Description Introduction:The Industrial Revolution destroyed cottage industries that had been the economic mainstay of many British families. As cottage industry workers lost their livelihoods, they were forced to find employment in the very factories that had financially destroyed them, and because the industrializing process left so many without gainful employment, the labor pool was massively enlarged, driving wages down to a subsistence level. These economic dynamics, along with a desire for the cheapest forms of labor, led to large-scale child labor practices in the industrial sector.For this writing assignment you will take on the persona of an individual living during the early industrial revolution in Britain. For this essay, please use footnotes or endnotes and use the Chicago Manual of Style for citations. See this website for examples of how to properly cite: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html (Links to an external site.)This assignment has two steps, research and writing.First Step: ResearchFor this part of the assignment you will use electronic resources from the internet and from the UNCC Atkins Library. Pick one of the personas below and do some web research about this person. Visit the suggested websites listed under their names. As you read along, make sure to jot down notes on what you are reading.Then go to UNCC Atkins Library?s homepage and do the following.Click on the ?databases? tab.
Click on ?databases by subject? tab
Scroll down to ?history? and click
Scroll down to ?19th Century British Library Newspapers? and click
Do a search for ?child labour? (remember to do the British spelling of labour)
Select and read three of the newspaper articles. Again, you should jot down notes as you read along.Second Step: WritingWriting from Another Person?s Perspective: After doing the above research on the person, write a1-page, double-spaced essay from that person?s perspective. Pretending you are the person just studied, give me an argument for why child labor existed in the industrial revolution.
Writing from Your Own Perspective: Then,using the research material from above, write a paragraph, double-spaced, that describes the economic and social conditions that made generally good people act in bad ways during the Industrial Revolution? For example, why did factory owners use child labor (some as young as 7 years old), why did parents send their children to factories to work for wages, and what was government?s response, if any? They were not all evil, depraved, and immoral. There must have been something else going on to make generally good people participate in a system that exploited the labor of children.
Hint: Unrestrained capitalism seeks to lower the cost of production to increase profit
Bibliography: Lastly, using the Chicago Manual of Style, create a bibliography that cites all the sources you used to write the essay.Personas:Sir Robert Peel, late 18th century textile factory owner and statesmen who used orphan labor
https://eh.net/encyclopedia/child-labor-during-the-british-industrial-revolution/ (Links to an external site.)
Make sure to click on the links for additional informationSamuel Courtauld, an owner of a silk mill in Essex, England who used a great deal of female child labor
http://spartacus-educational.com/TEXcourtauldS.htm (Links to an external site.)
Make sure to click on the links for additional informationLuddite, a man or women who attempted to destroy factories and machines to save their cottage industries
http://www.luddites200.org.uk/theLuddites.html (Links to an external site.)
Long but full of great detailsChild Laborer, self explanatory
https://eh.net/encyclopedia/child-labor-during-the-british-industrial-revolution/ (Links to an external site.)
Long but full of great details