children during this time can never be fully appreciated, especially through the context of the modern looking glass. Indeed, we must rely upon contemporary accounts and the most profound of these being that of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in “The Cry of the Children” written in response to Government investigations, as the text states: “For example, in 1843, when government investigations exposed the exploitation of children employed in coal mines and factories, she wrote “The Cry of the Children,” a powerful indictment of the appalling use of child labor” (1123). Within the poem, Browning brings to our attention the specific condition of these children during this time period, for instance the loss of youth:
Do ye hear the children weeping … The young lambs are bleating in the meadows … The young fawns are playing with the shadows …But the young, young children, O my brothers, / They are weeping bitterly! (1, 5, 9).
Another aspect of Industrialism that was suffered upon the child worker of the day, as pointed out by Browning’s poem, is a very short life expectancy because of the cruel and harsh reality of their labor:
They look up with their pale and sunken faces … “True,” say the children, it may happen / That we die before our time … Alas, alas, the children! They are seeking / Death in life, as best to have” (25, 37, 53).
What I find to be the most saddening aspect of Industrialisms affect upon child workers, as pointed out by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, is the complete and total loss of faith in people and providence, as Browning states:
They answer, ‘Who is God that He should hear us, / While the rushing of the iron wheels is stirred? / When we sob aloud, the human creatures near us / Pass by, hearing not, or answer not a word … Is it likely God, with angels singing round Him, / Hears our weeping anymore? ... We look up for God, but tears have made us blind’ (105 – 108, 110, 111, 132).
The effects of Industrialism upon the poorest workers and child labors influence prose writers and poets not only in their writings and poetry but also their political movements and motivations to address these horrendous conditions, as is the case with poet William Morris. The Industrial Revolution brought about many changes to the lives of those who were contemporary and influence their political movements, from the common worker, and middle and upper middle classes, as poet William Morris was influenced, writing in his article for Justice “How I Became a Socialist,” stating: “I perceive, in the middle, for in my position of a well-to-do man, not suffering from the disabilities which oppress a working-man at every step” (1523). The poets powerful and frank examination as to why he became a Socialist were profoundly based upon the observation that society was not doing enough to protect the most precious of their subjects, the poor workers and children, stating: “Before the uprising of modern Socialism almost all intelligent people either were, or professed themselves to be, quiet contented with the civilization of this century” (1523). Morris appropriately lays the blame before the Government(s) and their political party’s lack of foresight, stating:
Again, almost all of these really were thus contented, and saw nothing to do but to perfect the said civilization by getting rid of a few ridiculous survivals of the barbarous ages. To be short, this was the Whig frame of mind, natural to the modern prosperous middle-class men, who …have nothing to ask for, if only Socialism would leave them alone to enjoy their plentiful style (1523).
Finally, considering the plight of child workers and the destitute life of poor working class subjects within his country Morris defines how Socialism can balance the effects of Industrialism upon Society, in such a way that the poorest to the wealthiest can live within harmony of each individual’s needs, stating:
Well, what I mean by Socialism is a condition of society in which there should be neither rich nor poor, neither master nor master’s man, neither idle nor overworked, neither brain-sick brain workers, nor heart-sick hand workers, in a word, in which all men would be living in equality of condition, and would manage their affairs unwastefully, and with the full consciousness that harm to one would mean hard to all—the realization at last of the meaning of the word COMMONWEALTH (1522).
Although the modern world as we know it could not have existed without the Industrial Revolution, seldom thought is ever given to the real women, men and children whose lives were directly affected by the innovative technologies that changed labor and social normality’s throughout western civilization. An example of the vast economic and social change brought about by industrialism can be observed in Britain during the Victorian age where the way of life for the common laborer completely changed. Writer Henry Mayhew and poets Elizabeth Barret Browning and William Morris offer profound insight into the hardships of industrialism and its effect upon the poorest laborers, child workers and socialist political movements during the Victorian era of Great Britain.

Works Cited
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. "The Cry of the Children." The Norton Anthology of English
Literature. Stephen Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams, et. al. 9th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2014. 1124-1128. Print
"Industrialism: Progress or Decline." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Stephen
Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams, et. al. 9th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2014. 1580-1581. Print
Mayhew, Henry. “London Labour and the London Poor." The Norton Anthology of English
Literature. Stephen Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams, et. al. 9th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2014. 1602-1603. Print
Morris, William. "How I Became a Socialist." The Norton Anthology of English Literature.
Stephen Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams, et. al. 9th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2014. 1522-1525. Print