The Life of the Industrial Worker

Reading these first hand encounters put the whole situation into perspective for me. It seems as if the only people benefiting off of the harsh conditions and long hours are the wealthy men that own the factories. Not only the woman and children, but all of the factory workers were permanently affected by the laboring, but their only choices were to tolerate it or have no job at all. Out of all the primary sources that line that struck me the most was, "They (the children) stood or squatted before me in all the shapes of the letters of the alphabet." The industrial revolution was an important milestone in human history, but was also a time period of labor exploitation.