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Example research essay topic: Coal Mines Extremely Hard - 1,377 words

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The industrial revolution was a time of change in which machines helped produce goods more efficiently. This time of change resulted from technological advancements, mostly in factories, which allowed machines to replace human labor. However, human labor was a very big part in the mills and mines. A large number of people were needed to do some of these jobs, and some were even forced into working. The conditions in many of the mills and mines were not very good at all. Because of the horrible atrocities that went on, more and more people began to take notice and write about the experiences.

Among these are, Robert Blincoe, who told of his apprenticeship at a cotton mill, Thos Tooke, T. Southwood Smith, Leonard Horner, and Robert J. Saunders, who wrote an influential report on child labor in the coal mines, an observer who wrote about the women workers in the coal mines in Scotland, and Dr. James Phillips Kay, who while being a doctor in Manchester, studied and wrote about his poor patients and the hard times that they were going through. Many times, children were forced into labor.

They were sent many miles away from their homes and became apprentices. Robert Blincoe, as a young child was sent to be an apprentice at a cotton mill. During his many years of work at the mills, he witnessed many atrocities. There were accidents involving the loss of limbs, beatings, emotional damage, and even death. Blincoe tells of a man being smashed to death by the machine, and said that there are many people walking around with one arm.

He also tells about his own experiences, ? I have seen the time when two hand-vices of a pound weight each, more or less, have been screwed to my ears, at Lytton mill in Derbyshire, ? recalls Blincoe. He goes on to say, ? Then we used to stand up, in a skip, without our shirts, and be beat with straps or sticks; the skip was to prevent us from running away from the straps. ? (Blincoe, Robert Blincoe? s Own Story) That was one of the few instances that Blincoe experienced, and later he wrote a book about all of his hardships.

This wasn? t the only place that mistreatment of workers, especially children, took place. A few years later in 1842, after Blincoe? s examination, a report was published telling of the awful state of the coal mines. The children were taken into the mines at a very early age, sometimes as early as four years old, and in some cases the female children started to work as early as the males.

The children? s mothers and fathers usually worked in the mines as well because they were so poor. The young children were forced to work in the dark pits until the whole day of work had been completed. Because the authoritative figures did not really care that much about the young children and there were no precautions taken, many fatal accidents occurred. Point # 26 of the report basically tells of how bad it really was.

It says, ? That partly by the severity of the labour and the long hours of work, and partly through the unhealthy state of the place of work, this employment, as at present carried on in all the districts, deteriorates the physical constitution; in the thin-seam mines, more especially, the limbs become crippled and the body distorted; and in general the muscular powers give way, and the workpeople are incapable of following their occupation, at an earlier period of life than is common in other branches of industry. ? (Tooke, Smith, Horner, Saunders, Children in the Coal Mines; The 1842 Report) The working conditions were extremely unsafe and unfair to the young children. There was also a lack of food for the children as stated in point # 24, ? the food is in poor quality, and insufficient in quantity; the Children themselves say that they have not enough to eat. ? (Tooke, Smith, Horner, Saunders, Children in the Coal Mines; The 1842 Report) The children, however, were not the only ones that endured the hardships of that time. The women also were treated unkindly, as shown by Scotland? s Women Slaves.

In Scotland, there were basically four different ways of transporting coals to the pit. They involved horses, carriages, men, women, and boys. However, the fourth method of carrying these coals was the worst for the women. They were told to take the coals to the bottom of the pit, and also to climb up with them to the hill. This labor was extremely hard for these women, but it was their choice whether or not to do it.

In some cases, the women brought their older daughters to the pit, who had no real choice other than to do the work without complaint. ? It is no uncommon thing to see them, when ascending the pit, weeping most bitterly, from the excessive severity of the labour; but the instant they have laid down their burden on the hill, they resume their cheerfulness, and return down the pit singing. ? (Unknown, Scotland? s Women Slaves) The huskier women did some pretty heavy work for a women back then, ? we have seen a women, during the space of time above mentioned, take on a load of at least 170 pounds avoirdupois, travel with this 150 yards up the slope of the coal below the ground, ascend a pit by stairs 117 feet, and travel upon the hill 20 yards or more to where the coals are laid down. ? (Unknown, Scotland? s Women Slaves) After the extremely hard day of work, the women and their families, whose clothes were very dirty and muddy, would come home to a dirty house with no comfort at all. As more and more factories came into being, the bad conditions of the working class became more known throughout the land.

One man, Dr. James Phillips Kay, took note of these people? s experiences by studying his poorer patients. He wrote a pamphlet or small book, The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes employed in the Cotton Manufacture in Manchester. He notices that because of the growth of the cotton industry, there was an increasing demand for labor.

This labor was long and tiring, and most people became physically and mentally worn down. Kay compares this kind of work to an animal. He says, ? Having been subjected to the prolonged labour of an animal-his physical energy wasted-his mind in supine inaction-the artizan has neither moral dignity nor intellectual nor organic strength to resist the seductions of appetite. His wife and children, too frequently subjected to the same process, are unable to cheer his remaining moments of leisure. ? (Kay, Manchester Cotton Operatives) Kay saw what the working class had to go through, and he documented it so that maybe people would start to take notice of what was going on.

He goes on to say, ? His house is ill furnished, uncleanly, often ill ventilated, perhaps damp; his food, from want of forethought and domestic economy, is meagre and in nutritious; he is debilitated and hypochondriacal, and falls the victim of dissipation? ? (Kay, Manchester Cotton Operatives) During this time of change, many disturbing events took place. These four documents that I have discussed, tell about some of the experiences of the people. The women and children had the worst hand dealt to them. They endured such difficult hardships just in order to get by. After a while people began to write about these events through interviews, reports, and other forms of documentation in hopes of making things better.

The four documents all talked about some form of cruelty in the work place. The women and children went through many of the same trying times, but were oppressed in different ways as told in the documents. Bibliography Blincoe, Robert. Robert Blincoe? s Own Story.

Forms of Workers Protest Packet. Kay, James Phillips. Manchester Cotton Operatives. Factory Life and People Packet.

Tooke, Thos; Smith, T. Southwood; Horner, Leonard; Saunders, Robert J. Children in the Coal Mines. Factory Life and People Packet. Unknown. Scotland?

s Women Slaves. Factory Life and People Packet.


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Research essay sample on Coal Mines Extremely Hard

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