The Industrial Revolution was a period of major changes in the way products are made. It took place more than 200 years ago and greatly affected the way people lived as well as the way they worked. In earlier days, people made products by hand. They worked mostly in their own homes or in small workshops.
What is a revolution : In the fields of history and political science, a revolution is a radical change in the established order, usually the established government and social institutions.
Before the Industrial Revolution, most Americans lived on farms. The whole family worked together to make what they needed for daily life. They bartered (traded) for items they could not make themselves. A farmer may trade corn with the blacksmith for horse-shoes or nails.
Justice was swift, harsh and haphazard in the late 1700s, and there were over 200 capital offences. There was no police force – execution was supposed to work as a deterrent. Prisons were privately run, with prisoners paying or bribing to receive privileges, and conditions inside were terrible
Transportation provided an alternative punishment for crimes which were considered serious, but not worthy of execution. The usual period of transportation was 14 years for convicts receiving conditional pardons from death sentences or seven years for lesser offences.
Until 1782, English convicts were transported to America. However, in 1783 the American War of Independence ended. America refused to accept any more convicts so England had to find somewhere else to send their prisoners. Transportation to New South Wales was the solution.
During the War of American Independence the British government investigated whether Cook’s first landing place on the east coast of Australia might be a place of transportation for the many thousands of convicts who could no longer be transported to the rebellious American colonies.
Sir Joseph Banks was a key witness, for no other European ship had reached Australia since the Endeavour’s visit in 1770. According to Banks, the climate at Botany Bay was mild; the grass was long and luxuriant; oxen and sheep would thrive, and the Aboriginal inhabitants were few and timorous.
With the coming of American independence the matter became more urgent, and in further government investigations Banks insisted that at Botany Bay that the Aborigines ‘would speedily abandon the country to the newcomers’.
The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 British ships that brought the first British colonists and convicts to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transport
The Industrial Revolution was the transition from creating goods by hand to using machines. Its start and end are widely debated by scholars, but the period generally spanned from about 1760 to 1840
Before the start of the Industrial Revolution, which began in the 1700s, the production of goods was done on a very small scale. Historians refer to this method of production as the ‘cottage industry’. Simply put, the cottage industry refers to a period of time in which goods for sale were produced on a very small scale, usually in a home.
The Hulks as a Form of Punishment. Prisoners kept in the hulks were set to hard labour in dockyards or on the banks of rivers. Those on the Thames were put to work improving the navigability of the river by removing gravel and soil from its shores.
The American Revolutionary War was a war fought between Great Britain and the original 13 British colonies in North America. The war took place from 1775 to 1783 with fighting in North America and other places. The Continental Army (army of the colonies), led by George Washington and helped by France and other powers, defeated the armies of the British Empire.
After the war ended, the Thirteen Colonies became independent, which meant that the British Empire was no longer in charge of them. They together became the first 13 states of a new country called the United States of America.
Poor workers were often housed in cramped, grossly inadequate quarters. Working conditions were difficult and exposed employees to many risks and dangers, including cramped work areas with poor ventilation, trauma from machinery, toxic exposures to heavy metals, dust, and solvents.
Between 1800 and 1850 the population of England doubled. At the same time, farming was giving way to factory labour: in 1801, 70 per cent of the population lived in the country; by the middle of the century only 50 per cent did. Cities swelled as people flocked from the countryside to find work. As a result, cities only big enough to contain 18th century populations were under pressure to house their new residents.
Previously, the rich and poor had lived in the same districts: the rich in the main streets; the poor in the service streets behind. Now, the prosperous moved out of town centres to the new suburbs, while much of the housing for the poor was demolished for commercial spaces, or to make way for the railway stations and lines that appeared from the 1840
The Industrial Revolution (1750–1900) forever changed the way people in Europe and the United States lived and worked. These inventors and their creations were at the forefront of a new society.
The spinning jenny was a machine used for spinning wool or cotton. English inventor James Hargreaves created it about 1767 and patented it in 1770. The spinning jenny helped to usher in the Industrial Revolution in the textile industry.
Up until that time, a craftsperson would operate a spinning wheel that could only spin one thread of yarn at a time. It was a laborious process, and spinners could not keep up with the demand. The spinning jenny had one hand-powered wheel but eight spindles. Thus, a person could create eight strands of yarn simultaneously. Later versions of the spinning jenny had even more spindles. These large machines were put in factories, where fewer, less-skilled workers produced more yarn.
However, the yarn that the spinning jenny created was weak and coarse. It was only suitable to be used as filling in woven goods.