1. Imagine you work in a steel mill in a large industrial city in England in the late 1800s. You live in a neighborhood with other factory workers, and share the same living and working conditions they do. Write a letter to your representative in Parliament expressing your opinions on what the government should do, if anything, about the plight of the English working class during the Industrial Revolution. In your letter, include details about your situation, as well as solutions for
problems. Include some of the points below:
• Working conditions in English factories, the hours you work, opportunities for breaks, the average wages workers are paid, safety on the job, ages of those you work with (including children), health and healthcare, and what you will do when you are too old to work
• Types of laws that might be passed to address your concerns, including measures that factory owners should take to improve conditions, or steps the government could take to protect workers and insure better living conditions
• Ideas you have for improving urban life such as city planning, technological innovations, sanitation, schools, hospitals, and law enforcement
• How the government’s actions can affect England’s future, including the health, education, and welfare of its citizens
2 answers
Our working conditions are horrible. We long hours in dirty, unsafe environments just to be able to provide for our families. Some of us even have to send our children to work in these same conditions because we are so poor. People in our communities are getting sick because these conditions are so bad. Whats worse is that we can't afford medicine or doctors to treat there illnesses, so we just have to watch them slowly die.
We need change. We cannot live like this anymore. We suggest that there be laws put in place so that we can lead happier, fuller lives. Laws that increase the cleanliness of the places we work long hours everyday. Laws that say that they have a minimum they can pay us. So that we can afford simple things, like food and shelter. Make laws that keep the cleanliness of the public to a standard, so the we don't get sick walking to the store because there is raw sewage and trash on the streets. I propose these things so that the people in your country can have safer, happier lives.