A Young Boy Coal Miner (Romina Garakani)

My name is Sam. I am seven years old. I am a coal miner. I am just like my father and we even work together. We are trapped in the mines for twelve hours everyday. My older sister even works in the mine. She carries baskets of dug coal, which is too heavy for her too carry. These heavy baskets have caused deformities in many other women. I, along with my father and sister, each make two pennies a day. My family survives on 6 pennies. It is not enough money for us and usually my mother skips meals. We are so desperate to survive. Everyday my father, sister, and I come home, tired and in miserable moods. I feel so bad for my dear mother. The only time we are together, no one talks because we are in pain from our jobs. My heart breaks when I realize that my sister will not live a life like a real woman. One day, her body will become deformed just like all the other young woman working in the coal mines. She may not marry and she may not have children. She doesn't deserve that. Everyday when we step foot into the coal mine, we risk our lives. At any moment, something could fall on us and kill us. We cannot breathe correctly for twelve hours of every day. Our lungs are weakening and are not functioning properly. The inventions created in this Revolution include advanced medicine to lengthen the span of our lives. Unfortunately, as people's lives our increasing, my family's is decreasing. We would never in a million years be able to buy these medicines because we have no money. We don't even have enough money to feed my family. This Industrial Revolution has made my life miserable. Everyone around me is making money like it's growing off the trees and I am living a life of poverty with my people.

London Factory Worker (Brian Gemma)

Nothing is ever perfect for all people. There are always circumstances for different kinds of people. Some may like the situation, and others may not. It's a part of life. Saying that the Industrial Revolution effected all citizens in a positive way is definitely a false statement. Yes, there were more jobs for people but that is not always a good thing. Some people may need to stay home and take care of the house. Me, being a factory worker, I am used to working for long periods of time. What bothers me the most, is the children who are being worked. They get worked and worked, until they are completely exhausted. The children are so young as well. I do not mind the enormous workload for an adult, but seeing a kid worked so hard really changes my perspective. Children should not be working. They should be getting educated, or even just doing children activities. I see people being worked way too hard every day, but this is not the same. To say that all people were positively effected by the Industrial Revolution is just not true.

Jeremy Bentham (Will Campbell)

Hello, I am Jeremy Bentham. I am an economist and philosopher. During the Industrial Revolution in Europe, I strongly advocated utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the idea that society's goal should be to provide the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. So basically, I believe that laws should be judged on their "utility," or how many people it pleases and how much more happiness it provides than pain. It is because of these ideals that I hold dear that I believe that Europe's Industrial Revolution did not have a positive impact on all of the citizens of Europe. Many of the citizens of Europe were those that were farmers and workers; those people that worked the day away in the factories to make their money. Those that were farmers became workers because the government felt it was alright if they just stripped farmers of their land in order to force them into their factories and big cities. I highly doubt that law pleased the farmers very much, meaning it did not align with utilitarianism or my personal ideals and beliefs. Also, those farmers, now workers, were forced to work in very harsh and even dangerous conditions; conditions that threatened many workers' lives. I hoped to change society; to create one where the workers were actually put into consideration during a time in which they were so vital, where they could have an influence on what their work hours and conditions were like. I hoped to change the Industrial Revolution, because it certainly did not have a positive impact on the citizens of Europe.

Women worker in a textile mill in London (Elise Warren)

Everyday I live in fear. Fear of getting my hand cut off, like I see everyday. Or the fear of the factory catching on fire and being trapped inside, and watching us all die. I see kids, at such a young age, sitting and working 10 hours days when they should be getting educated. Instead, they stay to provide for their family. We all sit and work all day just waiting for an accident to happen. Anyone that says that the European industrial revolution positively influenced all European citizens is sadly mistaken. The world has become a more dangerous place, and why did we need the change anyways? Yes, I'm glad that women finally have a role in society, but does our job really need to be this hazardous? And why did the children need to get involved when they're just kids? I am thinking about returning home and becoming a housewife again. That is what many of my friends are doing, and they seem happy to be in the safety and comfort of their homes again. After all, we are only home for about two to four hours a day when we are not sleeping. Someone needs to run the house, and the industrial revolution has stopped me from doing that. Some may think that's good and it is nice to be out of the house, but not me. I want to be caring for my family, and living free of fear, but living in the shadow of death for the sake of cotton everyday just isn't cutting it.

Jeremy Bentham (Chris Wright)

Europe's Industrial revolution most definitely did not positively impact all Europeans. First off factory owners would have children working which some weren't strong or smart enough to understand what they were doing ,due to lack of education. They had children as young as 6 years old who would get hurt or might die in these factories and they wouldn't care. They would just replace them. The reason children were working in factories was because these jobs didn't pay enough for the parents, so the children had to help provide. This brings me to another reason the Industrial Revolution didn't positively affect everyone, there were the super rich and the dirt poor. Since farm land was taken away for citizens they had to work in factories, which didn't pay well. The owner's, who were making large amounts of money, weren't paying their workers enough. This also meant that there were large amounts of poor people compared to the rich. So tell me. How is a time when people aren't getting enough money and children getting hurt or killed a positive affect on Europeans?

Young boy coal miner (Ian Macdonald)

I am 9 years old and work in a coal mine. I work 10 hours per day. Ten hours is what it takes to not be able to breathe after work. You spend 2 hours just trying to cough out the anthracite and coal dust so you stop wheezing. We never have time for school, and the older you get, the more dangerous the jobs. My father died when I was 2, his lungs gave out because he couldn't take so many years of poor air quality. Last week, my brother was transporting mules down the mine shafts on his own alone, and a boulder fell on his legs. He was trapped in the dirty water on the ground and couldn't get up. He drowned alone with nobody there to help. Some boys go to school after work, but we are all so tired that education is useless. We are destined to the mine shafts until we die. My family had no choice. We owned a farm but because of the industrial revolution, our farm was no longer as important. A new large farm was made 10 miles away that everyone could buy from for cheaper. My mother had to have my brother and I work in the coal mines. Life was fine beforehand, now I need to worry about living through the day. The world has become dangerous.

Quarter 2 - Assignment #1: Assigned 11/11; Post by 11/13; Comment twice by 11/15

As a reminder, below is a list of the characters that were assigned in class last week. If you were absent and did not receive a name for the upcoming assignments, it is your responsibility to email me to get your character's name before beginning this assignments. Due dates will apply to everyone.

1. Jeremy Bentham

2. Herbert Spencer

3. Friedrich Engels

4. Thomas Malthus

5. Robert Owen

6. Karl Marx

7. David Riccardo

8. Adam Smith

9. Factory Worker (London)

10. Woman worker in a textile mill (London)

11. Young boy coal miner

Prompt: React to the following statement in no less 10 sentences.  

Europe's Industrial Revolution positively impacted all of its citizens in a positive way.