Industrial Revolution: 1. Farmers, Factory Workers, Trade Unions

As a group, you must create a written response to the following:

• Craft a DBQ response to the following question:
  • Is your family better off now in 1850, after the Industrial Revolution, than it was in 1750, before the Industrial Revolution? Respond with a thesis and three pieces of evidence from your research.

As a group, you must choose one of the following creative products:

1. Create a pamphlet for your trade union, including the name of the union, the rights and goals you are fighting for, and what you are willing to do if Parliament refuses to address your grievances.
2. Create a political cartoon that presents a worker concern, with a 3-sentence explanation of the cartoon.

**Each group member will submit a Google Doc that has their written requirement on the first page and a link to their creative product on the second page to Canvas!**

Political Cartoon Examples:

You live and work the same communally owned land that your ancestors ploughed. You have never travelled further than 5 miles away from your village. You spend much of your time harvesting crops to feed your family, selling what little remains to make a profit. During the winter months, you are paid by an entrepreneur to spin wool into cloth; this is a family enterprise, with children pitching in to help gather and spin the yarn.

English tenant farmer key terms:

-Enclosure Acts

-cottage industry

-tenant farmer

Because of the Enclosure Acts, your family of tenant farmers has been forced off their traditional lands. You must leave the land of your birth to find work, so you move to the city to find work in a textile mill. Working in a mill is dangerous, tedious work, with long hours and low wages. There are no protections against child labor, no minimum wage, and little recourse for workers injured or killed on the job.

Textile factory worker key terms:

-Combination Acts

-Sadler Committee

-Cholera

As time goes on, the British government begins to respond to some of the challenges of industrialization via legislation passed through Parliament. This isn’t enough for the struggling industrial working class, however, who begin to unionize in an effort to fight for higher wages and better working conditions. These efforts are met with resistance from the factory owners and the British government, who both benefit tremendously from industrialization and worker exploitation.

Trade union key terms:

-Luddites

-Chartism

-Peterloo Massacre

*Tip:  If using Canva, make it a collaborative project and share out with all group members so everyone has access. If using another program, compile all info and pictures in a shared Google Drive folder for collaborative purposes; then one person can gather and format in the selected program.