Reflection Essay on Manchester Dbq

Manchester was the center of manufacturing leading in textile and mechanized industrializations. By this happening the population in Manchester, England grew by having 282,000 more people coming in just 100 years. Issues with such a large population and manufacturing growth were filthy facilities, strained labor, and deprived the happiness of life. The factories were not ideal working conditions. Edwin Chadwick described the factories “… atmospheric impurities produced by decomposing animal and vegetable substances, by damp and filth, and close and over crowded dwellings.

This made the adult population short-lived, reckless and intemperate” (Doc 6). With these working conditions men were not in the greatest health. Wheelan and Company on the other hand think that Manchester has remarkable features and are the workshop of the world (Doc 9). Since they are a business company all they care about is the money they are making off of it and they do not care about human welfare.

This is best put by Flora Tristan she wrote, “If you visit a factory, it is easy to see that the comfort and welfare of the workers have never entered the builders head” (Doc 7). Alexis de Tocqueville a French visitor said the civilized man is turned back into a savage (Doc 5). Since he is a visitor to the country he will say whatever he wants or thinks about the situation and it will not affect him. With these examples it shows that the grimy factories were not good working conditions.

The increasing number of factories meant that more and more workers needed to work and all of the factories. Robert Southey an English Romantic poet wrote “where you hear from within the everlasting din of machinery, when the bell rings it is to call the wretches to their work instead of their prayers. ” He also talks about the “frequent buildings among them as large as convents without their beauty”(Doc 2). Since he is a romantic poet he will not like the changes that the machines have taken on the beauty of the city and the holiness of the people.

Manchester’s people did not like what they were doing but the government thought that this was just a glorious thing happening. Thomas B. Macaulay a Member of Parliament wrote that this was helping everyone being better fed, lodged, clothed and attended in sickness (Doc 3). He likes machinery because he does not have to work the long hours in the factories and gets the products that are coming from them. He does not comprehend the long strained laboring that it took to make the products.

This major issue was not fully understood by the government because they just see the products and the money they are making. They do not know what the people are doing to make that happen. The industrial revolution hit Manchester, England and it caught on quickly and it became a leading manufacturing producer in the world but it came with a price. Issues with such a large population and manufacturing growth were filthy facilities, strained labor, and deprived the happiness of life. These results changed the way industries forever.