Industrial Middle Class Essay

564 Words3 Pages
America experienced a divide in social classes during the Industrial Revolution. Rapid urbanization, the movement of people to cities, led to the division of two social groups. The two groups that emerged were, the industrial middle class and the industrial working class. The two groups were very different and brought about good and bad changes. The industrial middle class consisted mainly of government employees, engineers, doctors, and lawyers. The entrepreneurs, also known as bourgeoisie, set the Industrial revolution in motion. The industrial middle class, were primarily the managers of the factories. They were paid good wages and had good living conditions. The industrial middle class lived in spacious homes with water supply. The Industrial…show more content…
These group of people were very poor and struggled to survive day to day. The working class tended to work 12-16 hours a day, 6 days a week, with almost no breaks, in extremely harsh factory settings. They struggled to survive, while being paid very low wages. The often lived in tenements, multi-story apartment buildings. They were provided with no running water or sewage, which meant all of the waste went into the streets, washing out into the rivers, leaving the water contaminated. The women felt like they were slaves working in the factories. They believed their conditions were no better off, than how slaves lived. There was a division within the industrial working class. The women and children were paid less than the men. Because of the horrible conditions, in 1833, the Factory Act was passed. It set the minimum age to work at 9 and children under 18 years of age, could not work more than 12 hours a day. Later on in 1844, the Excessive Work act was passed, stating that women, also could not work more than 12 hours a day. Diseases were very present during the Industrial Revolution, although they did not have much of an impact of America taking action to help the issue. The chronic lack of hygiene and the little knowledge on how to take care of sanitary needs, led to contaminated water and highly toxic odors. The more populous
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