Case Study 8: Campaigners and Reformers (Part Three: Factory and Social Reform)

Domestic System

Machinery housed in people’s homes

Factory System

large new machines housed in factories making it cheaper and more efficient

Laissez-Faire

idea that politics shouldn’t be involved in personal lives and working conditions

trappers

boys as young as 4 worked 12 hours in the dark opening cart doors providing ventilation and the boys lost their legs

Michael Sadler

Factory reforms- created report showing children were being mistreated and regularly caught children under machines and injured. He suggested the 10 Hour Movement

Lord Shaftesbury

Factory reforms- wanted to improve the lives of children in all factories and believe the working conditions were inhumane. Lunacy Laws (improved the way lunatics were treated), Ten Hours Bill (1833), Mines Act (1842) and he was President of the Ragged School

Robert Owen

Factory Reforms- co-owned New Lanark and cared about the wellbeing of his workers, and got funding from the Quakers. In 1810, he introduced 8-hour days in his factory and in 1816 he opened an infant school and a social club for his workers

Edwin Chadwick

Social Reforms- poor laws leading to people entering workhouses in the 1830s. Wrote a report called ‘The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population’ which showed the link between sanitation of factory workers and the outbreak of diseases

Elizabeth Fry

Social Reforms- investigated conditions in Newgate Prison. She had established a school and chapel. Her and her brother-in-law raised the issue of prison reformers in Parliament

Josephine Butler

Social Reformers- concerned about child prostitution and campaigned for the age of consent from 13 to 16. The Contagious Diseases Act (1869) kept STDs away from the armed forces and dictated any women could be examined by police officers if she’s thought to be a prostitute. She campaigned against the act and it got repealed in 1833

10 Hour Movement

aimed at reducing working hours for under 18s

Parliamentary Committee

groups of MPs who conducted investigations

Factory Act (1833)

Children under 9 can’t work, children between 9-13 can’t work more than 9 hours a day and children between 3-8 cn’t work more than 69 hours a week. The children had to attend school for 2 hours a day up to 13 years and 4 inspectors checked the act was enforced in factories

Mines Act (1842)

Women and children under 10 were banned from working. Children under 15 can’t be in charge of the winding machines

The Ragged Schools (1844)

Shaftesbury’s education system for the poor including gender appropriate tasks and breakfast

New Lanark

Robert Owen’s mill in Glasgow. It had a social club for workers to be when they had time off

Poor Law Amendment (1834)

poor put into workhouses and children get educated

Newgate Prison

100s of women/children huddled on the floor of 2 cells

Philanthropists

a person who seeks to promote the welfare of others, especially through money

Workhouses

a public institution where people receive board and lodgings in return for work