Social Impacts of the Industrial Revolution

In terms of social structure, the Industrial Revolution witnessed the triumph of a middle class of industrialists and businessmen over a landed class of nobility and gentry. Ordinary working people found increased opportunities for employment in mills and factories, but these were often under strict working conditions with long hours of labour dominated by a pace set by machines.

The nature of work changed from a craft to a factory-centric model. Handloom weavers worked at their own pace and with their own tools. Factories set hours of work, and the machinery within them shaped the pace of work. Factories increased the division of labour, narrowed the number and scope of tasks. They included children and women within a common production process. Family structure itself was "turned upside down" as women's wages undercut men's, forcing men to "sit at home" and care for children while the wife worked long hours. Factories flourished over manual craftsmanship because they had more efficient production output per worker, keeping prices down, and they had much more consistent quality of product. The work-discipline was forcefully instilled upon the workforce by the factory owners, working conditions were poor, and poverty levels were at an unprecedented high.

The rapid industrialisation of the economy cost many craft workers their jobs. Weavers found they could no longer compete with machines which only required relatively limited (and unskilled) labour. Many unemployed workers turned their animosity towards the machines that had taken their jobs and began destroying factories and machinery. These attackers became known as Luddites, supposedly followers of Ned Ludd. The first attacks of the Luddite movement began in 1811. The Luddites rapidly gained popularity, and the British government took drastic measures using the militia or army to protect industry. Those rioters who were caught were tried and hanged, or transported for life.

Unrest continued in other sectors as they industrialised, such as with agricultural labourers in the 1830s. Threshing machines were a particular target, and hayrick burning was a popular activity.

However, the riots led to the first formation of trade unions and further pressure for reform. Workers rebelled against poor wages. The first major industrial action in Scotland was that of the Calton weavers in Glasgow, who went on strike for higher wages in the summer of 1787. Troops were called in to keep the peace and three of the weavers were killed. In Manchester in May 1808, 15,000 protesters gathered on St George's Fields and were fired on by dragoons, with one man dying. A strike followed, but was eventually settled by a small wage increase.

The rapid population growth in the 19th century and the new industrial and manufacturing cities created serious housing problems. People moved in so rapidly there was inadequate housing for everyone, so low-income newcomers squeezed into increasingly overcrowded slums. Clean water, sanitation, and public health facilities were inadequate; the death rate was high, especially infant mortality and high rates of tuberculosis among young adults. Cholera from polluted water and typhoid were endemic. 

However, not everyone lived in such poor conditions. The Industrial Revolution also created a middle class of businessmen, clerks, foremen, and engineers who lived in much better conditions.

Employers could pay a child less than an adult even though their productivity was comparable. There was no need for strength to operate a machine, and since the industrial system was new, there were no experienced adult labourers. This made child labour the labour of choice for manufacturing in the early phases of the Industrial Revolution between the 18th and 19th centuries. In England and Scotland in 1788, two-thirds of the workers in 143 water-powered cotton mills were described as children.

Politicians tried to limit child labour by law, but factory owners resisted; some felt that they were aiding the poor by giving their children money to buy food to avoid starvation, and others simply welcomed the cheap labour. In 1833 and 1844, the first general laws against child labour, the Factory Acts, were passed in Britain: the first Act prevented children younger than nine from working in any mill. Children under thirteen were not allowed to work more than nine hours per day and not more than 48 hours per week. They were also prohibited from working at night. Those between the ages of nine  and eleven also had to have two hours of education each day. The second Act restricted children between eight and thirteen to half-day working (6.5 hours) which could not straddle mid-day.  A further Act was passed in 1847 stating that everyone under eighteen and all women were only allowed to work a maximum of ten hours a day. Factory inspectors supervised the execution of the law; however, their scarcity made enforcement difficult. Although laws such as these decreased the number of child labourers, child labour remained significant in Europe and the United States until the 20th century.

Cheap cotton textiles increased the demand for raw cotton which before the Industrial Revolution had been gown and consumed in subtropical regions with little available for export. Consequently, prices of raw cotton rose. The invention of the cotton gin by American Eli Whitney in 1792 was instrumental to the increase in slavery in America. It allowed green-seeded cotton which could grow well in the southern states to become profitable, leading to the widespread growth of the large slave plantations in the United States, Brazil, and the West Indies. In 1791 American cotton production was about 2 million pounds, soaring to 35 million by 1800, half of which was exported. America's cotton plantations were highly efficient and profitable and were able to keep up with demand. The U.S. Civil War created a "cotton famine" that led to increased production in other areas of the world, including European colonies in Africa.

The emergence of factories and the concomitant growth in coal consumption gave rise to an unprecedented level of air pollution in industrial centres. There was increasing volumes of industrial chemical discharges which added to the growing load of untreated human waste contaminating rivers which supplied drinking water. Towns and cities experienced unprecedented growth from the late 18th century. In 1750, Manchester had a population of around 18,000 people. This had increased to 90,000 by 1800 and by 1850 it was 400,000. The pattern was similar in other industrial cities, such as Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and London.

The disposal of human waste was a major problem. Sewers were not usually built to service the new working-class houses. Privies were not connected to sewers but to cesspits. Landlords paid night-soil men (see picture above of one such gentleman) to empty them and sell the waste to farmers as manure. Cesspits often leaked and some were actually designed to do this so that only the more solid waste was left behind, as this was easier to collect. This had a deadly impact on the water supply and caused outbreaks of diseases such as cholera. Some sewers did exist, but they had originally been built to take away rainwater rather than human waste. They emptied straight into rivers, where drinking water often came from. When flushing toilets later became popular they were connected to the sewers making this situation even worse.

In summary, the Industrial Revolution has brought marked changes to the world, economically, environmentally and socially. We are still living with the consequences of these today – the good and the bad.