The Industrial Revolution, Slavery and Free Labor
Question
REQUIRED READING: Read Chapter 1 in the following text:
- Walvin, J. (1996). Forging the Link: Europe, Africa and the Americas and But Why Slavery? In Questioning Slavery (pp. 1–18, 19–28) New York: Routledge.
- More, C. (2000). Understanding the Industrial Revolution (pp 1-5 of Introduction). New York: Routledge.
**After looking through the recommended lecture and assigned readings ...
~ Describe the Industrial Revolution and the new forms of economic activity it created, including mass production, and mass consumption.
~ How was this connected to slavery?
DO NOT TYPE THE QUESTIONS IN THE PAPER.


Solution
The Industrial Revolution, Slavery and Free Labor
The Industrial Revolution is often
considered to begin in Britain in the eighteenth century, but its roots can be
traced back to Europe’s global discoveries, the emergence of new ideologies,
thriving trade and the introduction of machinery (More, 2000). The Industrial
Revolution, sometimes known as the First Industrial Revolution, spanned roughly
1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840 in Europe and the US when new assembly
processes were introduced. According to Walvin’s work, three main
characteristics define the Revolution: A new zeal for technological development
stemmed from the thinkers of the Renaissance, along with an increased global
trading network that had newly emerged during this period. This paper seeks to
discuss the industrial revolution, the
new forms of economic activity, including mass production and mass consumption.
Effects of Industrial Revolution
Overall, the Industrial Revolution
was both good and bad for several reasons. For one thing, it dealt with the
enormous amount of pollution in the area. Due to the high amounts of pollution,
respiratory illnesses and disease were noticeably more common. With the
implementation of factories, workers no longer had to breathe too much toxic
air all day long. The Industrial Revolution also brought on urbanization and
overall higher livability across many areas of England (as well as other
countries as well). For example, cities transformed greatly into communities
that offered basic needs such as food markets, libraries, and schools.
The Industrial Revolution brought
changes in agriculture, science, and technology that affected the lives and
homes of everyone. People moved from working on farms to working in factories.
Powerful men like Robert Fulton invented new ways to navigate boats, steam
trains, and telegraphs. Men now could send messages across seas and oceans
without walking to post offices. The Industrial Revolution also produced
inequality. More people had access to education. However, it was only for white
males or women or African Americans. People also faced economic hardships when
labor groups such as the National Labor Union were changed by having their
demands ignored at workplaces between 1869-1872 (Walvin, 1996). People now
needed more survival skills because they moved from fields and farms to
dangerous cities with insufficient housing and poor sanitation.
Economic Activities and Production
The Industrial Revolution began in
Great Britain, and many mechanical advances were developed there. Through the
East India Company’s operations, Britain had become the world’s leading
corporate country by the mid-eighteenth millennium, trying to control a world
trade realm with nations in North America and the Caribbean, as well as a
substantial political and military power on the Parts of India, particularly
with the civilization of Mughal Bengal. The Industrial Revolution was fueled by
various factors, including improving trade and the rise of commerce. The
Industrial Revolution was a watershed moment in human history, affecting almost
every aspect of daily life somehow. Normal pay and the population, in
particular, began to demonstrate astonishing sustained growth (Bleutaeva and Dyrka,
2019). Moreover, steam-powered presses and mechanized textile machinery
encouraged mass production. These changes also promoted the development of a
new class of industrial workers--the factory worker. It was not long before the
factory system spread to other industries, such as coal mining, ironmaking and
shipbuilding. The increasing demand for raw materials, machinery and
manufactured goods strengthened Great Britain’s place as an economic leader in
the world.
Although some financial analysts
claim that the Industrial Revolution had a huge impact on the manner of life
for today’s society, others claim that it didn’t improve significantly until
the late 19th and 20th centuries. Before the Industrial Uprise of the developed
entrepreneurial sector, gross domestic output per capita was relatively stable,
whereas the Industrial Revolution ushered in an era of per-capita capital
accumulation in entrepreneur countries. Students of economics recognize that
the start of the Industrial Revolution is the most meaningful event in human
history since the domestication of animals and plants. Production became a big
factor in the industrial revolution because when factories started to produce
more goods for cheaper prices, people could buy items at much lower costs.
This transformation comprised the
transition from manual to automated production, new material assembly and iron
production methods, increased use of steam and water power, progress of machine
equipment, and the rise of the mechanized plant structure. The Industrial
Revolution also ushered in an unprecedented increase in the rate of population
growth. Materials were the most important enterprise of the Industrial
Revolution in terms of labor, yield projection, and capital contribution (Bleutaeva and Dyrka,
2019). The material industry was also the first to use modern production
methods. There was an immediate focus on metals such as iron and coal, followed
by materials in France. The exploitation of the early breakthroughs of the
Industrial Revolution, such as mechanized spinning and weaving, eased back, and
their economic sectors expanded, resulting in a financial crisis. Late in the
time, improvements such as increased acceptance of railways, steamboats, ocean
liners, hot impact iron refinement, and discoveries such as the electrical
telegraph, which were widely exhibited throughout the 1850s, were not
remarkable enough to propel rapid progress.
Connection of the Industrial Revolution and Slavery
The industrial revolution is also
connected to slavery. People who owned factories needed more workers, and there
was an increase in the number of enslaved people brought into the United
States. Technology improved due to new ways of thinking, and with more workers,
factory owners needed even better machines. Men who managed the factories
started buying enslaved people. Slavery provided a huge labor force. Factories
and mills opened up throughout the north and needed large amounts of labor to
run the machines and maintain productivity levels. The factories would not have
been able to keep up with production if it weren’t for cheap slave labor
supplied by the south. Some historians believe that plantations enslaved people
aided in the birth of the Industrial Revolution (Walvin, 1996). Scholars have
demonstrated how slave-trade earnings were used to build and create technology
such as the steam engine conceived by James Watt. The sugarcane enslavers
employed this device to substitute horses and boost efficiency levels after it
was sufficiently developed. Slavery on estates made huge earnings, funneled
into new enterprises that processed goods. Others, like Thomas Hide, exploited
the earnings from slave trading to establish fabric mills in 1795. Therefore,
it can be seen that slavery had a significant role in the Industrial
Revolution, and I believe that without it, we would never have progressed as
quickly.
Conclusively, this paper discussed
the industrial revolution, the new forms
of economic activity, including mass production and mass consumption and how
they are linked to slavery.
The Industrial Revolution was a time of enormous change and
drastic social, economic, political and cultural changes. There were also
significant advances in agriculture, manufacturing, transport and technology
that transformed the way people lived their lives. Therefore, with a deeper
comprehension of Industrialization, we can see why it was quite an important
heritage, giving us a plethora of fantastic and beneficial technologies to
mass-produce items which we all utilize nowadays at an almost unbelievable pace
Humans started thinking smarter, not tougher and built yet more gadgets and
technologies as time went on, as well as the times of actual hard-working
effort, became such a distant memory. For these advancements, additional jobs
have been generated, providing more opportunities for humans to improve their
lives and communities.
References
Bleutaeva, K. B., &
Dyrka, S. (2019). The development of foreign economic activities under the
fourth industrial revolution. News of the
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Series of social
and human sciences, 1(323),
228-238.
Walvin,
J. (1996). Forging the Link: Europe, Africa and the Americas and But Why
Slavery? In Questioning Slavery (pp. 1–18, 19–28) New York: Routledge.
More,
C. (2000). Understanding the Industrial Revolution (pp 1-5 of introduction).
New York: Routledge




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